Fair Game: A Male/Male Romantic Suspense (All's Fair Book 1)

This was a super engaging read and I do recommend it.I have to take the time to say that the book mentioned that bias is a two way street, and this was said in regard to racial bias. That is not a two way street. I don’t blame Zarha for how she feels and what she was saying. No one believed her and she was being failed by the university for not believing her concerns. If this book was the real world, she probably had a lifetime of that. She doesn’t have the same power as those people in power, and can anyone blame her her resentment? I’m a social worker and I see similar situations happen with women who experience domestic violence and go on to have harsh views of men. Is it fair for the men who aren’t abusive? No it’s not, and is it right, no it isn’t. But the negativity comes not from believing men are beneath them, it comes from being hurt by one-or more- of them. For bias to be a two way street the parties have to have the same amount of power and that’s not the world we live in. That’s how I viewed Zarha. Of course who the hell am I to say I’m just as dumb as anyone else.Okay having said that the story was superb and I really enjoyed the chemistry and dynamic between the two MCs. Both were their own man and equally masculine which is a must for me when reading mm romance. Of course there’s no issue with a dude being feminine that’s cool but not what I’m looking for in the books I read.This is a happy ending for the couple.Really at one point hearing the two MCs discuss the relationship I did tear up because it was just a very heavy, human conversation it really hits home. And I rarely tear up when I’m reading.Anyway! I recommend the book! Be prepared for a great who dun it!Thanks to the author 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻💛💛🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

This was the second time I've read this book. Shamefully, I remembered nothing but the beatnik dad - he refers to way too many men as "cat" not to remember him - and that it had a generally happy ending. Clearly I read way too many books last year if I forgot a Josh Lanyon novel. I read 537 books in 2013 and I'm pretty sure that's a low estimation. I know, it's a sickness.Here’s another sickness: Why do I feel a sense of pride that Elliot was shot, in the rain, at Pioneer Courthouse Square, in Portland, Oregon? I should be a tour guide – that’s right, folks, Portland is so great FBI agents get shot here too! And in such a pretty area! Isn’t that wonderful! Followed by: Hometown pride, GO….oh that’s right, we don’t have a sports team. But we do have some very tall trees.This section of the review is entitled: Elliot Mills, you giant sack of poo.Elliot, buddy, I mean it sincerely when I say I love you but if you say there’s nothing but sex (and Nissans) between you & Tucker one more time, I’m planning on borrowing the nearest penis & making violent love to him myself. You ask yourself, "how the hell could you be homesick for a place that had never been home?" Um, cause you love him? Cause he is your home? Maybe? DUR. You seem to come to your senses by the end of the novel, but I’ve got my eye on you, buddy. (Seriously, though, I lurve you.) And ease up on all the Civil War music; that cannot possibly be healthy for anyone.This section is entitled: Tucker Lance, I want to climb your horny gingerness like a howler monkey.You make my down-belows sparkle. That’s pretty much it.To both boys: Communication is not just for cry baby pee-pants anymore, ok?That’s right, adults do it too. Listen to teacher now….Elliot, you should learn by watching Tucker. He may be a tough FBI agent who sucks all the air of any room he enters (with his utter ginger hotness), but he’s clearly willing to open up and share his feelings with you. Even if it takes another near death incident and about 75% of the book for him to do it. However, this is something you both need to work on. Like Dr. Phil says, do you want to be right or do you want to be happy? Something to think about, hmm? Dismissed.That said, Josh Lanyon is fantastic at portraying a serious lack of communication. It’s something I find intensely annoying when done by some (many) authors, because it generally goes something like: "Hey, dude, I really need to expl—oh, look. The vampires are attacking again." They’re just simple minded distractions created by an author to keep heroes apart. They have no actual meaning beyond extending an already weak novel. Lanyon creates two strong-willed men who are afraid to openly communicate, afraid of the answers they might hear. Like Adrien says in "Death of a Pirate King." "I just didn’t ask the questions I didn’t want to know the answers to."Another thing Lanyon does well? Sexy sex sex. Thank you, Mr. Lanyon, for not adding the ever popular “I need to stroke my ding dong in the shower cause I’m thinking about my one true love & the author thinks it’s way too early for us to get it on.” Instead we get ha-ta-ta-tot-hot dreams & memories of sex with Tucker: "He kept remembering the weird, unlikely pleasure of being rolled onto his face and being [made violent love to] to within an inch of his sanity by someone bigger and stronger and possibly even hornier than himself." I WANT TO GO TO THERE.My favorite part of the book is the juxtaposition of the investigation of Elliot and Tucker’s feelings for each other and the investigation into the disappearance of two young college students. Elliot, Tucker and the reader spend the novel wondering what happened to these young men. Did they just take off and abandon their loved ones? Or was it something more sinister? Similarly Elliot and Tucker scrutinize their own feeling for each other – both feel abandoned by the other. Both feel that the other disappeared from their lives. Elliot, especially, uses the investigation as a way to explore the loss of his previous life and whether the end of that life means the end of his relationship with Tucker.I still have several questions about the mystery though. Which I can't list here without ticking people off about spoilers.I’m giving this book a very solid 4.25 stars, rounded down to 4. This is an excellent novel and I highly recommend it…but for me it didn’t hold that gut-punch of recognition I felt for the Adrien English series. Now that I’ve read that, I’m afraid every Josh Lanyon book will have to compete with it for first place in my heart.

