In the Light of Day

Title: In the Light of Day
Author: Sasha Devlin
Cover Artist: Syneca
Publisher: www.ellorascave.com
Amazon: N/A
Genre: Contemporary M/M
Length: Novella /80 PDF pages /no word count
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

 Summary Review: A somewhat angsty tale about a cop trying to decide whether to enter into a gay relationship and all it entailed, while at the same time fending off the bad guys trying to kill him and his lover.

THE BLURB

Jaren’s birthday weekend isn’t going as planned. Instead of being in the arms of the man he fell hard for, he’s alone at his lake cabin. With a bottle of wine. When Cooper shows up on his doorstep, all appears right with the world. Until Jaren realizes the real reason Cooper is there.

 Cooper didn’t mean to fall for someone he was working a case with. And certainly not a man. Cooper always thought he was straight, but posing as gay lovers to infiltrate a pornography ring had felt all too real. Now he has feelings for the sexy younger man. Strong ones. Just as he’s prepared to drive to the cabin and give Jaren a birthday in bed he’ll never forget, Cooper gets word the criminal they put away has escaped—and is coming after Jaren.

Jaren finally has the man of his dreams where he wants him, but for all the wrong reasons. He can trust Cooper to guard his body, but what about his heart?

THE REVIEW

Cooper’s last undercover assignment with Jaren, the brother of his partner, had concluded with the suspect in custody and everything should have been all wrapped up. Except for one thing. Weeks later Coop could not get Jaren out of his mind and heart. Maybe it was because he kept listening to all the desperate messages Jaren left him on his cell which he had saved. He and Jaren had pretended to be a gay couple during the assignment and they had to have sex for the cameras to convince the leader of the porn ring that they were legit, and he was slowly going crazy remembering everything they had done to each other. Now he was trying to decide if he would drive out to see Jaren to deliver his birthday present and a whole lot more. But he wasn’t gay, was he? Despite everything he and Jaren had done while undercover, it was for the department, wasn’t it?

Coop knew that Jaren had fallen for him but thought he would get over it. For himself, he assumed it was proximity that was making him think there was a lot more to his feelings for the man. While he was still trying to decide what to do, Coop’s cell rang and Linda Mathis,  another detective, told him that Ortega, the criminal mastermind they had helped put behind bars had escaped while being transported to another location and had critically injured one officer with another missing and presumed dead. Now Ortega was on his way to find Jaren because he had discovered that he was a civilian. Since he couldn’t get to any of the officers, he was gunning for Jaren and this time the porn movie would be a snuff film. This was all Coop needed to hear to rush to Jaren’s side because he realized how much he cared about him; if anything were to happen to him he would never be able to forgive himself. Also he needed to tell him those three little words if he could find the courage.

When Coop arrived at the cabin Jaren was drunk and defnitely not pleased to see him when he told him why he was there. They fought over the same issue – Coop’s refusal to admit that he was gay and wanted to have sex with Jaren, who made  clear that he was not prepared to be Coop’s dirty little secret. Eventually, after the fighting, they went to bed in separate rooms but Coop could not resist Jaren and made his move. They had sex but on Jaren’s terms this time as he wasn’t going to be Coop’s boy toy any more. But the next day brought a whole new set of issues because Ortega was hunting Jaren now that it was light and he had all the advantages on his side since he knew his location.

In the Light of Day is told in both protagonists’ third person POV. Like any straight cop facing the possibility that he might not be as straight as he always assumed, Coop was embarrassed because of what his family and team mates would think of him if he were in an openly gay relationship with Jaren. Their perceptions of him would change and he didn’t know how to deal with the fallout, should he decide to pursue Jaren. During their separation he had had sex with women in an effort to forget Jaren but it hadn’t worked, mainly because it was difficult for him to get aroused. He realized that Jaren meant more to him than anyone else but he didn’t know how to deal with his demands for a real relationship, after all, he wasn’t gay and he couldn’t see how things would work out between them. Also, his image as a tough as nails cop would be shot. 

Jaren loved Cooper but knew what he was up against since Coop was not prepared to take their relationship any further, beyond where they left off weeks ago. Cooper never responded to his voice mails and he was desperate but not so desperate that he didn’t make it clear that he only wanted to have a relationship with Cooper under one set of circumstances – Cooper had to acknowledge him as his lover. Did Coop care about him enough to set aside his pride?

While I mostly enjoyed this book it wasn’t clear why Jaren became involved in the undercover bust in the first place, other than being gay and the brother of a cop. Why did Coop decide to take him, a civilian, on the sting operation? Did he know someone who had been killed by Ortega? There was a mystery about the identity of the cop who had betrayed the trust of the other officers and was instrumental to Ortega’s escape however, it wasn’t much of a mystery and the culprit was obvious almost from the beginning. What I didn’t get was the extended “confession” between the rogue cop and Cooper at the end when clearly a different outcome was very probable given the circumstances, and any delays could change the power dynamic. However, this was obviously done to gain time for the rescue and after all this is fiction so I suppose some latitude and unreality is expected.

If you like angst this story might appeal. The protagonists were likable, but Jaren was a bit whiny and Cooper was very indecisive about his feelings and his next steps, so much so at times I felt like slapping them and telling them to get over themselves. I thought that  Cooper was well drawn and his concerns over his career and the reactions of his teammates if he entered into a gay relationship were valid, but there was a lot of second guessing and angst on his part.  However in the end he got over his concerns quickly, which could be due to the short format of the story.

The end was bloody so be prepared for a long drawn out fight between good and evil.

Update: After re-reading this book last night I changed my rating because there were too many questions that weren’t answered, which frustrated me. In my defence, I wrote this review after a long day and wasn’t as conscientious as I should have been. Those readers who love angst may still love the story but the plot had too many holes to recommend it. Sorry guys.