LGBT Monday: Sloe Ride

Author: Rhys Ford
Series: Sinners, #4
Released: September 4th 2015
Publisher: Dreamspinner
Length: 246 pages
Source: Publisher for review
Buy: Dreamspinner Press
         Amazon

It isn’t easy being a Morgan. Especially when dead bodies start piling up and there’s not a damned thing you can do about it.

Quinn Morgan never quite fit into the family mold. He dreamed of a life with books instead of badges and knowledge instead of law—and a life with Rafe Andrade, his older brothers’ bad boy friend and the man who broke his very young heart.

Rafe Andrade returned home to lick his wounds following his ejection from the band he helped form. A recovering drug addict, Rafe spends his time wallowing in guilt, until he finds himself faced with his original addiction, Quinn Morgan—the reason he fled the city in the first place.

When Rafe hears the Sinners are looking for a bassist, it’s a chance to redeem himself, but as a crazed murderer draws closer to Quinn, Rafe’s willing to sacrifice everything—including himself—to keep his quixotic Morgan safe and sound.

Sloe Ride is the fourth book in Rhys Ford’s Sinners series, in which cops and rock stars collide to create compelling mysteries and sizzling romances. It has been more than a year between books so some will have to refresh their memory a little bit, but the Morgan brothers (and assorted relatives) make it very easy to sink back into their world.

In the beginning of Sloe Ride, we see Rafe’s decline into addiction and self-destruction, and it’s not a pretty sight. It’s easy to dismiss him as just another spoiled rock star, which is exactly what he is. It’s difficult to sympathize with someone when seeing him at his worst, without really knowing how he got there or what caused him to become that way. Ford pushed the limits with Rafe, coming almost to the point of no redemption, but then she pulled him back beautifully by giving him direction and purpose and making him find his way.

Quinn, the odd one out among the Morgan brothers, has always been likeable, if a bit antisocial and odd. It was made quite obvious, though not addressed directly, that Quinn falls somewhere on the autism spectrum. He is brilliant, but he doesn’t pick up social cues easily and he struggles with things other people find easy, like crowds, or even flirting.

The mystery was done well, as usual. One can always trust Rhys to make it exciting and compelling. She knows how to write a real page turner, and if the romance itself isn’t enough to keep us interested (which it is), there are plenty of murders to keep us glued to our e-readers. Oddly, Rhys’s style bothered me somewhat in this book. It was a bit more choppy and disjointed and I had a hard time following the events, but even that wasn’t enough to seriously diminish my reading enjoyment.

Sloe Ride may be the weakest of the four books, but that’s not saying much when it comes to Rhys Ford. This is an author who knows how to create a mystery, how to lure us in with the promise of excitement and breathtaking romance. Weak or not, Rhys always delivers more than most authors have to offer, and picking up one of her books is a pretty safe bet.

A copy of this book was kindly provided by the publisher for review purposes. No considerations, monetary or otherwise, have influenced the opinions expressed in this review.