secretsRating: 4.5 stars
Buy Links: 
 Amazon | All Romance
Length: Novel


Victor and Jacob have just moved in together, though few people know they are more than roommates. The two men have taken off work for a few days to get settled in, but instead Jacob gets called in for a case.  An elderly woman at a nursing home has been sexually assaulted, but there is no evidence and no one can figure out the how the crime was done.  The case is definitely taking a toll on Jacob, making him a little distant and unwilling to talk to Vic about what is going on.

Things are complicated for Victor as well.  When he tries to look up a friend from his days at Camp Hell (officially the Heliotrope Station where he had his “training” for being a psychic), he finds that the friend is nowhere to be found online. Even more disturbing is that Victor himself has no presence online either.  And even worse, as Vic investigates further, he learns that everyone close to him was well aware about all the secrecy surrounding him.  Victor is shocked and feeling betrayed that apparently there is a clear directive from somewhere to prevent any information about him from appearing online or in the media. It is almost as if someone wants to hide him and his past.

Between Jacob’s case and learning his friends have been keeping things from him, Victor has had enough of secrets.  But when Jacob needs help with his case, Victor must put those worries aside and focus on helping Jacob catch the rapist, even as he begins to realize there may be more prying eyes on him than he originally believed.

Secrets is the fourth book in Jordan Castillo Price’s amazing PsyCops series, featuring psychic medium Victor and his boyfriend Jacob, both parts of a PsyCops police team. I have read these books before and I am slowly making my way back through them again. I have said it many times, but this is a series I think every fan of m/m romance should read.  The author combines a fabulous romance with a creative paranormal world and then throws in both exciting investigations and a really compelling overarching series suspense plot.

Secrets is the book that is a turning point in the series for me.  While in all the books we get both a self-contained police investigation as well as background on the larger world of psychics, in this story we really start delving into Victor’s past and the darker secrets of Camp Hell.  I obviously have the benefit of having read the first six books in the series already, but I really think Castillo Price does a great job here just slowly leading us in the deeper story.  We see that Victor has no presence online, nor does anyone else he knows from his Camp Hell days.  We learn about a friend he had a Camp Hell and get a bit more of a sense of how horrifying the experience there was for him.  And we just get the barest hints that there is something even bigger going on, something that he is just on the verge of uncovering.  It is so thrilling to read this book as we slowly see the direction the series is moving and how much more there is to learn.

If those secrets are the bigger picture, the more immediate issue that Victor faces is that of Jacob’s case and the secrets he is keeping.  It is obvious the case is taking its toll on Jacob. The idea of a fragile old woman being raped is heartbreaking, and even more so as they can not find any evidence to support that it is happening or how (though with Jacob’s psychic partner Carolyn’s “lie detector” skills they know the woman is telling the truth).  Jacob is definitely preoccupied by the case, but it is also clear that Victor is having some irrational fears.  The combination of Jacob’s distance and finding out that all Victor’s friends had to sign confidentiality agreements and never told him have made him uncertain and not know who to trust.  Victor needs to figure out how to get past what he sees as a betrayal and trust those close to him again.

Don’t let all this secret keeping and talk of distance fool you though. This is one of the hottest books in the series so far.  Not only are Victor and Jacob smoking together as usual, but the intensity and heat between them is just amazing.  You can feel how much they want each other, how strong their feelings for one another are.  I just love the way despite the fact that Jacob is god-like handsome and beloved by everyone and Victor is skinny and so socially awkward, Jacob’s attraction to Victor is so incredibly palpable.  He is eye-fucking Victor at every turn and you can just feel the lust between them.  I love that they are on the surface such a mismatched pair, but just so perfect together.

Secrets is another fabulous installment in what is one of my all-time favorite m/m romance series.  Each book I reread just makes me more and more eager to pick up the next and continue on.  If you haven’t checked these out, start from the beginning because you definitely want to be able to follow the larger story arc.  I love them all but I definitely think the series picks up speed at the third book and then just barrels forward from there.  So another great installment in a wonderful series.

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