Charlie’s Mission

Title: Charlie’s Mission
Author: Lynn Lorenz
Cover artist: Trace Edward Zaber
Publisher: Amber Allure
Length: novella/22k words
Genre: Contemporary romance
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Amazon: N/A

A guest review by Sirius

Summary: Redemption story set in post Katrina New Orleans, which I had some issues with, but overall enjoyed.

Blurb:

Charlie’s cut himself off from the pleasures of life. After all, he was a drug addict who killed his brother and doesn’t deserve them. He also believes he should have never gotten out of prison, but he did, and now every day he struggles to do penance for his crime, and working at a shelter for homeless men in Katrina-ravaged New Orleans is his way of doing it.

Devon is mysterious, dark, and dangerous. Especially to Charlie. Devon’s refusal to speak about what he does, his comings and goings at night, all lead Charlie to one conclusion—Devon’s a drug dealer. And for a recovering cocaine addict, a dealer is the last thing he needs in his life, because the need for the white powder is always there.

But so is the physical and emotional need Charlie feels for Devon. Charlie fights his attraction, but he know he’s in a losing battle. He’s always been a sucker for a bad ass, and to him, Devon looks to be the baddest of them all.

Can Charlie keep his internal pledge to pay for his crime, or will Devon destroy everything Charlie’s worked so hard to build? Or will giving in to Devon be the freedom Charlie’s secretly prayed for?

Review:

I will admit that the blurb for this novella both intrigued me and made me twitch just a little bit. Probably because IMO it is incredibly easy to figure out Devon’s real profession from the blurb and that is why I dreaded the possible Big Misunderstanding as the source for the potential conflict between the guys. I however really enjoyed several stories by this writer set in New Orleans and most importantly I love redemption stories, I love the stories where the characters screwed up really badly and work hard to make things right if not to change what happened, but at least to serve their penance to the world. So I decided that I wanted to review this story despite the possible dreaded plot turn.

Overall I was really glad I did take this book for review. I really liked Charlie. As it happens often the blurb from this publisher gives you more information than I  would have wanted you to know, but it is what it is, now you know that he killed his brother while under influence of drugs and he tries to pay for it by helping other people after he paid his dues to society. Of course your mileage may differ and of course it is a horrible crime, but I did feel for him and thought that he should ease up on himself just a little bit after trying so hard. I really liked him not making any excuses for himself, but yeah I thought that he should realise that he does deserve to be happy.

And here comes Devon. Okay, I am happy to report that I thought that the writer successfully avoided the pitfalls of Big Misunderstanding. Yes, Charlie is in the dark as to Devon’s real profession for the majority of the story, but the reasons why he jumps to this conclusion are all there, and to me those reasons were quite strong and believable. We also get to hear Devon denying Charlie’s conclusions and at least being frank enough that he does not want Charlie to know his real profession. I thought the reason for his silence was less strongly motivated, but at the same time considering that they just met I could buy into it without too much suspension of disbelief. And Charlie’s doubts despite Devon’s assurances I thought were perfectly done, considering his past. Again, your mileage may vary of course, but for me it worked, more or less. As I mentioned before though, I guessed Devon’s real profession in a minute after I have read the blurb, so I really hope that the writer had not planned it to be the big reveal. As a surprise it did not work for me at all.

And now we are getting to the Insta!something variation in this story. Lately it feels like every novella I pick up has it, and I guess I just have to hope for the variation that works for me. The way they met worked well for me, to me it definitely felt as Insta!lust, not Love and the attraction was basically physical, it is made very clear that both guys want each other and not about to spend the next hundred years together after meeting each other once. Unfortunately the ending transformed into something more way too fast and it was a bit too much for me. I wish that they would move much slower than they did, even after what they had been through. As I said, I really can’t complain too much about this variety – I had read much worse and the beginning was just perfect and their intense physical attraction made even more sense considering the circumstances in their lives. I also thought that the chemistry between them was quite strong.

I thought the post Katrina New Orleans was just as well done as in the past stories by this writer that I have read, but I have never been to it, so can’t be sure. I can just say that devastation and at the same time strong will by the people to recover felt believable to me.