Police officer Dan Fallon knows the streets, but he's a rookie at romance, and still very much in the closet. He thinks sexy fitness instructor Isaac is way out of his league, until a dangerous situation breaks the ice between them.
Isaac Weiss has spent years trying to get his life back together after a series of terrible mistakes. The last thing he should be doing is trying to have a relationship with a cop, especially with his past. Too bad he's unable to resist sweet, shy Dan.
It's not long though, before the secrets both men are keeping rise to the surface and threaten to destroy the fragile connection they've forged with one another. Can Dan and Isaac find acceptance or will the cost of secrets be too high?
By day, I am a middle school teacher. I spend much of my time grading papers, filling out paperwork, and trying to get 6th- and 7th- graders to read.
When I am not at work, I can generally be found at the computer, dreaming up stories about men falling in love. When I have spare time (which is unfortunately not too often anymore!) I read romance of all kinds. Occasionally I pretend to do housework, but my hubby isn't fooled!
Disclaimer: Cassandra Gold is one of my favorite authors
This story is quite nice ... both the characters and the plot. Since the title has "Cost" and "Secrets" on it, I know that the story will revolve around the secrets that Dan and Isaac carry around. Isaac's secret is quite predictable, from the clues of that his internal monologues. I'm more intrigued with Dan's, to be honest. Because Isaac's storyline has been done quite a lot in this trope, while Dan ... I would definitely want to read more about his struggle to triumph over .
The 'first' secrets are revealed half-way. The next secret, however, , is a bit frown-upon, for me. Somehow it makes Dan's character a bit inconsistent -- seeing he is all thankful for Isaac and says that he is not ashamed of Isaac's past, previously. I think Isaac forgives him a little to quick, and I would love to see more grovelling.
But overall, I like it. Gold's characters are always endearing ^^
The blurb sure looked good. Given that the stated theme is secrets, one expects that total honesty will be hard to achieve, but the problems in this story go far beyond difficulties in communication. Between the treatment of some serious life issues and stylistic clunkers, I would have DNF’d this story at the 20% mark had I not been reading for review.
I was very disappointed, because the major issues in each character’s life would make establishing a healthy relationship challenging, and they deserve thoughtful treatment. Here, unfortunately, they are used only as defenses against communication, and growth in overcoming them isn’t really happening. Body image is an important topic, as is unwilling participation in exploitive situations and drug addiction, but they deserve better handling than they received here.
Officer Dan Fallon is the confident, adept policeman, but Dan the man carries around the memories of a difficult adolescence as a 450 pound band geek, and takes off his social skills with his uniform. Personal trainer, kick-boxing instructor, nursing student Isaac is the sexy twink who’s making his life into something better. At twenty three, he’s still trying to recover from the horrors he went through as a teenager, and what he went through would definitely leave marks. He’s determined to keep everything about his past to himself, believing he’s too sullied for a wonderful guy like Dan, who of course hasn’t a clue about his appeal.
All of this could be worked up into a touching and healing story, but that’s not what we have here. Various plot points occurring in the present day are either handled clumsily or ignored, and the past traumas come to light as bricks of prose thrown at the plot whenever handy. This cheapens very real problems of sexual abuse and exploitation, drug abuse, morbid obesity, and suicide, and does a disservice to those who have suffered. There isn’t a lot of thoughtful examination or of character growth and change, more melodrama than drama.
Dan comes across as having personality transplants every few pages. It’s disconcerting, unpleasant, and overdone, and when his off-duty persona bleeds into his professional life toward the end, it’s consistent but irritating. He’s shed 240 lbs and still finds himself too soft in the middle for his own liking, but feeds on chocolate milk and sticky rolls even in situations where it’s not clearly for comfort. His unwillingness to be seen naked at least rings true, and renders it somewhat likely that he’s twenty eight and never been kissed. He’s certainly sweet, a word that appears 17 times and yes I counted, but he’s not very interesting. That’s sad, because he could be.
Isaac has had way too much sex and no love, and can’t believe he’s more than a sex object. He spends much of the story either melting, angsting, or weeping, and at no time is it clear how he obtained the skills he makes his living with. One would expect a certain amount of street smarts from Isaac, given his history, but he stops to worry about Dan’s bloody nose before they’ve completely subdued the armed robber. Once the robber is carted off to the station, the incident is never mentioned again—it’s only a device to get the men alone together.
Again, the point of the book is secrets vs communication, but this devolves into one Big Misunderstanding after another, which is not improved by style. Walls of exposition go on for pages, telling us what the characters are doing and thinking, but not illustrating it with an incident or even breaking it up with dialog. The POV is very shallow and distant, not really allowing the readers to feel along with the MCs and exacerbating the feeling of glib treatment of the major traumas. Between the adverbs, the feelings named outright rather than being illustrated, and caroming from cliché to cliché, the story offers no stylistic balm to make up for the characterizations and clunky plot.
I would like to say that the sex was completely hot, but alas, that consolation is not there either. We are in Isaac’s POV when they first have sex and this event is more a cause for terror for Isaac than a source of joy—he’s the bottom without discussion, apparently because he’s built more slightly and/or has his horrid exploitive past. He doesn’t even stop to savor the orgasm before he’s running away from the big handsome cop he doesn’t deserve. Of course he has no idea of the significance of the event for Dan, just one more thing they don’t discuss. The fallacy of only anal sex is real sex is alive here, and lube is optional. The final sex scene where they are saying some really cheesy things together, and aware of the cheesiness and able to laugh about it, is the warmest moment of the story.
