Rating: 4 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Short Story
In this prequel short to Talking in Code, Timothy Davenport and Richard Horn open their lives and relationship to include Eric Newton. In the first book, we saw the men in an already established relationship. This prequel shows us snippets of their life together in seven vignettes that give us an understanding of how they came together. Richard and Tim have been together for twenty years, and still keep their relationship a secret from their subordinates on Strike Force Omega. But Eric worms his way into Tim’s heart, and Richard always gives Tim what he wants. But the moment they fall in bed together, they know the relationship has to change.
After having read Talking in Code, I felt like something was missing from the book. The three men are already committed and have been living and loving for several years. So I was excited to see this prequel story, as I was looking for their beginning. We got to see snippets of that here, but I’ll be honest and say I was a little disappointed.
What really worked were the first few stories in this book. We see Eric and who he is, why Tim wants him and cares for him, and why Richard is so accepting of bringing Eric in. There’s a particularly lovely one where we see the first time Tim cares for Eric after a mission gone wrong. So we definitely get a sense of them, and how their relationship evolves. I really liked visiting with them again and filling in some of the missing pieces. And each scene flashes to a future point, giving us more of them as they move toward a solid threesome.
But the problem was that everything was just so dang short. The book as a whole is maybe only thirty or forty pages, and each vignette is just a couple of pages apiece. Things just barely got started and we moved onto the next scene. And the last one ended abruptly (though if you’ve read Talking in Code, you know exactly how things are going to go). I was really looking for more depth here, to see things more fleshed out and developed, so it was a bit of a letdown in that regard.
However, if this is a series in the making, and the ending of the first book really implies that it is, I’m on board for more. What was included in this short story was good, if not quite enough, and it really reminded me of the chemistry all three characters have. I’ll be looking for more with these guys, and this book reminded me why.
Note: This book is available for free on the Dreamspinner Press site
A review copy of this book was provided by Dreamspinner Press.
