Tease

I'll confess that I was more than a little bit nervous when Ella Frank announced this new trilogy as a continuation of the first three books. I felt that despite some open ended things that that series had ended pretty perfectly. The reader could very well imagine Tate & Logan living their best life and their own brand of HEA. Well color me happily surprised! I loved it.

Ella Frank takes an established couple a revisits them 4 years down the road, and here is the stroke of genius, there is no big external drama come to rock their love, if anything Tate & Logan are going stronger than ever, their professional careers are on the uptick, and having lived together for four years they now know each other even more intimately and deeper than they did when we last saw them.

The big “events” in this book are mostly internal, some catapulted by external forces. Logan has achieved a measure of success and is growing comfortable in his head with the idea not only of forever with Tate, that's a given, but with making it something visible and tangible to the world. Meanwhile Tate has the foundation of his well ordered life shaken by a visit from his past and as we know “The past is never dead. It's not even past.” Tate is forced to reopen wounds he thought healed, but this is a good thing. That band-aid was only going to last so long.

I liked that things don't get dragged out, everything transpires in about a month, and as I said most of the “struggles” are internal, which doesn't make them less important, but rather greater or to my mind more important. But fret not! Our men continue to be gorgeous to each other and to others, they continue to be the staunchest members of each other's mutual admiration society, and 24/7 lust they feel for each other is unabated. The sheets are still on fire in the Mitchell-Morrison household even when the smexx times don't happen anywhere near sheets.

The story succeeds (and I mean the series as a whole) because it is underpinned by a real love between these two. Also out of the blue your swooned by moments like this:
“Logan melted into the touch, and when Tate raised his head, he whispered, “Thank you.” Logan narrowed his eyes, and Tate said, “You're alway here when I need you most.” Logan let his hand fall away so he could take hold of Tate's, and once their fingers were entwined, he brought them to his lips, kissed them, and said, “Where else would I be? You're where my hear is. So that's where I stay.”
Logan may have started off as some sort of anti-hero but for my money he's the most interesting character, the one with real growth. Don't get me wrong, I love Tate too but Logan is just special.

For those who read the first tryptic Robbie, the barista from the Daily Grind, is back and EF has cleverly sprinkled along crumbs and piqued our interest in a future story for him. I'm already looking forward to it. Also in supporting roles are Cole & Rachel who now have Lila and Thomas, their adorable children, and Will, Tate's father, who has turned out to be an unexpected White Knight.

This ends not in a cliffhanger per se but in a promise for more and since the series is “complete” you can just dive into the next book. I did. Happily.

A Note on the Audio Book: I did the audio for this whole series and it must be said that Shannon Gunn is a bit of an acquired taste. He does the voice for Logan, general narration, Tate in his head, and oddly children really well. At times I loved it. But when it comes to Tate speaking? He sounds like a bit of a dumb jock. Women? Cartoon characters, except for maybe Rachel. And then there are the sex scenes. I would pay good money to see him in the studio recording these. He puts himself through quite a workout, and our ears too. I imagine the idea is that this level of intensity is what one would be feeling at such moments, and I'm sure it's true. The problem is that in audio it somehow translates not into sexy or smoldering but rather exertion sometimes bordering on the unintentionally comical. Still I persist. I'm a completist and I like the non-smexx times in Mr. Gunn's voice. shrug Enter or rather listen having been warned.