Toronto Tales Series Spotlight!

 Detective Kurt O’Donnell is used to digging up other people’s secrets, but when he discovers his slain partner was married to another man, it shakes him. Determined to do the right thing, Kurt offers the mourning Davy his assistance. Helping Davy through his grief helps Kurt deal with the guilt that his partner didn’t trust him enough to tell him the truth, and somewhere along the way Davy stops being an obligation and becomes a friend, the closest friend Kurt has ever had.

His growing attraction to Davy complicates matters, leaving Kurt struggling to reevaluate his sexuality. Then a sensual encounter neither man is ready for confuses them further. To be with Davy, Kurt must face t~he prospect of coming out, but his job and his relationship with his Catholic family are on the line. Can he risk destroying his life for the uncertain possibility of a relationship with a newly widowed man?

 

This story is simply… AWESOME! It starts out with the day Kurt’s partner Ben dies and unfolds into an amazing story of his finding the perfect man without even realizing he is gay and how fear can wreck the best thing in life.

Even though in extreme pain from living through the accident that killed his friend and partner, Kurt insists on attending his funeral, only to spot a sad woman in the front row who is pregnant. Shocked that he never even knew his partner was married, let alone that he was an expectant father, Kurt races after her when she leaves, only to find that while she is sad, a younger man standing beside her is distraught… in the way Kurt was expecting Ben’s wife to be. His detective instincts kick in and by the time he goes to Ben’s home – a place he was never invited to – he knows what he will find: a very sad, very depressed Davy, Ben’s life partner. I absolutely love that from that instant, Kurt never has a problem with the fact Davy is gay, nor even in meeting Davy’s over-the-top gay friends.

This story is from a single point of view – Kurt’s – and in doing so, the author was able to give us a really good look at the protagonist, a man with honor who also is terrified as he begins to realize he may be gay. Suddenly he has to deal with the fact he’s attracted to another man, a man who it didn’t take long before he realized his former partner emotionally abused out of fear of people knowing he was gay. Ben had separated Davy from his entire life, isolated him completely from the outside world. The dance between Kurt and Davy is sweet and I have to admit, I was hurt for Kurt, but very glad, when Davy stood up to him and told him where to go when he admitted he liked him, though wasn’t ready to out himself. It shows that Davy had grown in the time they’d been together.

I love the way the author takes on the last third of the book after the scene where Davy sends Kurt on his way. It is a worrisome and yet real look into a man heading downhill fast and yet covering it as much as he can. Thankfully there are people in his life, like his new partner, who won’t allow him to cover anything up anymore.

This was both a sweet romance and a great look into one man learning to accept that he’s gay and come out. I would classify it as romance and not erotic romance as while there are 2 scenes, they are not what the book is about.

If I had to find one wrong thing about the book, I can’t. Sorry. Nope.

So yes, a definite 5 stars for Burn’s Cop Out. I will be looking for other books by this author.

 

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 Detective Ivan Bekker has hit rock bottom. Not only is he recovering from a bad breakup with a cheating boyfriend, he’s also involved in a drug bust gone bad. Ivan had to kill a man, and his friend was shot and is now fighting for his life. Though Ivan is under investigation for his part in the shooting, his boss sends him on an off-the-books undercover operation to close the case. The timing is critical—this could be their chance to plug a leak in the department.

Off-balance and without backup, Ivan finds himself playing a recent divorcé and becoming Parker Wakefield’s roommate. He finds it hard to believe that sweet Parker could possibly be a criminal, much less have ties to a Russian mafia drug-trafficking operation, and Ivan lets down his guard. His affection is unprofessional, but Parker is irresistible.

When Ivan comes across clear evidence of Parker’s criminal involvement, he has to choose: protect their relationship, regardless of the consequences, or save his career and arrest the man he loves.

I’ve decided I truly enjoy K.C. Burn’s writing style. Just enough drama to keep you interested without going over the top. However, Cover Up did not come off as well as Cop Out, the first in the series.

