Paper Flowers by Kit Fisher
Review by Meg Rating: ****
Peter Duncan is an ex - cop who has never known much other than the seamy side of life. Somehow. throughout a difficult up bringing and a lonely adolescence, he maintaines some tough values that are challenged in the face of departmental corruption. Posing as a hustler he is picked up by Andrew Byrne, an honest cop whose internal life is walled by enough barriers to stave off any promise of romance. Byrne is tough, hard headed, and certain that he is immune to feelings for anyone else. As the story develops he begins to understand that Peter Duncan is more than just a trick and he follows Peter into a miasma of corruption and murder. This is one of those books that sucks me right in. I love angsty, romantic heroes who are too tough to fall in love but ultimately find each other impossible to resist. Of course, by that point the sexual tension is powerful and the reader achingly ready for them to come together. All my homerotic romantic fantasies are fulfilled by this story. It has plenty of suspense and the characters suffer both mentally and physically, partly because they are persecuted by the villains, but also because they undergo inner changes as they move closer to a relationship. They are two tough guys with ultimately tender hearts and the beginnings of a good future together. How they get to the point of becoming a couple is as suspenseful as the adventure. But even though at times the writer tries to make you think it will all fall apart, we the experienced romance readers, know better, and our expectations are met. This is a fun read. I read it twice.