Their assignment is to catch a serial killer. Unfortunately, that also means they have to work together.Determined to save his career after an involuntary relocation to the Boston field office, FBI profiler Luis Gomes can’t afford any distractions. His newest task is to develop an analysis of a serial killer with connections to previous murders in the area, but Luis knows little of the city’s … city’s criminal history. When the local detective assigned as his liaison turns out to be Donovan, his ex-boyfriend from college, it threatens to throw the case off-course.
Luis can’t ask to be reassigned without losing his best shot at a comeback. He’s on shaky ground as it is. He also can’t forgive Donovan for casually dumping him at graduation. But a brush with death—and with those beyond the grave—convinces him he’ll need all the support he can get, even if it means Donovan finds a way back into his heart…
Massachusetts State Police detective Donovan Carey has been closeted for as long as he’s been gay. It’s the price he pays to stay in the good graces of his extended family. His brief time being open with Luis was never going to last. Now they’re going to have to leave their messy breakup behind them and work together—despite the lingering spark between them that refuses to die.
The murderer has no intention of making things easy for them, however. With their relationship in the balance, Donovan and Luis must race to find the clues in past crimes before the killer claims more victims in the present.
Hunter is a gay romantic thriller with supernatural elements and a HEA
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A mix of blistering sexuality, emotional angst and dangerous situations. I loved this storyline, well written, kept me captivated from the first page, intrigue around the serial killer, a ghost, on the edge moments, snarky and a cop in the closet, Donovan and Luis the FBI agent.
I voluntarily reviewed an arc of this book for my honest opinions of which I’m under no obligation to do so. I definitely recommend this book.
4 Cranky Stars
This book has everything and more to keep your brain entertained and your heart racing. While murder mystery is not usually my genre, the added bonus of a ghost and a little romance and humor made this a new favorite read.
Luis is a profiler for the FBI and was just transferred to Massachusetts. He knows this assignment is temporary as is everything in his life. When a serial killer puts Luis face to face with his ex from college everything gets turned upside down. When the ghost of a century’s old serial killer starts haunting Luis he thinks he has finally lost it.
I have to say I’m really intrigued with this author. I was on the edge of my seat most of the time and can honestly say got a tad freaked out at one point while hot and bothered the next. This book had everything I didn’t know I wanted in a story and I look forward to more from this author.
This was my first time reading this author. I love paranormal/ghost stories!! This one did not disappoint for me. The story caught me from the beginning and did not let me go until the end, although I want more!! Luis is a FBI profiler and is paired with his ex-Donovan who left him broken hearted. The loved the spooky factor especially having a dead serial killer help to solve the case! Seriously loved it! I am voluntarily leaving a review from an advanced copy that I was gifted from the author. Thank you so much for letting me read your art. My reviews are solely based on my thoughts and opinions.
This is a fantastic beginning to what will be a ‘have to finish’ series!
The two main characters, both in law enforcement, were in a relationship back in college. 13 years later their jobs bring them back in contact…and what an explosive reunion it is!
There is left over feelings from a rough breakup, a serial killer to catch, and friends and family to deal with. As if this isn’t enough, one is still in the closet.
Prepare to be entertained, enthralled and following elusive clues to stop a madman.
FBI agent Luis does not like Boston– he’s new, and his colleagues and neighbors are racist and standoffish. Also, he has to work a murder case alongside the closeted cop/ college ex, Donovan, whose rejection destroyed him over a decade ago. Luis is a compelling character, broken and brilliant and always picking himself up after the worst happens. Donovan was harder to like, because he behaves pretty badly for a lot of the book, but Luis cares for him, so ultimately that’s enough for me. My one qualm with this novel is the supporting characters, who tend to be randomly awful to Luis past the point of plausibility. This is particularly true of his FBI partner Kevin, who likes him well enough to play pranks on him and defends his working style, expertise and even personal life to Donovan until Donovan is ready to care about Luis again, at which point Kevin becomes a standoffish tool for no reason other than it seems to be a necessary plot device for redeeming Donovan, who can then defend Luis to…the guy who used to defend him. Overall, however, I think this book is fantastic. There’s an amazing blend of genres woven through the narrative: the crime procedural, romance, and a strong supernatural vein as well (no spoilers, but it’s really well done). The novel ends with the resolution of the case but with very much more still to come for Luis and Donovan, and after finishing this one, it’s definitely time to reach for the next in the series.
