...Bookfanatic

'Late in the Day' is the second book in the Mary Calmes series 'The Vault' and this story belongs to one man, known as...Conrad Harris...Darius Hawthorne...Terrence Moss...Gold Team Leader and more recently as 'The Vault'. He's answered to all of these names at one time or another in his life.

While this character isn't new to anyone who's a fan of this author this is the first time that we are given his story. Conrad's floated around the periphery of several books but for me...'Mine' is the story that really brought him to my attention and got me wondering 'who is this man? and please can we have more of him?' Ironically it's probably the oldest of the books that he's appeared in...so, Conrad's been around teasing us for a long time and now at last we are given his story.

I loved this character in 'Mine'. The interaction between Conrad and Trevan Bean as they went from colleagues to friends was intriguing and oft times tinged with sardonic humor. While I've enjoyed his random appearances in stories over the years...I was more than a little excited to find out that Ms Calmes was finally going to give us the story behind the enigma that was Conrad...Darius...Terrence...you get my drift...whatever identity he was using I wanted to know and now I do.

This story worked for me from start to finish. Ms Calmes has given us the answers to so many questions and I loved having those blanks filled in and more.  Although a lot of this story focused on Conrad's past with Efrem not all of it did and all those little gaps that are filled in were just a whole lot of happy moments for me and while I loved all the glimpses of Conrad's connections to characters we've met in previous stories it was equally as enjoyable getting to see some new characters and potential new stories. 

'Late in the Day' is a bit unique in that it's a story that is essentially set in the past, with the changes that have happened recently in Conrad's life it's become time for him to reclaim his past to create a life for himself that's real and permanent but in order to have the future that Conrad truly wants it's time for him to deal with his past...a past that he believed lost to him forever. A past that involved the one man that Conrad loved with all his heart...Efrem Lahm.

The focus in this book was more about filling in Conrad's background and giving us a more complete person to go forward with and while the romance took a bit of a back burner to this, I definitely wasn't disappointed with the glimpse we were given of Conrad and Efrem both in the past and the present and I absolutely loved the fact that these are two mature men...over 40 folks...45!!! Yeah, for life after 25!!!  

I have no problem with MC's under 25 or age gaps or both MCs being younger but sometimes it's just really nice to read a story were the MCs are mature. It's a really nice change of pace and I'm looking forward to more with these two. More of their life together, more smexy times and just more of whatever comes their way.

If you're new to this author than, at the bare minimum, I strongly suggest reading 'A Day Makes' the first book in this series and possibly 'Mine' but that's probably due in part to my personal bias of how much I love that book than anything else.

Once again Ms Calmes has created a series that's filled with interesting characters, unusual stories and a potential place for intriguing times and love and best of all another new happy place for readers to explore.

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An ARC of 'Late In the Day' was graciously provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.