No dialogue differentiation meant everyone sounded exactly the same (they could have all been identical people playing different roles which meant I never felt any of the characters were more than puppets) and the beginning is extremely infodumpy: the dictionary definition of rigor mortis shows some solid research (reading further it’s obviously the author’s wheelhouse - sometimes this isn’t a good thing if you can’t focus on the actual story!), but this sort of info wasn’t integrated well unfortunately.

Love the premise, turned away by the execution and every character saying ‘fuckin’’ - among other things - in exactly the same way. ( )

DNF: I made it to 17% only by skimming. This one cries out for a better editor. The prose is repetitive and immature and I hope it was an early novel despite the pub date. I've liked other work by this author. But whew. Not this one. ( )

Well, the start was a little bumpy (as I’m not a big fan of coercion, whatever form it might take), but overall, I had so much fun with this one. A sweet and unconventional romance with well fleshed out, diverse characters, kinky sex, and a murder mystery in a funeral home — what's not to like?

Tom started out as a bit of a pushover (else he wouldn’t have ended up in such a sticky situation), but as his character developed, I quickly warmed up to him. He was definitely an unusual choice for a MC, both when it came to his shy disposition and his outward appearance. I hate ‘perfect’ people in my books, so this was a big plus.

Cypress was this hot older guy that Tom’d been awkwardly crushing on for some time (HFG — Hot Flower Guy, Tom, really? Are you twelve? ( )

A good M/M romance. Not for the faint hearted. ( )