We met Ivan Bekker in Cop Out as he was part of the sting that got Kurt almost killed. Cover Up starts during the sting, with his horror at actually having killed someone. Before he can find out if Kurt is alive and start the therapy the police department assigns during such an event, his boss puts him on an undercover assignment to check out someone who might help them pull down the drug czar who has been running Toronto. There’s only a few problems with that – Since he can’t be honest to a therapist because of his undercover assignment, PTSD takes hold quickly and Ivan becomes a neurotic mess. Added to that, he is insanely attracted to Parker, the man he’s been sent to investigate.

This book has a set of twists and turns that definitely kept me interested, even though I spotted who the two bad guys were right off the top. As good as it was though, I think the author missed what made the first book so amazingly fantastic. Point of view. In Cover Up, she took on the alternating points of view  between Ivan and Parker, which is normal in the erotic romance genre. But in her first book of the series, Cop Out, everything was from Kurt’s point of view. As the reader we could truly see him slide into depression and fear and watch as he bottomed out as well as how he rebuilt his life from the bottom up. Unfortunately, by flipping back and forth between Parker and Ivan, the same kind of connection with Ivan did not happen.

Don’t get me wrong. I still liked the book intensely. I gave it 4 stars, after all, and will be reading it again. But I think if she’d made the entire book from Ivan’s point of view, we could have truly slid down that emotional roller coaster he was on. Plus it would have been great to hear his thoughts as he headed down to the police station to take on the man who had started this whole mess in the first place.

Another fantastic book by K.C. Burn. I highly suggest reading her Toronto Tales series.

 

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 Thirty-five-year-old Rick Haviland is a well-respected speech pathologist, but while his friends are all settling into relationships, he refuses to give up his no-strings-attached club boy sex life. For him, relationships are dangerous; he’s got a secret to hide. When he meets Ian O’Donnell, an account manager with a local tabloid, Rick figures his personal rules for relationships should be enough to keep him safe from more than a one-night stand.

When Ian comes out of the closet, tired of anonymous hook-ups and keeping secrets from his large Catholic family, Rick is right there, and he’s just the sort of man Ian might like to get to know better.Their attraction is immediate, electric and mutual. Ian convinces Rick to break more and more of his rules, and his defenses crumble. But someone watches, someone who’d like to see this new relationship fail. When Ian’s job becomes a means to expose Rick’s secret, it could destroy both their careers and their hearts.

Another hit out of the park by K.C. Burn. Cast Off is book three of Toronto Tales, taking place in a similar timeframe to book two, Cover Up.

At the end of book one, we found out why Ian, Kurt’s brother, stopped talking to him after he came out. He, also, is gay. Only he’d known for twenty years and had been terrified to come out.

Cover Up is the story of Ian and Rick. These two were definitely a match for each other. Ian hid his homosexuality for a long time, but now that he’s out, he’s ready to develop a relationship. And he wants Rick. Rick, however, has a hard and fast rule – no keepers. As soon as any guy he uses for sex looks like he’s the kind that wants a relationship, it’s over. The only problem with Ian is, Rick wants more. And Ian is a sneaky man. He recognizes that the thought of a relationship is terrifying to the other man and suggests they become friends. Rick keeps hoping the benefits will leap in as sex with Ian is the best he’s ever had.

Unfortunately, nothing can be easy for these two. With someone sending threats to Rick including a dead squirrel and keying his car, nothing prepares him for when a rag mag threatens to out his past, which threatens everything he’s built for himself. Ian does everything he can to keep Rick close and to help him, but when Rick refuses him one to many times, it might be the last.

Okay, when I read and reviewed Cover Up, book two, I thought the dual point of view kept it from being the intense read that the first book Cop Out was. Now, I’m figuring there must have been another reason, because Cast Off is also dual point of view, but I was still able to get into both men’s heads. Do I wish it had been longer? Yes. I could have read this book for hours and hours. But the author once again, has won this reader’s devotion.

And it makes me wonder. Will she be coming out with Toronto Tales #4 & #5? After all, Jon and Kevin both will need their stories told, right? *hint  hint*

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