Rating: 4 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | All Romance | Amazon UK
Length: Novel
Detectives Nicholas Valenti and Sean O’Brian are best friends. As partners, it’s them against the bad guys. During off hours, they drink at bars, go on double dates, and are always there for each other. They’re comfortable with one another, not shy of touching. When O’Brian was stabbed on the job, Valenti realized his feelings for his partner ran deeper than he anticipated. Now he’s having a hard time not broadcasting his forbidden feelings to everyone around.
Their new assignment is a risk. Valenti and O’Brian go undercover to bust a drug ring at a notorious gay resort, the RamJack. They must pretend to be gay for the duration of the mission, as a sugar daddy and his boy toy, and for that they need to practice to get their act up to par. From a few kisses on a dance floor to delving deep into BDSM dungeons, Valenti and O’Brian must appear believable, or the owner of the resort and drug lord extraordinaire, Conrad, will not simply throw them out, but will devise terrible means of payback. But being creditable is one thing, trying to investigate at the same time puts both men in harm’s way.
The plot, set in the 1980s, is utterly implausible, ridiculous, and awfully predictable. And yet… this is one of my favorite M/M pairings and stories. Why? Because of Valenti and O’Brian. Though told in third person from Valenti’s point of view alone, the two men are shown as wonderfully enjoyable characters with realistic speech and thought patterns. The development of their personalities and relationship is the key component here. The profound emotions lying just underneath the surface and the sheer torment of their affair, well, it pulls at my heart string every time.
The writing is detailed and vivid, super-sexy and strong. The driving force of the tale is the OFYÂ and friends-to-lovers romance between two straight guys. Valenti is more analytical, always assessing the situation and the consequences of his actions. In comparison, O’Brian is less intellectual, more impulsive, and street-wise. They complement each other well, and their dialogue never fails to tickle my fancy and funny bone. The sexual tension is palpable and the genuine emotions these men have for one another is simply put suh-weet!
Why I don’t give this a full five stars, not even after all these years, is twofold. One, the case ends really abruptly, everything just turning out fine without any effort on the heroes’ part. Basically, Valenti sleeps through the whole thing. Two, the constant self-recriminations on Valenti’s part are a part of what makes the character appealing, but at some point I started to read those scenes as seeing gay love from a negative point of view, as though anal sex is the worst thing a man could do to another. That part of sex is repeatedly described as a violation and in terms of violence. Considering the sex was, in the end, between two consenting adults, that negativity and needless masochism started to grate on me. Nonetheless, neither of these things detracts me from re-reading this little BDSM-lite tale (some bondage, forced seduction, exhibitionism, and voyeurism) every now and then.
There’s a bonus story, I’ll Be Hot for Christmas, at the end. This short tale is told from O’Brian’s point of view. It’s been a year since the assignment at RamJack, and Valenti seems to be pulling away. He was shot in the line of duty, and he’s been forced to desk duty. As a result, O’Brian’s been given a temporary new partner, a hot young guy. O’Brian’s sexually and emotionally frustrated, and decides some bondage sex is what’s needed to solve the “case” of Valenti’s reticence.
It was nice to get inside O’Brian’s head for once. His inner monologue is more concise, to the point, and pragmatic than Valenti’s. His determination to figure out what’s bugging his partner is fun to read. I often enjoy this short story more than the longer previous one. The only negative part here is when O’Brian denies he’s gay. I think the scene was supposed to be funny but his declaration of being only-gay-for-you with his partner felt kind of depressing. I would have thought after a year of being and sleeping together, both men would have started to see the gay aspect in a more positive light. Still, a nice, if a bit silly, little story about sexual torment to get at the truth.
P.S. This book is part of the September Reading Challenge and chosen from the Favorite Virgin Heroes list.
