‘Ice’ is the second volume in the ‘Salisbury Stories’ series, and while the restaurant, Laurels, and its co-owners Lewis and Devon are still around, the focus is on Jon, the renovations expert hired on to restore the fire-damaged woodwork, and Greg, an adventure-driven treasure hunter with his own agenda. The underlying tension of what Greg was going to do once he found what he was looking for and how his subtle deception would affect the beginning relationship between him and Jon provided its own kind of excitement. Add Greg’s half-shady past and possible issues with law enforcement, the uncertainty of who the bad guy was and how far he would go, and a few of Greg’s friends being found dead or missing, and you can imagine the level of suspense. As exciting as the first book but in a different way, Jon and Greg’s story certainly had me turning the pages as quickly as possible.

Greg intrigued me. He is clearly good at tracing vanished objects, be it a piece of art or vanished diamonds, and has been through more than one mission of “international extraction”. Yet he is a lot more naïve in many ways than a seasoned adventurer should be (in my mind, at least), and when I found out how young he still is, that made more sense. His family circumstances are not good, and the man he works for seems to be a father figure in his mind, but he is not the caring or nurturing type. Greg is attracted to Jon and it takes him a while to understand that he feels more than lust - not a situation he is familiar with. Greg is in way more trouble than he knows, and I loved watching him grow into a more mature version of himself.

Jon has had a more settled life than Greg, but his personal circumstances are deceptive. He landed on his feet despite parents who are less than reliable and anything but emotionally stable, and much of that is due to the settling influence of his father’s brother, Uncle Paul. They are in the restoration business together and Jon is mostly happy. His personal life is a different matter. While he wants someone to love, he has huge trust issues, so even though he wants to get to know Greg better, it is not easy for Jon to open up. He is not even sure he should, since Greg works for him. In a word: Jon is conflicted. Greg’s issues force Jon to come out of his shell, and it was a joy to watch him become self-confident enough to stand by Greg.

If you like suspenseful stories about adventurers who face life-changing decisions, if you want to see two men with trust and family issues learn how to rely on each other, and if you’re looking for a read full of tension, mystery, and beautiful moments of tender love, then you will probably like this novella as much as I do. I hope there will be more stories in this series!


NOTE: This book was provided by Love Lane Books for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews. ( )