Broken Protocol

A.R. Barley

Mar 2018 · Smoke & Bullets Book 2 · Carina Press

About this ebook

When a closeted cop reconnects with his sexy foster brother, they pursue a hateful criminal—and their forbidden attraction—in this suspenseful romance.

As a police officer, Dante Green’s career has kept him far away from the one temptation he won’t let himself pursue: his younger foster brother. But when he bumps into the now-out-and-proud firefighter at Smoke & Bullets, he finds himself wrestling with fantasies and desires he thought were long behind him.

Luke Parsons fell in lust with Dante when he was thirteen years old, but he’s not a kid anymore. He’s a New York City firefighter, and he’s done chasing after things he can’t have. But after witnessing a hate crime, it quickly becomes clear that Dante isn’t as straight as Luke always thought.

With Luke to introduce him to the local gay scene, Dante dives into an unsanctioned investigation as the attraction between them grows. Unfortunately, Luke is totally off-limits. Dating him would be a betrayal of their foster father’s trust. But Luke isn’t about to let anything get in the way of their happily-ever-after—even Dante’s fear of commitment.

Ratings and reviews

I'm so glad there was a book for Luke! He stuck in my head after reading about him as Troy and Alex's friend in the first book and felt he had a story, and we got it! Luke and Dante's story may be a bit taboo for some since they grew up together, and everyone knows them as brothers even though they're not related, but I honestly loved it! I kinda feel like Luke and Dante balanced each other out, and they just made sense. How can you keep feelings that strong to yourself? Well, for years, Dante tried to do just that by taking any and all jobs to keep him busy from visiting his foster brother and foster father. And for Luke, not understanding why Dante was always missing but having feelings of his own for him, was able to keep his feeling locked up until Dante stops doing undercover and they find themselves face to face and working together to stop a robber targeting gay men the lid on their feelings pops off. It was inevitable, and I'm so happy they finally got their happy ending

Fosters brothers in love, but one is fighting it. Broken Protocol is the second book in the Smoke & Bullets series by A. R. Barley but you don't need to have read the first book to enjoy this one. Characters from book one, On Duty, make brief appearances but you won't be lost if you haven't read it first. NYC Detective Dante Green and NYC Firefighter Luke Parsons were foster brothers 10 years ago. Luke had a crush on Dante when he was young but didn't know that Dante shared his feelings; he's always thought that Dante is straight. Dante has kept himself far away from Luke over the past 10 years to avoid temptation; he's sure that his foster father wouldn't be happy if he learned that he's been lusting after Luke. I really liked this story a lot. It's not told in a taboo relationship way (I usually hate those kinds of stories). There is no blood relationship between Dante and Luke and they were teens when Dante came to live with Luke's family. Dante hates that he can't seem to control his feelings when he runs into Luke at the Smoke & Bullets bar. When he and Luke start working together, off the books, to try and find out who is targeting gay men, he finally has to admit defeat when he realizes that Luke also has feelings for him. This was a very compelling story and I couldn't put it down. My feelings were fully engaged while reading this and the mystery surrounding the gay basher and the secret that Luke has been keeping from Dante had me on the edge of my seat in places. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series, Shift's End, which the publish says will be out later in 2018. A review copy was provided by the publisher via NetGalley but this did not influence my opinion or rating of the book. ***Reviewed for Xtreme-Delusions dot com***