Book safety, content warnings, and tropes & tags down below.

Ah, fuck.

I stayed away from any reviews of this book, because I kinda already knew. There was no way for it to live up to my expectations, but I’m genuinely bummed out about it. The first couple of chapters made me really excited, because it played on that anguish both MCs felt after basically 20 years of push and pull. Unfortunately, everything kind of fell away as soon as they slept together. I expected some epic groveling from Thomas for everything he had put Aiden through over the years, but we got absolutely nothing. Apparently Aiden had already forgiven him. Well, I fucking haven’t forgiven him. What Thomas did is emotionally cruel - I don’t want you, I’m letting you go, but not actually, I’ll drunk dial you whenever I’m sad and lonely and make you feel bad, I’ll pull you back in when it’s convenient, and you’ll never feel free - and he didn’t have to answer for *any* of it.

If there was ever a time to put the external drama away and focus on the relationship, this was it. It didn’t need the case-solving and murdering at all. Thomas’ secrets and revelations, along with some good relationship development with Aiden would’ve been more than enough, and could’ve given them the time and opportunity to develop said relationship.

In a vacuum, this isn’t a bad book. It reads exactly like the rest of the series. Alas, I have waited for this for 7 books. It’s the book that made me want to start the series in the first place. I’ve waited to see what happened between Aiden and Thomas for ages, not to mention how they would fix everything. Unfortunately, we didn’t really get to see how it all got fucked in the first place, and we didn’t get a believable solution to all of their issues. 20 years of problems is not solved by a good dicking, and you can’t goddamn tell me otherwise. I don’t like when emotional trauma is reduced to something cheap like that.

Repeat after me: cock is not therapy.

I can’t in good conscience rate this any higher than 3, but I don’t want to rate it any lower either. I guess I’m feeling a certain amount of loyalty to the series and characters. If I had started with this book and didn’t have the connection with the characters I have, and if I didn’t have so many expectations, I’m sure I would’ve rated it higher, but still no top scores. Ugh, this is so sad, honestly.

One of the most annoying bits is how the ‘potential scandal’ everyone kept commenting on in relation to Aiden and Thomas banging was glossed over when it finally happened. In literally every book there’s been a situation where someone says something about the media shit storm that would ensue if it came out that Thomas was dating his former adopted son, and it was barely mentioned in the epilogue. No. I wanted that shit ON page. Give me all of the drama. Being hounded by paparazzi? Tabloids going fucking crazy? Being bothered by journalists at the door? Seriously. I wanted all of that, and got exactly nothing.

I think I was more upset about this entire thing than I thought I was when I started the review, lol.

I’m just gonna rewrite this a little bit in my head, and pretend it’s all canon. I love Onley James and I feel bad about writing this review, but dang. It just fell short.

Blanket spoiler warning ⬇️

⚠️ Tropes & tags ⚠️
Second chance
Age gap
Former adopted son
Silver fox
Past trauma
Push and pull
Secrets

⚠️⚠️ Content warning ⚠️⚠️
Grooming (not between MCs)
Abusive ex
Mentions of parental neglect
Unsafe sex
Mentions of sexual assault (not detailed)
Graphic violence
Murder

⚠️⚠️⚠️ Book safety ⚠️⚠️⚠️
Cheating: No
OM drama: No
Third-act breakup: No
POV: 3rd person, dual POV
Strict roles or versatile: Versatile