review 1: I flew through Wicked Cool in a couple of readings, which is unusual for me in a story that doesn’t have paranormal elements. While I’d classify it more as a contemporary than a crime, thriller or mystery, the love interest Brian is still a puzzle. He has something going on with his past where he won’t tell Stu anything about himself, and where he’ll make up a lie if he was cornered. What’s this thing he’s running from? All we can tell is that it was really bad.The need to escape the mysterious, heavy thing was the catalyst for the sex in the story, which was always edgy, down-‘n-dirty, and on the verge of being public. Brian was desperate for human contact, to connect, and also to forget, to lose himself in the act if only for a few minutes.Kink is something... more in erotic romance that usually turns me right off, because it can so often seem implausible, tacked-on, or just plain dumb. In Wicked Cool I was riveted. This is kink how it should be done: raw and needy, and integral to the character arcs and the way the two characters converge.There was also a shooting range scene that I loved, because the author has firearms training and so the scene is clearly well-researched, but it doesn’t read at all like, “This is my hobby so now I’m going to bore you with a bunch of detailed exposition you don’t care about.” Instead, you feel like you’re right there at the shooting range, chatting with some colorful characters about how you might go about shooting someone in self-defense.While I never saw the big reveal coming, I felt like every thread had led to it, and it was the perfect culmination of everything that had led up to it. review 2: Stu Van der Meer may be working junk removal, but there's more to him than his heavy-lifting abilities. Brian Hawthorne is from New England, somewhere, but he won't reveal more than this. The two men hit it off on the spot although Stu has been burned before in relationships with professionals and Brian seems to hide something serious. But as they get closer, things take on a faster pace until Brian's past catches up with them and their relationship literally becomes a matter of life and death all of a sudden.This was one of the stories which left me wishing it was longer. Although Brian and Stu felt attracted to each other immediately, they took their time getting to know each other, which I really liked. Also, when they finally got to it, their sex was hot enough to scorche a fender. Brian's secret was well-elaborated and just outlandish enough to make Stu's cluelessness fathomable, and the grand finale...wow. Just that, grand. Still, I'd have liked to see them deal with the fallout afterwards instead of having it wrapped up in a few sentences. Also, I'd have liked to meet Brian's family. A nice, fast read to spice up a lazy Sunday. I enjoyed it a great deal. Recommended. less
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