3.5 ( )

Scary! Some really great plot turns, managed to pull me out of a reading slump which I always appreciate.

CW: assault, abuse (psych/physical), narcotic use ( )

Meh.

That’s how I felt about this book.

I love thrillers, I love LGBTQ characters and stories, so I thought this would be magic. But nope, I was wrong. This was boring, the characters were dull and 2 dimensional and the plot was predictable. I’m honestly not sure if I even want to leave the second star there. ( )

3.5

Soooo much anxiety at the climax of this one, good lord!! ( )

From the opening page, this novel is edgy and thrilling, and filled with tension. It's a story about lovers, Oliver and Nathan, and what happens when Oliver visits a bath house. It’s a propulsive read with flabbergasting surprises that takes a jagged knife to their relationship and leaves the reader gutted and bleeding. The writing is other worldly in its brilliance. Don’t miss this one. ( )

Not your everyday domestic psychological thriller I can assure you!

Heads up, don’t start the audiobook in the car with your kids like I did, because it starts off with an explicit sex scene in a bathhouse! During the sex, the guy almost tried to kill him with asphyxiation! He was lucky enough to hurt his killer and break free. However, his killer isn’t finished with him yet.

This is told from both partners point of view, the one who cheated and the doctor that wants nothing more than to get married.

Twists and turns galore in this book and if you enjoy unreliable narrators this book is for you!



( )

It suffers from the typical flaws as any domestic thriller, but the "make it gay" gimmick may make it feel like something new to typical domestic thriller readers, including the the bathhouse shaming.

I picked this book up because of the great cover. The inner monologue of the main character was a bit repetitive at times, but overall this was a solid thriller that kept me turning the pages quickly. ( )

Oliver and Nathan are partners, but not married. Oliver is feeling restless in their relationship and is tempted to try new partners. Nathan's wealthy mother is pressuring Nathan to drop Oliver, as he was a former addict, and she believes he is only with Nathan for the money. When an encounter goes wrong, Oliver is terrified, and begins lying to Nathan about what happened. However, Oliver tries to work with the police to find Kristian, the attacker, without telling Nathan too much. This continues until a very dangerous and explosive conclusion.
Beware that there is violence and a lot of gay sex, if that bothers you, this book is not for you. ( )

Warning: Explicit sex and foul language throughout. While the book was entertaining and the author knows how to pull his reader into his story, keeping me reading to the end, I can’t recommend a book that is this decadent. It made me feel a bit sick. It was very much like reading porn and that's not why I read. ( )

“When it comes to lying there is a Golden Rule...tell as much of the truth as possible because the truth is easier to remember”.
From about the 3rd page of the book this becomes Oliver’s mantra. None of the characters are particularly likeable and they all seem to be caught in dysfunctional relationships. The two main characters.... Oliver and Nathan would have benefited much more if Oliver could have brought himself to have just told Nathan the entire truth...but then again, Nathan probably would have been too hurt to forgive him no matter how much he loved him. The author does an excellent job of showing how one lie...one deception... leads to more and more and more, until the entire relationship is built on nothing but lies, and it doesn’t matter the sexual orientation of said relationship. Nathan wasn’t stupid and he has stayed with Oliver through a variety of life traumas...if anything he was simply naïve. I didn’t dislike the book by any means... but it just feels that it was a deep pit of “dark” and there was no happiness to be found here. The author tried hard to jazz it up with so much unnecessary “flowery” language. It is exhausting to see Oliver continuously trying to cover his tracks...but continuing to keep working himself deeper and deeper. The story is challenging in ways that are completely outside the box of most readers perception and probably outside many readers’ comfort zone in terms of what you may think is happening and what you wish would have happened. What IS happening turns out to be heartbreaking. It’s a train wreck that you can’t stop watching. ( )

Lots of fun. Major surprise ending. ( )

What a great book! I love a good thriller and the fact that this book featured queer characters was a big draw for me. Once I started reading this book, I found it impossible to set aside. The story was intense and I had no idea who was responsible for everything that was happening. The book took a lot of twists and turns and I loved the fact that I was surprised several times before turning that final page.

Oliver is in a serious relationship with Nathan, a doctor. They refer to each other as husbands but they haven’t actually legally married each other as of yet. Nathan is a bit older than Oliver and they both claim to be happy. When Nathan goes out of town, Oliver decides to visit Haus, a gay bathhouse, where things go terribly wrong. Oliver escapes the situation at Haus with his life but he has to figure out how to explain his injuries to Nathan without telling him what he was actually doing. One bad decision leads to a lie and things spiral out of control before you know it.

This was a great mystery. Things got more and more complex as the story progressed and I couldn’t wait to see how everything would play out. I loved that there were a lot of unexpected developments worked into the story. I thought that the pacing of the story was very well done. The characters were very well done and I really hoped that Oliver and Nathan would be able to get past everything happening within these pages. The secondary characters added a lot to the book as well.

I would highly recommend this book to others. I had a great time with this thriller filled with tons of twists and turns. This was the first time that I had the opportunity to read P.J. Vernon’s work and I was very impressed. I will definitely be picking up more of his books in the future.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Doubleday Books via NetGalley. ( )