Well that was one hell of a pleasant surprise...

The Edge of Control - Mattie Lou O'Kelly

I do enjoy a good romance with a bit of action and some suspense thrown in, but of course it's got to be done right and happy day this one was!

 

I don't think I can quite bring myself to call this one a mystery because the who-done-it part was pretty clear almost from the start and normally that would bother me but there was a lot going on in this one so for me it just meant that I could focus on the rest of the story without getting distracted with putting all the clues together to see if I can figure out who the bad guy is before it gets revealed.

 

Add to that the fact that there were a lot of secondary characters in this story and well to be honest for me this should have been ok at best but nope, that was not the case I really found myself enjoying this story, so let's take a closer look and see if I can figure out why...ok, I'll be honest here, I don't really care. I liked it a lot. I just want to share my thoughts here, if a little enlightenment comes along...well, bonus.

 

First we have David Carlson. He's the youngest Chief of Medicine at Southside General Hospital ever and he's worked really hard for this position. He's put in the long hours and kept  his eye on the prize and he is genuinely a good guy and nice and he's so crushing/cruising on that hot new ER nurse, Ian James. I loved how much he was perving on Ian and no it wasn't in a bad way it was totally cute and adorable how distracted he got by Ian. He definitely spent way too much time daydreaming about Ian

 

I think the main reason that this amused me so much is because even though it's been more than 30 years, I can honestly say I'm guilty, I can remember more than one crush where I was perpetually distracted with thoughts of the person that were admittedly inappropriate and they did sometimes occur during some rather inopportune moments...sue me, I'm human and they were just that thoughts. Like David I didn't act on them...just got a little lost in them once in a while. 

 

Next we have Ian. He's got some pretty dark secrets in his past and he's trying to just keep his life on course. But Ian's past is refusing to stay where it belongs and it's coming back and bringing with it a whole new set of problems. When all that Ian really wants to do is stay under the radar, do his job and go home. He's got responsibilities that mean to much for him to risk his job with someone who he's sure that he's not good enough for.  

 

Then we have our cast of secondary characters Caroline. David's best friend and head nurse in the ER department. I love her, she's a total spitfire and loyal to a fault. She's fiesty and speaks her mind especially to David and she can walk in high heels so I'm a little bit in awe of her.

 

Next we have Albert, David's secretary (sorry folks author's choice not mine) for the purposes of keeping things current let's think of him as David's Administrative Assistant. Albert is a fiesty, 70ish British gentleman who's been gay longer than David's been living and he's adorable. Ironically Albert has also managed to coin a term of endearment that I quite possibly enjoy less than the word 'baby' and it's various derivatives. That's right ladies and gentlemen my husband need have no fear that I will ever refer to him as my 'tasty little crumpet' holy hell and shades of Hannibal Lecter this one made my skin crawl...nope, never going to borrow it. Thankfully it wasn't used a lot in the book and other than that I did like Albert he was a bit of a colorful character.

 

David also had an Aunt Joanie who was your typical artistic, bra burning, radical aunt...what? Everyone's got one of these, right? Well, if you don't you certainly need to go out and get yourself one they're awesome. Plus there's the rest of David's family and I wouldn't mind a story of two to find out more about them. Especially Sawyer...mmm...Sawyer, yep. I want me one of those. He's David's youngest brother and an undercover cop, he's a hardass, he's got tattoos and yeah, he's got a bit of an issue regarding his 'perfect' big brother David but don't let that fool you. He's got David's back don't you doubt it. Ironically one of the more fascinating surprises in this book had a little something to do with Sawyer and yep, that's all that I'm saying on that one.

 

While we're on the topic of family let's not forget about Ian's. Granted it's definitely not as big as David's, but he has one and it's awesome. His big sister, Elishe is one hella' fiesty sister who swings a mean backpack if she needs to and she comes with 3 awesome kids who mean the world to both her and their Uncle Ian. Ian and Elishe are close they've been watching out for each other for most of their lives and while it hasn't always been an easy life. They've managed to create their own unique family and they know that family, takes care of family. 

 

I liked David and Ian together. It was totally lust at first sight where David was concerned and I think for Ian as well but we really only get the story from David's perspective. What I found interesting in this pairing was that while David was the older of them by about 12 years and he may have had the successful career, the money, etc. When it came what the world was like for those without his privileges he was more than a little naive. It was Ian the younger man in this pairing who truly understood the darker side of the world and what it really took to survive at times. It gave a definite balance to the relationship while David might know how to do survive in the boardroom it was Ian who knew what was needed to get them there.

 

'The Edge of Control' is a stand-alone story with no cliffhangers and a strong HFN/HEA ending all while offering the potential for the author to take us on further adventures with characters we've met and ones we maybe have yet to meet.

 

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A copy of The Edge of Control was graciously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.