Blurb:

Winchester Crown Court, October 2035: Richard Shaw leaves, a free man.

Grief-stricken and angry, Lucas Green is hell-bent on revenge against Richard Shaw, who killed his sister. Lucas has heard of a man who can help—the handsome and urbane owner of a boutique sex shop, with a head for planning crimes. But Dante Okoro has a past he’s desperate to keep buried. Though Lucas piques his interest in more ways than one, Dante turns him away. Still, he wonders if he made the right decision….

An unexpected death brings Dante and Lucas together once more. This time they can’t ignore the chemistry between them. But courting a lover with lies is a dangerous game. Dante has been spying on Lucas, convinced he has plans to kill Shaw. Lucas has been spying on Shaw, waiting for the right moment to strike. If Dante admits his suspicions to Lucas, he’ll surely lose him. If he doesn’t, Lucas might do something reckless—and end up losing everything.

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*I received an ARC of this book from Signal Boost Promotions in return of an honest review*

First things first, I should probably warn you that I’m not sure how I’m going to manage to review this book, because I can’t make head or tails of my own thoughts about it. And this is when Annie regrets ever inviting me over to blog with her >.<

There were things I liked about this book; mainly the atmosphere; that feeling of darkness, loss and oppression was really well done. And I loved Avery, she was such a strong and real character, she was probably my favourite.

But, and I guess this is a big BUT and what mostly retracted from my enjoyement of the book, I didn’t get to like or get a feel of the main characters, neither did I feel any chemistry between them. I like the idea of one character helping the other overcome his loss, helping him heal… But builiding an entire relationship around planning a murder? A bit overdone and unbelievable, in my opinion. And they were keeping so many things from each other, there were so many lies in the air, that I honestly thought they wouldn’t be able to stay together in the end.

Also, and I realise this probably is my own hang-up, I don’t really understand why this story is set in a futurustic London, when the only changes we can see are the way phones work and some little advances in medicine. I don’t know if that was all that necessary to the story; but I’m not the author, of course, and this is just my personal opinion.

So to recap a bit: I liked the atmosphere of the general story, but I felt the relationship between the main characters wasn’t all that believable.

About the Author:

Lane Swift is a fiction writer, mainly of contemporary romance, sometimes featuring a mild dash of paranormal.

She lives by the sea in Hampshire, England, with her husband, two children and two guinea pigs, and can often be found at her beach hut, imbibing coffee and dreaming up happy-ever-afters for her heroes and heroines.

Over the years, she’s worked as a waitress, a lab technician, a science teacher and a telecommunications consultant. She’s also played women’s rugby, climbed one mountain and run one marathon, but has never managed to learn how to whistle.

Genre: Mystery Orientation: Gay Pairing: M/M paranormal Publisher: Dreamspinner Press Review Lane Swift The Losing Game