4/5 Review: Who Knows the Dark (Vigilante Book 2) by Tere Michaels

A wanted man after the destruction of the Iron Butterfly Casino, Nox Boyet must flee the island of Manhattan—the only home he's ever known. Together with Cade, Sam, and the rest of their ragtag group, Nox must find a place to hide from the District Police and the violent group of unknown drug dealers on his tail.

The solution—the Creel family farm in South Carolina.

But home isn’t quite sweet for Cade, the prodigal son. As Cade struggles with his own secrets, shadows of the past threaten not only Nox’s life, but his relationship with his son, Sam.

Nox knows there will never be peace unless he finds the answers to all his questions—and the answers lie back on the island. Cade and the others must choose their paths—find safety or follow the Vigilante into the darkness of the city? The city where Nox will come face-to-face with the past.

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This book starts right where book 1 ends.  Nox, Sam and Cade are forced to leave New York and they head towards Cade’s family home.  There they find an ally in Cade’s brother who it turns out has some hacking skills.  Jenny goes along for the ride and also works towards clearing their names.  So much happens in this book that you keep reading to keep the momentum of the story going.  On Cade’s farm they find out a lot of information, but they also have a ton of questions that need answers.  Nox decides that he is going back to New York so that he can take care of the problem and clear Sam’s and Cade’s names.  After he leaves he ends up getting caught and Cade has to try and save him.  Jenny and LJ go with Cade and they have to go through so much to even try and get back on the island.  This book also ends on a cliff hanger, so I need the next book desperately so I can see everything that Cade does to get back to Nox, and what Nox does to get back to Cade.  I totally recommend this book and the series.

4/5 Review: Who Knows the Storm (Vigilante Book 1) by Tere Michaels

In a dystopian near future, New York City has become the epicenter of decadence—gambling, the flesh trade, a playground for the wealthy. And underneath? Crime, fueled by “Dead Bolt,” a destructive designer drug. This New City is where Nox Boyet leads a double life. At night, he is the Vigilante, struggling to keep the streets safe for citizens abandoned by the corrupt government and police. During the day, he works in construction and does his best to raise his adopted teenaged son, Sam. 

A mysterious letter addressed to Sam brings Nox in direct contact with “model” Cade Creel, a high-end prostitute working at the Iron Butterfly Casino. Suspicion gives way to an intense attraction as dark figures from Nox’s past and the mysterious peddlers of Dead Bolt begin to descend—and put all their lives in danger. When things spin out of control, Cade is the only person Nox can trust to help him save Sam. 

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This book is a little different.  It is almost a post-apocalyptic book.  New York is basically wiped out during an extreme storm.  The water level rises so high that most of Manhatten is evacuated.  Some people of course don’t leave, the ones who have nowhere to go.  Nox Boyet is the 16 year old who has no were to go and no one to go to.  He tries to go to his mother at the asylum and when he gets there he realizes that she is giving birth to his sibling.  He delivers the baby and realizes that he has another body to take care of other than himself.  He doesn’t know what he is going to do, but he does know that he will protect the baby with his life.  That is a promise that he has to keep almost as soon as he makes it.  While at the hospital he runs into a woman who calls herself Jenny.  She is there to take care of his mother and him.  She decides to not kill him and the baby but he doesn’t trust her since she already tried to kill him once.  When he gets away from Jenny he goes back to his house with the baby and sets up the house as best he can to protect himself and the baby, who he names Sam.  Fast forward 17 years and Nox is doing regular patrols to make sure that drug dealers stay out his area and that their little neighborhood stays safe.  Sam works as a messenger so that he can get out of the house and have some interaction with others.  Things become very dangerous when Cade Creel is asked to deliver a note to Nox’s son.  After that things begin to happen that force Nox to change many things in his life and to accept help.  This book uses flashbacks to explain the history of its characters but it is well done.  This book ends on a cliffhanger.  I recommend this book!



5/5 Review: Love & Loyalty (Faith, Love, and Devotion Book 2) by Tere Michaels

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.

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Jim is a detective that we met in Faith, Love & Devotion 1.  His story began with a very high profile case.  He and his partner did everything that they were supposed, collected the evidence correctly and testified.  All so that the guilty party could be declared ‘Not Guilty’ and the victim’s family destroyed.  Jim feels that it is his responsibility to take care of the victim’s father, since his wife passed away the day the verdict was issued.  The man had no one else.  So when he gets a message that someone is coming to interview the husband he makes sure that he is there.  That is how he meets Griffin.  Griffin is a screenwriter who wants to make something important, something other than the usual violent fluff movies that have no real plot.  Griffin gets his permission to complete the script, but has trouble actually putting ink to paper.  When he gets in touch with Jim and leaves LA he realizes that he is actually working.  He was able to work on the script in the time he spent with Jim.  He also got to know Jim and realizes that he wants to spend more time with him, even if it means jumping on a plane.  As Jim and Griffin get closer he finds out that his friend Daisy has betrayed him to her husband.  She supposedly was going to leave him but that didn’t work out.  Griffin does what he has to, to keep his word to Jim’s friend.  I loved that Griffin gave up everything to make sure that he remains honorable.  He was able to come through in the end and ended up with more than he thought he deserved.  I am loving this series!



