Title: Wranglers: The Defense Rests
Author: Vivien Dean
Publisher: Amber Allure
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Novella/ Extended Amber Kiss (16k words)
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
A Guest Review by Aunt Lynn
THE BLURB
They started out on opposite sides of the conference table. Now, lovers Sam Kimball and Derek Rossi find themselves assigned to the same case, for the first time since they started sleeping together. There’s only one problem…Derek doesn’t want to take the case.
Derek’s frustration has both men lashing out at each other. Somehow, they have to find a way to resolve their differences before the situation destroys what they have…
THE REVIEW
Wranglers: The Defense Rests is the third — and shortest — book in the Wranglers series by Vivien Dean. While it is possible to read this without reading the other installments, I wouldn’t suggest it; these short books are just part of a larger picture and you really should start with book one, Wranglers: Discovery.
Set about three months after the end of W: Voir Dire, we find our heroes Sam and Derek having an unexpected and unusual lunch meeting with Derek’s team leader, Rudy. Neither knows why they are asked to be together for the meeting as the now boyfriends purposefully keep business and their relationship apart at work. That is about to change: Rudy has asked them to team up to work on a case of a woman with HIV. Sam has no issue with it, but Derek adamantly doesn’t want to take it on in fear of being labeled the “gay lawyer.” Causing issues not only professionally, it creates tension and conflict for the two personally, bringing their different “out” statuses into the forefront and perhaps places their at-times tentative relationship in the balance.
The overriding themes of openness and labels are addressed in this story. Derek and Sam are at different stages of being out about their orientation, with Derek honest with those who count — family, close friends, work — but not wanting the world at large to know, and Sam being proudly out to everyone but his ultra-conservative family. This brings up hypocrisy as another theme and something they need to work through.
This book also sees Sam realizing deeper feelings for Derek, much to his pleasurable surprise, and hot public bathroom and kitchen smexxin make for some steamy reading.
Book one is narrated third person by Derek, book two by Sam, and here we have Sam again telling the tale. My single issue with this book is that because we are seeing inside Sam’s head more, I unfortunately am not getting to know Derek as much as I’d like nor a really good feel for his motivations. I heard the words he said about why he didn’t want to take the case, but we see Derek through Sam’s eyes and thoughts about the reasons instead of Derek really telling us himself through what was going on in his head. Additionally, as Sam makes his emotions for Derek known, I would love to have been witness to what Derek really thinks of Sam’s declarations and how he truly feels toward the other man at this point, which I felt that I only got a bare glimpse of.
UPDATE: Also, the story focuses on the conflict generated by simply being assigned the case and Derek’s reaction, not the case itself, and as commenters noted below, this was a disappointment. I, as well as they, would have liked to see our protags working together. Additionally, the case itself seems very interesting and the reader is denied the details and outcome. I am speculating that the length of the book had something perhaps to do with that, and I am hoping, as a series book, the story will back pick up in the final installment. We shall see.
Because of these issues, and though I did like it, I feel it is the weakest book of the series so far.
OVERALL
I recommend this little book to those interested in the genre and fans of the author and the series. Final book four, Wranglers: Judgment, is available next month.
The relationship part I enjoyed but something I felt was lacking in this one was the whole plot about the HIV woman and her case. I was looking forward to them actually working on the case and seeing the evidence and if they would win but that seems to be just a plot device to get them into a fight and make up. I really like the two characters so enjoyed it for that but when I got to the end I was like “Huh? What about the case? What happens?”
Tam, I agree with you about the lack of case and neglected to mention that in the review (which I will fix). Like you, I was left at the end saying “that’s it?” I am eager to see what she does with the last book to see if there is maybe more to this part of the story,
I agree with everything. While I enjoyed reading it, I felt like something was missing and I didn’t feel the same satisfaction at the end of the book as with two previous stories. Same as you, I wanted more of Derek – while Sam’s POV was satisfactory in Voir Dire, here it just wasn’t enough. Plus, I really wanted to see them actually working together, not just talking about it. I enjoyed the entire scene in the bar, especially description of music. And hot bathroom action, of course. XD All in all, I like this series, but I’ll wait for the last book to form the final opinion.
Hi LadyM. Like you, I’ll wait until the next book to give an overall grade of the series to see if this was a fluke.