long time goneRating: 5 stars
Buy Links: 
 Amazon | All Romance
Length: Novel


It has been about four months since Prophet and Tom ended their partnership and went their separate ways.  Tom continues to work for Extreme Escapes, Ltd and has been training in Eritrea with his new partner.  And Prophet has left his job and gone deep into black ops with no way to be reached.  But Tom is still trying, having realized that he made a huge mistake by leaving Prophet. Even though Tom fears he is bad luck and curses his partners, he also knows he would much rather be with Prophet than away from him. But Prophet isn’t answering Tom’s almost daily emails and Tom isn’t sure how or if he will see Prophet again.

When a huge hurricane threatens to once again strike New Orleans and Tom is stuck out of the country, he appeals to Prophet to look in on his elderly aunt.  When Tom manages to make it New Orleans as well, the two men are reunited and it is clear that there is just as much passion and intensity between them as there was before.  But nothing is ever easy between them and managing the storm ends up being the least of their problems.  Tom’s past continues to haunt him and when he is arrested on suspicion of murder, the two men must work to figure out who is killing people from Tom’s past, and what to do stay alive themselves.

So this was another winner from S.E. Jakes, full of excitement and suspense and romance and heat. I continue to love this world she has built, first with Free Falling and then with the first book in the Hell and High Water series, Catch a Ghost.  This second book in that series picks up shortly after the end of the first, catches us up on what has been going on with Tom and Prophet, and then throws us right back into the action. The story is nonstop suspense and excitement. Not just the incredible intensity, but also the feeling that you never really knows what is going to happen next.  These books don’t take you on a traditional suspense arc. There are so many twists and turns that I couldn’t read through this one fast enough.

Prophet and Tom continue to be such a great couple. Jakes does these intense alpha men so well and they are hard and strong and tough as nails.  Both men are full of secrets and dark pasts, and opening up to one another is still hard. Yet here we see the guys make progress, admitting their feelings for one another, sharing their anxieties, and even revealing some of those secrets from their pasts that we have been getting glimpses of along the way.  They are such deep, layered characters, men who can carry a multi-book series and continue to be interesting and reveal new facets of themselves along the way.  Jakes gives us the perfect balance here of revealing enough backstory to continue to fuel the excitement for these guys, while at the same time holding enough in reserve to carry through the rest of the series.  But rest assured that plenty of secrets are shared here and I found it all fascinating and quite well done.

I also really like how Jakes is balancing the focus on these two men. The first book really dealt with Prophet’s past and more of his issues.  And here we get to dig a little deeper into Tom, learning about how he grew up, his father, and the demons from his past.  At the same time, many of the overarching plot lines are still incorporated, such as the mystery of what happened to Prophet’s partner John.  I am so excited to see how it all comes together.

For fans like me of Mick and Blue, they do make several appearances here, reminding me again just how much I love the two of them.  If you haven’t read Free Falling, all you really need to know is that these guys are friends of Prophet’s and work for Extreme Escapes as well. But Jakes is continuing to build this larger universe with these characters (and OMG I can’t believe who the next spin off series is about!) so I’d encourage you to pick it up as it will make this book even richer.

So I pretty much loved everything about this one.  Tom and Prophet are so crazy hot together they burn up the page. Seriously, those first few sex scenes are amazing and intense. But at the same time, they are such well-developed characters with fascinating back stories that are being revealed at just the right pace.  The story is exciting, suspenseful, and crazy intense.  I loved this one and highly recommend it!

jay signature