hornyRating: 4 stars
Buy Links: 
 Amazon | All Romance
Length: Novel


Ryan Caulfield is usually not much of a risk taker, but the chance he took on reinventing his grandfather’s tavern into a gay friendly bar has turned out to be a success.  Ryan is proud that the bar is thriving and that he was able to rebuild the fading family business.

One day while alone in the bar before opening, Ryan is shocked when a strange mist appears on the empty dance floor.  Out from the mist comes a group strange beings, sort of human looking but not quite.  Their leader, Achilles, explains that they are a group of law enforcers from the Immortal Moral Authority, tasked with policing gods and other immortals who get out of line.  It turns out that the group is following a tip that Zeus has been using Ryan’s bar as home base for breaking some big time immortal rules.  The group must figure out what Zeus is up to and stop him, and they need Ryan’s help.

Ryan would normally avoid something like this, but his instincts tell him that despite how crazy it all sounds, their story is true and he should step in to help.  He is even more convinced when he realizes somehow his bar has become Zeus’ center of his illegal operations.

One of the perks of having the group around is that the hot immortals are great for business.  And one in particular catches Ryan’s eye, Leander the Erote.  Ryan is totally hot for Leander, but he is WAY past the sleeping around phase of his life. After some pretty self destructive behavior, Ryan is now only looking for a real relationship, something he knows Leander can’t possibly give considering he is only here for the period of the investigation.  For his part, Leander is totally into Ryan as well, but despite his efforts he can’t get Ryan to act on his attraction.  As Leander gets to know Ryan, he finds himself really falling for the man, but he also doesn’t want to hurt him with his inability to promise more than a short time together.

As Ryan and Leander spend night after night in the bar as Leander works the case, they begin to get to know one another beyond just the initial attraction.  Ryan slowly warms up to Leander and to taking a chance on even a short term connection with the Erote.  When they finally get together, sparks fly and Leander realizes that he wants much more with Ryan than he ever thought. As they uncover more about the case with Zeus and the prophecy that brought them to Ryan’s bar, Leander learns there may be a chance to be with Ryan after all.  But now that he has fallen for the human, Leander must hope that Ryan is interested in taking a chance on Leander as well.

So this is a fun little story that gives us a clever take on the world of gods and demigods.  Tenino really does a great job here picking up some of the mythology we know and shaking it up.  We get enough of the traditional legends to recognize the world building, but at the same time, she comes up with lots of clever and creative spins.  The story is told with some humor and quirkiness, and I loved the bit of bickering and banter that comes from the gang of immortal law enforcers.  Mythology is not an area where I am well versed, so for me I found the creative spin Tenino puts on it all to be quite a lot of fun.  There is great world building, interesting characters, and some fun, irreverent humor about the world of the gods.

I liked both Ryan and Leander and enjoyed them together.  I appreciated how the story balances the initial lust the guys feel for one another with Ryan’s reservations about getting involved in a meaningless hookup.  And that despite his desire for Ryan, Leander is patient and very careful to not hurt Ryan. It makes their ultimate connection feel more hard earned and more realistic to Ryan’s personality.  I do wish we got a bit more time really getting to know Leander and to see the guys building the connection that they have by the time they ultimately hook up.  We really learn a lot about Ryan’s back story, but much less about Leander’s life and personality.  We also see very little of them really interacting in a meaningful way, as must of the time they are really connecting with one another happens off page until they start sleeping together, by which point their feelings for one another are already established.

They investigation itself takes sort of a back seat to the romance here. I found the backstory on the case to be fun and clever, but we don’t see much of the investigation and the clues about what is going on are pretty clear right from the start. I think this was a bit of a missed opportunity to do more with the case after such a great set up, but it was mostly background and pretty neatly resolved without much page time.

So overall I thought this was a fun story with some really clever world building and a unique plot.  I loved the spin on the immortal world and how it is woven into the larger storyline.  I wished for some more time building the relationship between Leander and Ryan, as well as with the case.  But overall this is a nice, light story with some great humor and that is a lot of fun.

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