Review: Every Breath You Take by Robert Winter (Pride and Joy #2)


Note: This ARC was provided by Dreamspinner Press in exchange for an honest review.

I do love me a well-thought out and well-written romantic suspense story, and that's exactly what I got with Every Breath You Take, the second Pride and Joy novel penned and my second read by Robert Winter. We're introduced twenty-seven-year-old Washington, DC transplant and new employee of the Treasury Department Zachary Hall as he's enjoying his first foray into a gay bar. There, he meets a small but close-knit group of friends who welcome them into their fold, but it's one particular man who holds his attention captive--thirty-something lawyer and chief counsel to a powerful Senate committee Thomas Scarborough. The attraction is mutual, but all Thomas can offer Zachary is one night, no matter how strong the connection may be between them. One stalker broke Thomas in ways that has him wary of getting close to anyone, but even as he keeps Zachary in the friend zone, Thomas quietly berates himself for resisting the younger man. His stalker may have died years ago, but there appears to be a new one with a watchful eye on Thomas and after a couple of victims, that watchful eye turns to a new target--Zachary.

Goodness! The chemistry between Zachary and Thomas was palpable and all that tension was part and parcel of what made this novel such a fantastic read. It was almost as if everything that was happening--and not happening--to, around, and between the protagonists led to this coiled feeling within me just waiting to be sprung once the climax in the story hit. I understood why Thomas felt the need to keep Zachary at arm's length, but I also thought it was unfair of him to use that arm to pull the younger man closer whenever he wanted to. There's a part in the story where Zachary finally lets loose on Thomas and tells him exactly what he's thinking and feeling regarding their let's-be-friends-only setup and I seriously wanted to give him a standing ovation for his brutal honesty. Sometimes, that's the only kind of in-your-face rebuttal that makes the other person realize the error of their ways. When these two were together, there was that mix of sweet and steamy since the care and concern were clearly on display as was the basic need they had to be exactly what the other wanted physically and far more intimately.

The author kept me guessing when it came to the mystery suspense part of the story until it was pretty obvious as to who the villain was. Well, maybe obvious to me since I have a tendency of looking at everyone other than the protagonists in a story like this one as potential suspects. Even as I had that one person as my one and only suspect, I was itching to see how everything would come to a head and what it would take for Thomas and Zachary to get out of the whole thing alive. Of course, there was the whole thing about them figuring out that they belonged together as well. By the time I finished the book, I thought of Thomas having rescued Zachary and vice-versa--Zachary from the situation he was in much later in the story (yeah, sorry, no details because of spoilers) and Thomas from the self-imprisonment he had forced himself in ever since the whole stalker incident from several years ago. These two were fantastic as main character, and together with a strong supporting cast of characters--I hope Randall Vaughan gets his own book as well--and an absorbing story, Every Breath You Take receives five stars. ♥

Release Date: 05 May 2017

Date Read: 05 May 2017

Learn more about Robert Winter.

Purchase Every Breath You Take on Dreamspinner Press | Amazon | B&N | iBooks | Kobo.

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