This review is part of our September Reading Challenge Month for Favorites List Week! Leave a relevant comment below and you will be entered to win this week’s fabulous prize of books and swag from Samhain Publishing, as well as our amazing grand prize sponsored by Riptide Publishing. You can get more information on our Challenge Month here, and more details on Favorites List Week here. And be sure to check out our prize post for more about the awesome prizes!Â
Anderson’s STR8TE BOYS is one of my favorites, so I’ve been meaning to check this out!
Thank you for the detailed review! Â I had to LOL at the resort name – RamJack – not very subtle. Â I like how you described the two characters, but the part where it seems they are still homophobic and sex as violence would grate on me, I think.
Great review, Susan! This one is another of those books that have been waiting in my ebook forever, and I cannot bring myself to read. I always get distracted by something else. But after reading your review, I’m intrigued by these two. I really like friends to lovers stories (though I enjoy more enemies to lovers, I must recognise), and the whole undercover BDSM scene is appealing…. I think I’ll be reading The Assignment very soon. Thanks for the review! 😉
I believe I’ve read some of this author’s male/female romances; I hadn’t known that she also wrote m/m books. The premise is an interesting one, and it does make me wonder how undercover assignments of this nature would be handled in reality. Thanks for a thought provoking review.
I’ve got this in my TBR & it fits in with a challenge I’m working on this week so maybe I’ll go ahead & get it *off* my TBR! 😀 Thanks for your review!
Thanks for the review. This has bee on my TBR list for years. I have to read it eventually.
I read this a long time ago, and actually have a few other books of hers on my Kindle that I haven’t gotten around to reading yet. I’ve been having a good time this week looking through all the lists and reading the reviews because it’s bringing up books that I haven’t thought about in forever. Thanks. 🙂
IIRC, I read this book a few months after it was first published. In a way, I will always have a particular fondness for it. I can sorta handwave the OTTness of the premise and some of the darker thoughts when Valenti and O’Brian had sex (I do agree with your opinion on the whole anal sex = violation was frustrating in an otherwise sexy and fun story).
About the one thing that, to this day, annoys me is the ending itself. Everything goes down way too fast.
For what is worth, I prefer this author’s STR8T BOYS because it has just as much pining as The Assignment but with less ridiculous angst. In any case, thank you for posting this review, it definitely brought a smile to my face.
Susan, I’m so glad you said, “The plot, set in the 1980s, is utterly implausible, ridiculous, and awfully predictable” right after the story summary because I could feel my face getting this “huh?” look on it the more I read, wondering how a story like this gets 4 stars. Ah, now it’s all clear. I had to look up when this was written to see just how far back this one went. Just a bit shy of a decade by the date on allromance, so that might explain some of the drawbacks you mentioned. Still no reason to have an abrupt ending where everything works out, but it sounds like that wasn’t really the point of the story. Thanks for sharing this one with us.
Thanks for the thorough review! I’ve never read anything by this author though I’ve often seen her books recommended.
I haven’t read a book by Evangeline Anderson in quite a while and I think I might have started to read this one but never finished it. I think It might be time I went back and gave it a read. Thank you for the review.
Thanks for the review. I just read another story where two detectives have to go undercover at a BDSM club, so that must be a pretty common thing. 🙂Â
Thank you for a fun and interesting sounding review! At times implausible is just the right thing, but it’s good you pointed it out so we’re warned. The 80’s setting caught my interest, is there a particular reason for this? I understand it’s not that important for the story, more of a backdrop, but anything set in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s always catch my interest.Â
Oh man I totally read this when it came out and thought it was the best thing ever! Looking back you are probably right about how implausible much of it was but at the time this seemed legit. Stil love the partners falling in love trope!
This was one of the first gay for you books I read and it made me fall in love with those type of stories.
Thanks for the review! The book seems interesting enough even if it’s not a copy-and-cop mystery/thriller/whatever the name you want to use. I only read a couple of works by this author and that was years ago but I remember I liked them. Something that’s been nagging me…Â Evangeline Anderson is still writing mm? Because I never heard of any new book. :s
Thank you this book has been on my WANT TO READ List for quite awhile. Â Now I have a better understanding of it and will make sure it gets read. Â Thank you.