Author: Nic Starr
Book: Lies & Deception
Page/Word Count: 200 pages, 66K words
Categories: Gay Romance, Mystery & Suspense
Release Date: June 26, 2018
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Tiferet Design
Buy Links:
Blurb:
Detective Mitch O’Neill is the ideal man to infiltrate the Soldiers of Fury Motorcycle Club. His ex-boyfriend, Peter, is pledged with the club, which provides Mitch with the perfect cover. Despite the relationship ending badly, he’s come to terms with Peter’s drug addiction and his inability to help. All Mitch wants now is to bring down the Soldiers and the club president, Rocky Cummings, once and for all.
Finn Cummings hates everything the motorcycle club stands for, but he’s unable to escape his brother’s clutches. When Mitch is assigned as Finn’s driver, they spend countless hours together, and the saying proves true—opposites do attract. Finn agonizes over his feelings for Mitch—the last thing he wants is to involve himself further with criminals, not when he wants to leave that world. Mitch tries to come to terms with falling for a member of the outlaw club he’s determined to destroy.
If they can survive the fallout from Rocky’s violence and the investigation, they might discover it’s not a case of opposites attract after all.
3.5✨s – I like stories of cops and criminals where the bad guy isn’t so bad and gets redeemed by his actions. The blurb intrigued me because it’s set in Australia and it’s an interesting example of the trope. Mitch is a fairly straightforward guy, dedicated to his job and agrees to go undercover to bust a biker gang running drugs. The police here in the US aren’t all that different but the laws about biker gangs seemed unique. Peter, Mitch’s drug-addicted ex has turned up as a gang member, arriving with Finn, the brother of club leader Rocky. Finn thought he’d escaped the brutal life of the bike club but he’s trapped by his brother Rocky into being his accountant and getting sucked into the illegal side of his bike repair business.
I’ll admit that some of the setup for the undercover plot seemed unlikely but the author made the details work together logically. Character development was well done, including most of the secondary figures, except Rocky and the other biker gang members were kind of caricature villains. Having Mitch, Finn, and Peter remain unaware of each other’s roles through the entire book was different than I’ve usually seen with this sort of plot and I liked that. I felt the romance was rather short changed. There was some UST and a single sex scene, which was just fine but the rest of their time together was more telling than showing or focused on the problems with the club.
It was enjoyable as escapist reading with enough tension and suspense to keep the narrative moving over occasional plot holes. I was invested enough in the characters to want to see the resolution to the suspense and a happy ending for the couple. It would likely make a good beach read.
About Nic Starr:
Nic Starr lives in Australia where she tries to squeeze as much into her busy life as possible. Balancing the demands of a corporate career with raising a family and writing can be challenging but she wouldn’t give it up for the world.
Always a reader, the lure of m/m romance was strong and she devoured hundreds of wonderful m/m romance books before realising she had some stories of her own that needed to be told.
Nic loves to spend time with her family—an understanding husband, two beautiful daughters, and a cherished Cairn terrier. Nic is a foodie and wine lover who lives in the city but is a country girl at heart. When not writing or reading, she is often found indulging in her love of cooking and planning her dream home in the country.
You can find Nic on Facebook, Twitter and her blog. She’d love it if you stopped by to say hi.
Where to find Nic Starr:
