Rating: 4 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel

Tom Gray is a gorgeous model by most everyone’s standards. His job is to make himself an object of desire and he makes a living doing exactly that. Tom has plenty of offers for company, some welcome, and others not as much. He likes being independent and knows that a settled and monogamous relationship is not for him. After all, he tried that with Will Foster and it ended badly. Tom has Nick, who is his boss, and Pez, his best friend with benefits, to keep him company when he wants it.

Now, Tom’s life is being turned upside down. The owner of the modeling agency he works for has been murdered and Tom has become a suspect. But the murders don’t stop at one and as the body count piles up, so does the suspicion against Tom.

Will enters Tom’s life again as a private investigator and Will may be the only one that can uncover the truth. While Tom and Will are on shaky ground, the attraction is still there and Tom looks forward to seeing Will again. However, there is still a murderer about and Tom is clearly in danger. But proving himself innocent may be his biggest challenge of all.

The murder/mystery aspect in Object of Desire is the main focal point in the book. And, the entire book revolves around Tom. Tom was on a path to be a forensic scientist, but when he was discovered, that path shifted to modeling. He’s now one of the most sought after male models and his job is to look good. He is successful and there’s not a man or woman he comes across that isn’t attracted to him.

There are a lot of players in this book. There is Nick, who owns the modeling agency with his ex-wife and who is desperately in love with Tom. There is Pez, Tom’s booker and close friend with whom he has a friends-with-benefits relationship, and there are people from Tom’s past that didn’t always have his best interests at heart. Then there is Will. Tom was in love with Will once upon a time, but he wouldn’t admit it, couldn’t admit it, and he blew up that relationship in spectacular fashion before he could get hurt. But now Will is back, and their relationship is still incredibly complicated.

While there is a romance in this book, it runs alongside the larger plot. Tom is involved with several men and that’s who is he is. He gives himself over sexually to avoid conversation and conflict and often lets himself be led by others and even though Tom is also a smart guy, he has let himself remain unaware. Tom is one complicated guy. The character development was a little too minimal for me and while everyone was attracted to Tom for his looks, I also would have liked to see more of what else kept people interested in him for so long.

The book is well written and the author is able to describe details of the murder scenes in a few sentences that leave an impact. The book is long and while the case was interesting, it took a long time to get there and I would have liked for the action to have moved just a bit faster. I was able to figure out the culprit before the end, but the finale became too convoluted for me and then lost the shock value of seeing it all pull together.

Overall, I did like the book and the characters and Object of Desire was a welcome something different for a murder/mystery where everyone is suspect.