Rating: 4 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | All Romance | Amazon UK
Length: Novel

Ben Diggs left his position as a Lietenant with the U.S. Navy to become a Special-Agent-in-Training at the FBI. Sent to Baltimore, he’s struggled with working violent crimes in a crime ridden city. When he loses his shot at bringing down a drug dealer, he heads off on his motorcycle intent on finding an out of the way bar to down some drinks.

Tanner Bagley’s day hasn’t gone much better. Forced to put down his stallion, he heads to the local bar intent on drowning his own sorrows in the bottom of a bottle. Until he meets Ben sitting at the bar and decides to share a few drinks with him before they head out to a local motel for the night. When Tanner wakes up alone the next morning, he decides to chalk it up as one of the biggest mistakes of his life.

A few days later, Ben and his team are given an assignment investigating a hate crime murder in Middle Creek Township, Pennsylvania. Finding out the victim was a gay man, Ben panics thinking it is Tanner because how many gay men can there be in a small one-horse town? Arriving on the scene, Ben and his team realize that this will be the first of several murders given the message the killer left behind. Tanner’s life is in danger.

Despite being firmly in the closet and Tanner wanting nothing to do with him again, Ben is determined to keep Tanner safe even if it costs him his job. Can Ben and his team find a killer before the killer can get to Tanner? Or will Ben’s second chance go down in flames like everything else in his life?

As an avid reader, I really love finding new authors. I especially love finding new authors who are self-published. I know, I know, sometimes we have to read a lot of really bad self-published books in order to find a really good one. Well, look no further, Compromised is one of those really good ones!

I really liked the two main characters of this book. Ben is so firmly in the closet, I don’t think that he knows where the door is. Growing up the son of a former marine, he kept his sexuality hidden growing up. Then he entered the Navy during the whole DADT era. While he had a relationship with a fellow officer during his stint, it ended badly for him…bad enough that he’s been on a self-imposed celibacy kick for a few years, until he meets Tanner.

Tanner grew up in a small town and was out and proud during high school. After school, he headed to NYC where he became a flight attendant. Over the years, he’s had plenty of weekend flings and a few steady boyfriends. When his parents died, he headed back home to take over the ranch. What he’s never had, though, was a one-night stand where the other person snuck out in the middle of the night, making him feel used and cheap.

When these two meet for the second time, Tanner’s hurt surprises Ben because he doesn’t understand why a guy like Tanner would want anyone like him. Despite Tanner’s anger at him, Ben refuses to let anyone else protect Tanner from a killer. As the two are forced to share Tanner’s home while Ben provides 24/7 protection, Ben is given a second chance to make things right with Tanner, even if it means that he could lose his job when this job is over for failing to disclose his conflict of interest.

As the body count keeps rising, the only common link between the victims are that they all at one point had a relationship with Tanner. As Tanner’s friends and former lovers are brutally murdered, he turns to Ben for comfort. While the sex scenes between these two burn up the pages, I really enjoyed the tender moments between these two even more.

The secondary characters in this book are just that…secondary. There aren’t any side-stories going on to distract readers from the main romance blooming between Tanner and Ben, nor are we taken on tangents away from the main plot of the murder investigation.

As a mystery, I thought this one was well thought out. While I had my suspicions early on as to potential suspects, the author kept me guessing until the end as to who the murderer was.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable read. There was just the right amount of romance and mystery! I look forward to reading more of this author’s works! So, if you like a good romance-suspense/mystery, this is one to add to your reading list!