"Six Degrees of Lust"

Review - "Six Degrees of Lust" by Taylor V. Donovan

Suspenseful, hot and romantic

Highly Recommended

Sam Shaughnessy is a complex man.  He is the team leader of an elite group of FBI agents tracking a serial killer preying an gay men.  He is a family man, committed to his sister and his nephew, who he is on his way to fetch after his abusive brother in law takes it one step too far.  He is the still grieving father and ex husband.  And he is the flirt who has one night stands and never lets his heart come into play.

In the airport on his way to get his sister and nephew, he meets Mac O'Bannon.  Mac is a simple man with a complex life.  Gay but in the closet to protect his conservative family.  Gay but working for a gay boss looking to open a gay club.  Gay but the manager of a sports bar.  Former firefighter.  Looking for fun until his deal with his family us up.

The two hook up and their one night stand...falters and sputters.  Sam misunderstands a conversation he overhears. 

But Mac takes a chance, Sam takes a chance and the two share another encounter.  Then another.  Then the two decide to put some rules in place around their relationship that isn't a relationship.  Friends with benefits.  Monogamous friends with benefits.

And all the while, gay men are dying at the hands of this deranged killer.

It seems Mac and Sam have more in common than they know.  Friends interlink with friends, and the large cast of characters are all one step away from knowing each other.

All they way up the line to the killer.

When Sam and Mac take a vacation together, will it lead to a new understanding of their non-relationship?  Will Sam and his group find the killer in time to stop another murder?  Will the families of both men blow up on themselves?

Taylor Donovan is the devil.  No, she really is.

She has written a hot, sexy, romantic yet totally captivating character study of two men who slowly, surely are on the downhill slide into love.  And are fighting it tooth and nail.

And has created a stunningly involving suspense mystery involving a wide array of characters who are all within six degrees of separation.  There are easily fifteen characters to map and track and yet I had no problem keeping the relationships in my head.

And those character.  Very fully realized, interesting, funny, tragic, flawed.  And all operating in each others spheres and so totally, totally clueless.

I almost threw my Kindle across the room when Ms. Donovan left me with a HUGE cliffhanger and panting and wanting the next book nownownow.

She is the devil, I tell you.

And she has me trapped!

Tom