I received an ARC of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Detective/ghost/love story with twists.
An interesting and curious mix of police procedure / ghost story / love story, where at almost any point in the book it’s all going to go horribly wrong, so the ending is a huge relief! It’s a good detective story, and an engaging and unexpected resolution to a badly ended love affair that is repairable, unlikely as it first seems. The ghost element is a twist, but psychics have helped law enforcement occasionally, so you can’t just discount stuff we don’t understand. This could be a very satisfying series.
I was a bit surprised that the paranormal element in this book happened so late in the story. It wasn’t bad that it was written so, but as I was reading, I had assumed that I was mistaken about thinking it was a paranormal book and was enjoying a good contemporary romance.
Luis was such a complicated character, that I ended up with very mixed feelings about him. He may not have had experience being a part of a family, or even a cohesive group of friends, but he was incredibly smart, and self-aware. His insistence that everyone had to earn his trust without him needing to reciprocate – ever – didn’t really mesh with that. We did see that he simply didn’t care to sugarcoat things when we saw injustices, but I would have expected him to be more forceful about the job that he loved, rather than simply allowing the status quo to sweep him out of sight.
Donovan was remarkably ignorant of how his lover thought and felt back in the day. How would he not know that leaving would cause Luis to become homeless? How could he not be aware of the anguish that Luis would feel by being abandoned?
Eventually both Luis and Donovan were able to work together, both professionally and personally, and I hope that we get to read many more adventures with both men.
I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.
I would rate this 3.5 stars.
Luis is a federal agent, trained as a profiler, sent to Boston where he is assigned to work a murder case with a state police detective named Donovan. Donovan was his roommate and lover in college thirteen years before. Part of why they broke up was Donovan’s unwillingness to come out of the closet. Luis already faces discrimination for being Brazilian, so being gay is one more reason for his colleagues to dislike him; so he may as well be in their faces about it. Only Donovan knows Luis’s history and how people are unfairly judging him. For them to get their second chance, Donovan has to be honest about who he is and Luis has to value himself and stop pushing people away.
Many of Luis’s issues are his childhood trauma that he hasn’t dealt with. As a psychological professional, it is sad how mentally unhealthy Luis seems to be. His stressful work environment is not helping, and neither does he help himself. He is also dealing with racism at work–nothing overt, more like micro-agressions. Donovan’s family, also all police officers, are also not very accepting of Luis being brown, or gay. It takes awhile for Donovan to acknowledge he’s done anything wrong, or for him to admit he hasn’t ever recovered from their breakup either. Although I liked seeing flawed characters, it’s also difficult to not dislike them all at times throughout the book.
The writing is uneven. For example, Donovan is seemingly impressed with Luis being an FBI profiler at the beginning, but then he says it’s a pseudoscience and is disrespectful of Luis during the case. Then, he has an about-face defending him to Kevin, even citing Luis’s qualifications. Donovan belives in ghosts and psychics, but not psychology? Why is a police detective acting as an intermediary between FBI agents? At the point that Kevin and Luis are having issues, Donovan and Kevin are acting more like professional partners even though they don’t work for the same branch of law enforcement. Why does the FBI captain even listen to Donovan at all? The paranormal aspects of the case are only signaled by the cover. The entrance of paranormal activity is thrown abruptly into the middle of the story. I’m not sure it needed this aspect at all. I don’t think it added anything to what was already an interesting murder case. I think it took time away from character development and interpersonal communication that would have strengthened this book.
There are many things I liked about this book, and there are several parts I feel could have been better executed. By the time they have their HEA, everyone feels bad they were mean to poor Luis. At least in two sentences Luis acknowledges he needs to handle things better moving forward…but I wanted to see that as an actual realization. I wanted to see the work that would go into that, not to assume everything will magically be better after he gets out of the hospital and goes back to work, with his new boyfriend in tow.