Landry's Review at Mrs Condit & Friends review blog: “Fair Game” tells the tale of Elliot Mills, a man in transition. He used to be a top FBI agent in the Pacific Northwest until an on-the-job injury forced him to start over as a college history professor in his Washington state hometown. Everything is new for him but not much is necessarily better. He likes teaching and loves being near his dad-his only remaining relative- but being an agent for the Bureau was his dream career and he was good at it. When a gunshot wound forced him out of field work, he knew he was not suited for a desk job. So he walked away from that life and everyone who was a part of it—-and that included fellow agent and new lover Tucker Lance.Elliot was just learning to accept his new, quieter life when he reluctantly agreed to his father’s request to help old family friends search for their missing son, a student at the college where he taught. Elliot is drawn deeper into the case when he realizes that they are more victims involved. Soon the FBI is called in and Elliot is forced to swallow a lot of personal issues and deal with his old flame, Special Agent Lance. I know this book is about the mystery Elliot and Tucker are brought together to solve. But, personally, I found it more interesting to uncover and understand the whole story behind the prior romance that the two main characters shared before Elliot’s injury. Telling this personal story did not happen fast. In fact, because so little was explained in the beginning of the book, I originally thought that this was a later installment in a series. I checked and it wasn’t. This was simply the author’s choice to slowly let us, the readers, in on the exact nature of their relationship, how it developed and eventually fell apart. It caught and held my interest because I wanted to know! But, honestly, I would have liked to know more sooner. Knowing the back story helped me to understand and like Tucker so much more. It also made it easier to relate to Elliot even if I did not always agree with the choices he made. He certainly has what it takes to be a top-notch cop. He was always a step ahead of everyone else, except of course the perpetrator, at least until the very end. Elliot figured out “whodunit” but in my eyes, it was the tiniest piece of evidence possible that lead him to identify the guilty party. Still, the crime wave was stopped and Elliot and Tucker had time to talk and come to a new understanding. I enjoyed author Josh Lanyon’s descriptive writing skills. His words created beautiful visions of the Washington State area. I could picture the scenery but I did have to check a state map to understand the distance between the different locations he mentioned. There were many characters introduced but I was disappointed that we didn’t learn much about the victims, especially the first young man Elliot was asked to help find. I didn’t feel any real personal sympathies for him, no sense of loss because he was really just a name, not a person. There were several possible suspects discussed and when the culprit was revealed, it was not the person I first suspected so, as a mystery, the story worked fine for me. This mystery seemed to be the main focus of the book but it was the romance between Elliot and Tucker that I enjoyed the most. Having the two men come together and work out their differences was the outcome I most anticipated and in the end, I was rewarded.

I forgot how much I love Josh Lanyon's writing and characters. I always immediately feel at home with his writing and no matter what book of his I pick up, I fall immediately into the story and always take to his characters. I thought the kidnapping case was really well done in this one. Sometimes I feel that the cases in these kinds of books (by other authors) are just there as a weak excuse for the romance/sex parts, but in this instance I was really quite drawn in by the plot and it kept me guessing.The romance between Eliott and Tucker was nicely done too. I quite like second chance type plots, as then the relationship can develop much more quickly due to them knowing each other prior to the start of the story...which also lends itself quite well to shorter books to enable the relationship to develop at a fast pace, whilst still being realistic.My only niggle is that I would have liked to know more about Tucker and his background.

This is my first Josh Lanyon read, it just popped up in the sidebar when I was browsing the Kindle store so I decided to take a chance after reading and enjoying the preview.The story was well plotted and well paced and the characters were engaging. The romance between the two main protagonists was very believable to me and the sexual tension was built up beautifully. Although the romance is an important part of the storyline (which I was hoping for anyway) it's definitely not the only focus of the story and I really liked that about it. The mystery was more than just a vehicle for romance.Good writing and a good read. I'll definitely be checking out more of this author's work.

This was my 1st Josh Lanyon - and I'm sold on the style of his writing already. I'm not sure if I have come in mid way through a series or not - but if I did, this was so well written that I didn't feel lost or that I had missed out gaps.The central character - Elliot, former FBI agent, forced to retire because he was shot in the line of duty, comes across well, as he struggles to juggle a new career as a professor, a touchy relationship with his retired-professor and national-treasure status father, and running up against his former colleague and lover. There's little fuss or drama over his being gay - and the negative reactions he receives to it are well handed and don't threaten to overwhelm the plot.Haven't read a murder/mystery thriller for a long time but I can see me getting in to this series.

As a thriller this lacks thrills. I loved the story, there is a good sense of place and the author is very capable at romance writing. As an indication of my enthusiasm, I will probably, eventually buy volume two.

Elliot, newly in academic employment after retiring hurt from the FBI, is called on to look into the disappearance of a young male student. Needless to say, he finds himself in professional harness with his former work (and play) partner, Tucker. The professional and personal sparks fly. This book works really well both as a thriller and as a credible, passionate love-story.