Forbidden Fruit by Edward Kendrick
Forbidden Fruit by Edward Kendrick
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The blurb…
When PI Sam Young takes on the case of a philandering wife he has no clue it will lead to theft and murder. And when he stops for supper at his favorite diner, he doesn’t know he’ll end up meeting Jamie, a young man with aqua eyes who lives in terror of his ex-lover.
It will take all that is in him for Sam to discover who killed his client, while at the same time trying to protect Jamie. In the process, will he be able to convince emotionally battered Jamie it is possible to truly love, and be loved in return?
So what did I think?
This one was a bit of mixed bag for me. While I enjoyed the mystery of the investigation of the case and I really liked the characters, I wanted to better understand Sam and his motivations.
In this book there are a couple of things going on – solving the mystery and the romance. Sam/Sly is a PI and involved in a couple of cases over the course of this story. The main case involves murder and missing money. As Sam is trying to solve the riddle, he meets Jamie, the new waiter at his local restaurant.
Jamie has been badly treated by a ‘boyfriend’ (I say that lightly as the boyfriend is really an abusive and controlling bully not a lover) and has been on the run from him for six months. Unfortunately he is found but luckily he has Sam to protect him.
The connection between Sam and Jamie really works and the strength of the story lies in the wonderful way Sam treats Jamie. He is gentle and caring and doesn’t rush him. This is not a book about sex, there’s hardly even any kissing and what kissing there is, is not really even the passionate kind. It is more a story about love and trust.
I guess what I didn’t like was the lack of professional treatment for Jamie. For someone with his issues, not even able to be touched, he really should have gotten some counselling. Aside from this, which for some reason really stood out for me, I think his relationship with Sam was presented very well – Sam is unhurried, reassuring, loving and supportive. It was lovely how he was willing to accept a platonic relationship if that was the only way he could have Jamie in his life.
Buy Forbidden Fruit from Amazon.