Fire and Glass Carlisle Troopers #2
Gay Romance, Contemporary Romance, LBGTQ Romance
Dreamspinner Press
Nov 1, 2022
Kindle
258
Amazon
State Trooper Casey Bombaro works too hard to have time for a love life, never mind a family. But when a missing persons case leads him to three scared kids and eventually their uncle—an old friend from Casey’s college days—all that changes.
Bertie Riley hasn’t seen his troubled sister, Jen, or his niece and nephews in years. Now suddenly Jen is gone and Bertie is all the kids have. Worried sick about Jen and overwhelmed by his new responsibilities, Bertie doesn’t know how he’s going to cope. He doesn’t expect Casey to step in and lend a hand, but his attraction to his old friend doesn’t surprise him. Years may have passed, but those feelings have never gone away.
For the first time in his life, Casey wants something to come home to. Bertie and the kids fit into his life like they are meant to be there. He struggles to balance a budding romance and reassuring the kids with investigating a rash of robberies and tracking down Jen. But when evidence suggests Jen might not only be missing but complicit in a number of crimes, will Bertie and the kids forgive Casey for doing his job?
Reviewed by Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
Casey Bombaro is a State Trooper who has been asked to go to a woman’s house and return her purse but what he finds at the house are three young children alone. He is able to get the kids to trust him and discovers that there is an Uncle Bertie who hopefully will come and take charge and keep them out of the system.
It is indeed a small world because Uncle Bertie turns out to be a friend from college and the first guy Casey ever loved. Bertie doesn’t even have to think about assuming responsibility for his nephews and niece his only family and he will do his best to take care of them. When Casey saw Bertie with the children, he came to realize what was missing in his life, family.
Casey is willing to help Bertie in his new role as a parent while doing his job of finding Bertie’s sister Jenn and the thieves that have been robbing homes. As the search for Jenn continues Casey begins to question whether Jenn is involved with the robberies and whether she is alive or dead. Bertie worries that she may be involved with drugs otherwise it is inconceivable to him that she would just walk out on her kids. Sometimes love is not as strong as addiction.
Bertie lost track of his sister and the kids after he and Jenn had an argument and she decided to cut him out of their lives. Being with Bertie and the children has softened Casey who has a reputation of being arrogant and someone no one wants to work with but now a new Casey is emerging. The little ones are adapting better than ten-year-old Phillip who is very aware of his mother’s failings and fears that his Uncle Bertie may not want to keep them for the long haul.
Danger, surprises and three of the most adorable children made this book impossible to put down. If I was allowed, I would give this book ten stars but alas I can’t, bummer. The kids were a huge part of the story and if I didn’t know better, I would believe Mr. Grey had a bunch of children of his own because he certainly described them and the role of a parent as if he had first-hand knowledge.
One of my favorite Andrew Grey books and I have read almost all of them but some of the children’s antics and remarks in this one made me literally laugh out loud.