Author: Tere Michaels
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Rating: 5 stars
Type: Novel from Series
Received from Publisher
Blurb: Seattle Homicide Detective Jim Shea never takes work home with him—until now. A judge banged his gavel, declared a defendant not guilty, and laid waste to a family. The emotional fallout of the trial leaves Jim vulnerable and duty-bound to the victim’s dying father.
It’s that man’s story that screenwriter Griffin Drake and his best friend, actress Daisy Baylor, see as their ticket out of action blockbusters and into more serious fare. But to get the juicy details, Griffin needs to win over the stoic and protective Detective Shea. Their attraction is immediate, and Daisy encourages Griffin to use it to their advantage: secure the man, secure the story. Neither man has had much luck when it comes to love, and when their one night together evolves into a long weekend of rapidly intensifying feelings, both Griffin’s fierce loyalty to Daisy and his very career is put to the test.
Because the more Griffin is drawn into a new life with Jim, the more his Hollywood life falls apart. Secrets and broken trust threaten Griffin’s relationships, and he’ll have to choose between telling the truth or writing a Hollywood ending.
Review: Love & Loyalty is the second book in the Faith, Love and Devotion series, although it can easily be read as a standalone or out of order of the others in the series.
When Detective James ‘Jim’ Shea’s case results in the murderer allowed to walk free, everyone on the prosecuting side is astounded and left feeling defeated. Despite the carefully collected and overwhelming evidence that shows the wealthy son of two high-powered lawyers is guilty as sin of killing the teenage runaway turned prostitute, Carmen Kelly. The release of Tripp Ingersoll is followed by the sudden death of Carmen’s mother, leaving Ed Kelly, Carmen’s father, to deal with the staggering loss of both his girls. Over the course of the case, Jim had become close to the Kellys and six months later, Jim is still in regular contact with Ed, taking care of the man for whatever he needed. The case, and the lack of a conviction, was sensational enough to garner interest from a number of people wanting to cash in on the notoriety, but so far Ed had refused to grant any interviews to anyone. So when Jim gets a call from Ed, he’s more than a little surprised to discover that Ed has decided to allow a couple of people wanting to make a movie of the Kelly family’s story to come to his house to see him.
Griffin Drake is a successful screen-writer pumping out blockbuster action movies. While Hollywood’s been good to him, he yearns to create more than the violence-driven, cliched-dialogue fair that has fuelled his career so far. He also longs to break away from the studio he, and his best friend and starlet Daisy Baylor, have been contracted to since the beginning of their careers. Claus, the owner of Bright Side Studios and, incidentally, Daisy’s husband, is the epitome of the money hungry, at-all-costs Hollywood producer. Griffin and Daisy have been friends since childhood and left their hometown to pursue the bright lights of Hollywood together. Both of them see the opportunity to write and produce this movie as a way out. Griffin’s motives are tempered with the wish to do the right thing by Ed Kelly and his story and not just cash in on the man’s tragedy.
When Griffin and Daisy arrive at Ed Kelly’s, they are greeted by a large, gruff man intent on making sure they know he is there to protect the best interests of Ed. Even with Jim in protective mode, it’s hard to deny that he finds the younger screen-writer attractive in pretty much every way. Ed, convinced of their sincerity to do his daughter and wife justice, agrees to give the pair the rights to his story. After returning to Hollywood, Griffin finds himself struggling to write the script and decides to contact Jim, as the lead detective on the case, to ask for a face to face interview over a casual dinner. Somewhat to his surprise, Jim agrees and Griffin heads to Seattle. Jim also surprised himself by agreeing to the dinner. But he did find the man attractive, and it was his forty-fifth birthday, so why not? By the end of their dinner, it becomes very apparent that they both feel the chemistry building between them. They spend the night together, which turns into the next day. Then another day, and another after that. What started out as a dinner to discuss the movie script somehow became the world’s longest date. Despite Jim being certain that he had no room in his life for a relationship – didn’t need one and didn’t want one – he can’t deny how easy it was to spend time with Griffin. He had slipped so easily into Jim’s life and under his skin.
There’s very little conflict in this story, and what drama there is comes from outside and has little impact on Jim and Griffin’s relationship, but don’t mistake that for saying this book was uninteresting. That isn’t the case at all. The characters and the development of the MC’s relationship was superb and pulled me right in, keeping my attention to the end. I could feel the chemistry between Jim and Griffin from their first dinner and it just kept getting better and better. Jim’s initial reluctance, especially considering his background, lent a sense of believability to their otherwise rapidly developing relationship. I liked that that reluctance wasn’t belaboured, though. Jim was a smart man and he didn’t suddenly lose that intelligence and jump out of character by refusing to accept his feeling for Griffin when it was obvious that they were great together. Neither was the ease of their relationship ignored. Jim particularly, noticed it and pondered on it and then decided to accept it for the fact it was. I loved that they actually acted like adults and talked to each other after getting into a stupid fight over a misunderstanding. Even if neither of them really knew what they’re doing. I really loved these two. The seem like they’d be polar opposites, but they fit together so well and are written so convincingly as a couple. Their playful banter and their sweet affection for each other frequently made me smile.
The side characters were equally well-fleshed out as the two MCs. Jim’s partner, Terry Oh, and Terry’s wife, Mimi, along with the the rest of Jim’s friends, known collectively as the Heterosexual Cabal, along with their friendly teasing of Jim, were as much a pleasure to read as Jim and Griffin. Even though we only meet Ed a couple of times, he made such an impact on me. He had become somewhat of a substitute father for Jim and there is no doubt that Ed cared for Jim as he would have his own son. The thought of the loss of that wonderful man brought me to tears. For all the trials he’d been through, both the legal kind and life’s kind, he was still so warm and caring. The depth of the writing is truly shown in the hospital scene, which was done with such feeling and sensitivity.
I really loved basically everything about this book; from the MCs and the development of their relationship along with how perfectly they gelled as a couple, to the Cabal and Ed. The characters were wonderfully portrayed and completely believable, and the relationship between the MCs was absolutely delightful: sweet, funny, supportive, real. It made me smile, brought me to tears, provoked sighs of happiness and caused me to laugh out loud on more than one occasion.
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Sounds like very good 📚 reading!
Reblogged this on Book Musings.
This sounds super good. I’ll have to add it to my ever growing list.