Death of a Pirate King

This. This is the book that makes the entire series worth reading.I love a slow burn romance. Painful, agonizing, tentative, long slow burns. That's a big part of why this book worked so well for me (and the buildup in the previous three books leading up to it).I felt kind of meh about [b:Fatal Shadows 1274861 Fatal Shadows (The Adrien English Mysteries, #1) Josh Lanyon https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1363734106l/1274861.SY75.jpg 2815045], the first book in this series. There was basically no romance (yes, that's how slow burn this series' romance is), and Jake Riordan was the biggest asshole love interest I had encountered in recent memory. BUT that all changes in this book, and the change is not abrupt. There was lead up, everything was believable, and most importantly, though Adrien and Jake still aren't together (told you I love a painful slow burn) the relationship between them is so multifaceted and nuanced that it has me in a chokehold.Josh Lanyon has a way with writing relationships that's so achingly torturous for the readers in best way possible, and so god damn human. Seriously, none of the characters make the right decisions all the time, the same way no human ever does, and even when I feel frustrated, I understand why the characters act the way they do. No one is perfect, but they all try. I'm really struggling to put my feelings about this into coherent words, but believe me, the agonizingly (and deliberately) slow development of Jake Riordan as a character and love interest is fan-fucking-tastic.Also, this is the first book in the series so far where I was actually engaged in the mystery (BECAUSE THAT ENDING THOUGH. WOW.) and that in conjunction with Adrien and Jake's tentative and rocky relationship reaching a new milestone (which you find out at the very end of the book) just made me feel so giddy and filled with anticipation. This will not be everyone's cup of tea; not everyone wants such a hyper-realistic and oftentimes dramatic or slow burn relationship development. But for me, this is a new favourite book and I can't WAIT to reread it in the future.