5/5 Review: Duty & Devotion (Faith, Love, and Devotion Book 3) by Tere Michaels

A year after deciding to share their lives, Matt and Evan are working on their happily ever after—which isn’t as easy as it looks. As life settles down into a routine, Matt finds happiness in his role as the ideal househusband of Queens, New York, but he worries about Evan’s continued workaholic—and emotionally avoidant—ways. Trying to juggle his evolving relationship with Evan and his children, Matt turns to his friend, former Seattle Homicide Detective Jim Shea.

The continued friendship between Matt and Jim is a thorn in Evan’s side. Jealous and uncomfortable with imagining their brief affair, Evan struggles to come to terms with what being in a committed relationship with a man means, and the implications about his love for his deceased wife, the impact on his children, and how other people will view him. His turmoil threatens his relationship with Matt, who worries that Evan will once again chose a life without him. But now, the stakes are much higher. 

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I really enjoyed visiting Matt and Evan again.  I was able to see their lives after the 1^st happy ever after, which makes it easier to connect to them.  Matt is happy where his life is right now.  He became the caregiver of Evan’s children, he runs the day to day of the house.  While he is happy taking care of the children, loves it in fact, he sometimes feels that he is just a replacement for Evan’s late wife, Sherri.  He goes to see his friend, Liz who is also a shrink, and gets ideas in his head that kind of puts his issues in a much more dominant position in his head.  He tries to make sure that he is able to appease Evan when his moods become somber, but at some point he gets so frustrated that he begins to make sure that Evan knows what he is feeling.  He makes Evan aware of the thoughts that are going on in his head.  He knows that it will add to Evan’s stress but Evan needs to realize how he is affecting Matt.  Evan accepted that he loved Matt in book 1, but it wasn’t a complete acceptance.  Evan thinks that he has accepted the way he feels about Matt because Matt lives with them, but little by little he realizes that what he is doing to Matt is not fair to him and it’s not fair to them as a couple.  Evan begins to take steps to fix himself and his thoughts after a particularly ugly dinner with Matt’s friend Jim and his partner Griffin.  Evan realizes how unfair he is being to his family, because he is essentially hiding them from the world.  When he decides to fight for Matt and to make sure that he is doing what he needs to, to keep his family together, he keeps surprising Matt.  Matt is enjoying the new Evan but when he slips back into his old ways it becomes too hard to deal with so he makes sure that Evan is aware of that and that he can’t keep on being hidden.  I love that this story was Evan’s reality check.  Like he is told by his partner (cop) Lighting doesn’t strike twice, but he got lucky.  I am really getting into this series and can’t wait for the next one.  I will love to see what else happens to these group of friends.  

5/5 Review: Faith and Fidelity by Tere Michaels

Reeling from the recent death of his wife, police officer Evan Cerelli looks at his four children and can only see how he fails them. His loving wife was the caretaker and nurturer, and now the single father feels himself being crushed by the pain of loss and the heavy responsibility of raising his kids.

At the urging of his partner, Evan celebrates a coworker’s retirement and meets disgraced former cop turned security consultant Matt Haight. A friendship born out of loneliness and the solace of the bottle turns out to be exactly what they both need.

The past year has been a slow death for Matt Haight. Ostracized from his beloved police force, facing middle age and perpetual loneliness, Matt sees only a black hole where his future should be. When he discovers another lost soul in Evan, some of the pieces he thought he lost start to fall back in place. Their friendship turns into something deeper, but love is the last thing either man expected, and both of them struggle to reconcile their new and overwhelming feelings for one another. 

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Tere Michaels’ Faith & Fidelity is the first in a series of books.  This book is full of emotion and made me want to cry from the first page.  Detective Evan Cerelli lost his wife to a car accident and did not know how to continue living, even though he knew he had to take care of his children.  Evan shut down his emotions thinking that it was the only way to survive day to day without his wife.  He became a shadow of himself and everyone who knew him was very worried.  He went to a retirement party for a fellow detective and that is where he met Matt Haight.  Evan recognized the same loneliness that he was feeling and felt a need to reach out and connect with someone.  Matt was at a point in his life where everything felt like junk.  He felt that he was punished for doing the right thing, when he turned in dirty cops.  He was demoted to beat cop and so he left the force instead.  He is at lowest point, where missing a drink gave him shaking hands and sweating.  The friendship that forms between Evan and Matt becomes their lifeline in life.  They come to depend on each other for support as things happen in their lives.  Evan and Matt’s relationship progresses from one of friendship to one of love without either of them even noticing that it happened.  Matt finally felt that he was part of something that is good, he loved being around Evan’s kids and he got to experience the love a real family.  Which is why when Evan tells him that he can’t continue to be with him, it tears him up and almost sends him back to rock bottom.  Matt and Evan need to deal with their emotions and to get their lives together before they can actually come together as a unit.  Evan and Matt work out their issues and the way the book leaves it is as a happy for now, but very well done.   I am so glad that I began to read this series and look forward to the rest of the books in the Faith, Love, and Devotion series.