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A review by divapitbull
Home the Hard Way by Z.A. Maxfield
4.0
I really enjoyed Home The Hard Way. It was a solid 4 ½ stars and I would have rounded up except that it needed an epilogue. A solid HEA is implied so perhaps is didn’t so much NEED an epilogue as I really wanted an epilogue.
Dare (does anyone really name their child Dare? Is it a demographic thing? I have never met a Dare in my life) Buckley befriends the 5 year old Finn Fowler on the playground when Finn is 5. Dare is 10 but he doesn’t like the older kids picking on Finn just cause his mom his the town floozy so he takes him under his wing and Dare gets to play big brother to Finn’s hero worship. Although even back then Finn’s Aunt Lyddie kept a good eye out to make sure there was no funny business cause yeah it was odd with the age difference and all. Then Dare’s father blows his brains out and his family moves away and the teenaged Dare blows off Finn’s efforts to stay in touch.
Fast forward not as many years as you would think and Detective Dare is back in his small Oregon hometown after having fucked up royally in big city Seattle. Seems Dare tends to drink too much and think with his dick – which unfortunately leads him straight inside the perpetrator of the case he was investigating. Back in small town Palladian Dare figures he’ll try to get his shit together, maybe look into his dad’s suicide which never sat right with him and reconnect with the friend he left behind – despite said friend being the town pariah and openly gay.
Finn Fowler – or Foulest as the lovely denizens of Palladian refer to him – left the small town as well until the woman who raised him – his Aunt Lyddie – became stricken with cancer. Finn returns after college to care for his aunt, run her beauty salon and work on his handcrafted leather goods: belts, book covers, whips, cock rings….the usual.
Dare and Finn are both traumatized. Dare never got over seeing his father’s brains on the chair and Finn never dealt with the numerous traumas in his life. Dare took to the bottle and Finn to a detachment from others and attaining a sense of order and control in his life through the expression of his sexuality. Both Dare and Finn seem to have done quite a bit of living to get to where they are; which is why it shocked me to learn that they were 28 and 23 respectively. Dare felt to be in his early 40’s which would have put Finn in his mid-thirties – which would have made a lot more sense. Their re-connection, their relationship is very understated but also very real and very powerful.
The sex scenes were few but seemingly well done. The whole BDSM thing isn’t my thing – so by well done I mean I wasn’t rolling my eyes….much (although again Finn came off as way older and more self-possessed than a 23 year old kid). Dare and I kind of have the same thoughts about BDSM: “None of this was anything like Dare thought it would be. He’d figured he’d get his ass spanked, or Finn would put on his scary mask. He’d figured they would play good cop and bad cop. And they’d laugh and break character and fuck. But Finn wasn’t playing; he was serious as the grave….”. And it’s more than a sexual preference for Finn, it’s his way of coping.
Home The Hard Way is equal parts romance and crime drama: why exactly did Dare’s father kill himself. The mystery kept my interest but started to take on a very distinct Ghost Story feel but without the paranormal elements. Finn’s sexuality made sense within the context of the story as did the side story with Bill fucking Frazier. Despite Bill being an unlikable character, I saw the vulnerability and the goodness in him that Finn saw and I wanted him to have his HEA too. In the epilogue in my head Dare and Finn are enjoying domestic bliss. Since Bill is such a hardcore closet case Finn hooks him up with a hot little butchy dominatrix that he meets while selling his leather fetish goods and the 4 of them go out for beers and play darts at the cop bar on weekends.
Dare (does anyone really name their child Dare? Is it a demographic thing? I have never met a Dare in my life) Buckley befriends the 5 year old Finn Fowler on the playground when Finn is 5. Dare is 10 but he doesn’t like the older kids picking on Finn just cause his mom his the town floozy so he takes him under his wing and Dare gets to play big brother to Finn’s hero worship. Although even back then Finn’s Aunt Lyddie kept a good eye out to make sure there was no funny business cause yeah it was odd with the age difference and all. Then Dare’s father blows his brains out and his family moves away and the teenaged Dare blows off Finn’s efforts to stay in touch.
Fast forward not as many years as you would think and Detective Dare is back in his small Oregon hometown after having fucked up royally in big city Seattle. Seems Dare tends to drink too much and think with his dick – which unfortunately leads him straight inside the perpetrator of the case he was investigating. Back in small town Palladian Dare figures he’ll try to get his shit together, maybe look into his dad’s suicide which never sat right with him and reconnect with the friend he left behind – despite said friend being the town pariah and openly gay.
Finn Fowler – or Foulest as the lovely denizens of Palladian refer to him – left the small town as well until the woman who raised him – his Aunt Lyddie – became stricken with cancer. Finn returns after college to care for his aunt, run her beauty salon and work on his handcrafted leather goods: belts, book covers, whips, cock rings….the usual.
Dare and Finn are both traumatized. Dare never got over seeing his father’s brains on the chair and Finn never dealt with the numerous traumas in his life. Dare took to the bottle and Finn to a detachment from others and attaining a sense of order and control in his life through the expression of his sexuality. Both Dare and Finn seem to have done quite a bit of living to get to where they are; which is why it shocked me to learn that they were 28 and 23 respectively. Dare felt to be in his early 40’s which would have put Finn in his mid-thirties – which would have made a lot more sense. Their re-connection, their relationship is very understated but also very real and very powerful.
The sex scenes were few but seemingly well done. The whole BDSM thing isn’t my thing – so by well done I mean I wasn’t rolling my eyes….much (although again Finn came off as way older and more self-possessed than a 23 year old kid). Dare and I kind of have the same thoughts about BDSM: “None of this was anything like Dare thought it would be. He’d figured he’d get his ass spanked, or Finn would put on his scary mask. He’d figured they would play good cop and bad cop. And they’d laugh and break character and fuck. But Finn wasn’t playing; he was serious as the grave….”. And it’s more than a sexual preference for Finn, it’s his way of coping.
Home The Hard Way is equal parts romance and crime drama: why exactly did Dare’s father kill himself. The mystery kept my interest but started to take on a very distinct Ghost Story feel but without the paranormal elements. Finn’s sexuality made sense within the context of the story as did the side story with Bill fucking Frazier. Despite Bill being an unlikable character, I saw the vulnerability and the goodness in him that Finn saw and I wanted him to have his HEA too. In the epilogue in my head Dare and Finn are enjoying domestic bliss. Since Bill is such a hardcore closet case Finn hooks him up with a hot little butchy dominatrix that he meets while selling his leather fetish goods and the 4 of them go out for beers and play darts at the cop bar on weekends.