Rating: 4 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | All Romance | Amazon UK
Length: Novel
Daniel Livingston is finally out of the closet. Free from a passionless marriage and now living in St. Nacho’s where his brother lives, Daniel is openly exploring his sexuality.
Cameron Rooney is a local firefighter who saved Daniel after a horrific car accident. Despite his attraction to Daniel, Cam isn’t going to go there with him until Daniel starts facing the truth about himself and stops living a life of lies. Coming clean to his ex-wife will cost him money, doing right by St. Nacho’s will anger his business partner, and exploring a painful family secret will hurt the one person Dan has sworn to protect.
As Daniel tests Cam’s faith in him, Dan struggles with believing in himself. Can Dan turn over a new leaf and live a life based on truth? Or will he find it easier to continue to live a life of lies?
For this Throwback Thursday, I revisited St. Nacho’s to review the last in the series. While the previous books could be read as standalones, I think readers really need to have read the previous book(s) in order to appreciate this one.
This book starts a few months after the previous book in the series ended. It is narrated by Daniel, who has no qualms about letting his true self shine through – flaws and all. On one hand it was refreshing to have a “hero” who wasn’t perfect; on the other hand, it made it a lot harder to like Daniel because he was so flawed.
Daniel is still recovering from the injuries he sustained in the car accident, he’s in the process of divorcing his wife, and he’s racking up notches on his bed post from his numerous one-night stands. Cam, the firefighter who saved him and his brother after their accident a few months earlier, doesn’t approve of Daniel’s new lifestyle because he knows Daniel just exchanged living one lie for another.
Cam was so much easier to fall in love with. I may be biased, but any man who is willing to walk a cat on a leash automatically gets bonus points! He needed those points because whenever he was around Daniel, Cam turns from being this open, honest, and loving person into a complete shrew who constantly finds fault with Daniel. Which made me wonder what, besides appearances, was drawing Daniel to Cam?
Cam is as big of a player as Daniel. From the previous books, we know he isn’t a stranger to one-night stands and doesn’t do relationships. Though we find out that Cam’s own background is troubled and this is part of the reason he initially isn’t willing to put too much faith in a man like Daniel who’s spent his life living a lie.
Though we get glimpses of the real person Daniel is when he interacts with his brother Jake, we also get to see the other side of him as he interacts with others. As Daniel’s lies start to unravel, we realize that Daniel needs Cam to be brutally honest with him in order for Daniel to start facing what he’s been hiding from all these years.
Nowhere do we see how much Daniel has grown as a person than we see when he interacts with his ex-wife, Bree. As a reader, we usually don’t get to see the exes redeem themselves because they are typically made out to be these horrible people. While Bree was nasty in the beginning, by the end we realize that this wasn’t easy for her either and Daniel knew it. So I, as a reader, really appreciated this.
The sexy times in this story do not disappoint. Take two hot guys, one of whom is a firefighter and knows how to fan the flames, and you’ve got ignition!
My one complaint about this story is that I’ve waited since book 1 to get Cam’s story and I felt cheated after reading this because it felt as if Cam was still just a secondary character, even though he was one of the main characters. Though we do get his backstory, it felt like it was glossed over – I was just expecting something more.
Overall, I really enjoyed this series and this book was a great way to wrap up the series. If you are a fan of Z.A. Maxfield’s St. Nacho’s series, you will not be disappointed as you get to revisit St. Nacho’s and all the characters you’ve fell in love with!