The premise, two damaged men healing from their pasts and learning to find their own worth and accept love, is ambitious but poorly executed, and I cannot recommend this book.
A very sweet, heart-breaking and heart-healing story by Cassandra Gold, and I’m glad I has the chance to read and get acquainted with this author’s writing style.
The Cost of Secrets as you may very well presume is the story of two men whose past is a bid shady and in order to maintain a level of normalcy they keep too many secrets in their closet. But secrets have a way to hurt you deeply the longer you keep them.
Dan is a police officer. While in uniform he’s every bit the confident man his job requires. Alas, once out of it, his vulnerability and true self turn him into a stuttering guy. Every time he tries to communicate with anyone while he’s off the clock, he ends up embarrassing himself. His one object of obsession Isaac, the personal trainer at his gym, seems miles away from him. Dan feels unworthy for Isaac and dares not to approach him. And of course Isaac, while deeply attracted by Dan, feels like the last person Dan should be with. His dark secrets are bound to make a man like Dan feel disgusted with him, secrets that will never come to light if Isaac has his way.
A robbery in Isaac’s second job makes both men realize that life is too short to waste away opportunities. They get together and everything seems to be wonderful between them. No one has ever treated Isaac with the gentleness and care Dan shows him, and as for Dan the non-judgmental behavior of Isaac is pure balsam for his lonely heart. Until panic attacks and Isaac runs away.
I must say that in this story Dan is 28 years old and a virgin. Normally this fact would have thrown me, but his background totally justifies that. Dan used to be really, really fat and bullied in his teen years and that left him with no opportunities to act upon his love life. Later on he’s facing the scars of such hard time, the insecurity and the feeling that he doesn’t deserve people to love him or want him. I loved the way this author treaded this topic. It’s truly hard and she pulled it of nicely. Dan might seem like a God in the eyes of Isaac, but the emotional damage of the bullying he suffered does not let him see his true self. Not until he tries to through his lovers eyes.
As for Isaac, he is 23 years old, a runaway who got caught up by the wrong person. A man who found him in his most vulnerable and needy period of time and used him, abused him and nearly killed him. Although Isaac managed to escape his doom and make something out of him, he does not see it too. He thinks he’s unworthy and does not deserve kindness, love and care.
Yes the two characters have too much in common, but it works well. It’s how they learn to trust each other, if they don’t understand each other, who would..? There is a lot of emotional charge through the story and they hurt each other a lot at the beginning, but they learn love, friendship and in the end they learn to let go.
This book was a nice addition to my sweet and heart-break collection. Well written, easy read and with a nice plot. I would have loved some more in the end, the insatiable me, but still I didn’t mind it… a lot.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I am a big Cassandra Gold's fan. I enjoyed many of her works where her MC strife to be a good person in cruel worlds. This one wasn't as good as the other but still enjoyable.
This is the story of two men with incredibly low self-esteems from various circumstances attracted to one another and tried to navigate into their first foray of having a relationship.
As a result, when something gone wrong in their clumsy attempt at getting to know one another, they blamed themselves, withdrawn and shut down instead of talking about it.
It wasn't as bad as some reviewers thought. I disagreed with some other reviewers regarding Dan I do agreed with Ami that the story ended in a somewhat unfinished manner. But I must say that this is also how many romance novella ended as well. Just when the dust settled after the first or few conflicts then the curtain was drawn. Perhaps this is because this story was something that Ms. Gold had been working on for quite sometime and have difficulties closing it.
I still would like to see how Dan and Isaac deal with other things
I do not catch the personalities inconsistencies that was mentioned by other reviewers.
I find that Dan's predicament was believable while Isaac was a bit too emotional, perhaps from lack of coping mechanism in dealing with what happened and the fact that he basically only suppressed it without really dealing with it.
I think the story would have been more believable if Dan and Isaac were shown being flirted with by other people and then have them being awkward and such. Otherwise, it would be as Adrienne said that it was a too far.
Mileage may varied but I will still say give this one a shot.
Dan is a police officer by day, an extremely shy gay man outside work. He goes to the gym regularly as he was once very overweight and spent most of his college years working it off. Despite the weight loss, he’s still insecure, he has not dated and he’s 28 years old and has a hard time believing someone will be attracted to him. Adding to the challenge is the crush he’s developed on one of the gym instructors, Isaac.
Isaac has had a rough life, he’s been on his own since the age of 15 and now at the age of 23, he’s turned it around getting himself into college while working two jobs – the gym and a convenience store. He is attracted to Dan, and while some part of him knows he is considered attractive, his past has left him with his own doubts about finding something real.
Dan gets over his initial shyness when he walks in on an attempted robbery at Isaac’s store. The adrenaline of the close call is enough to make it worth asking the question of whether Isaac will go out with him! As much as they like each other, and have enjoy the time they spend together, the questions are always in their minds, both feeling they are not enough for the other one. Since they don’t talk about these doubts, misunderstandings and assumptions happen on both sides and the biggest question is whether these two men get past their memories to create new and happy ones together?
I loved these two characters, Dan’s shyness due to his past, Isaac’s uncertainty due to his and how they manage to share their vulnerabilities with each other and I so wanted to read more about them! Because you know what is going through both of their minds, you want to jump in and coach them on how to get past their fears, or to clear up their misunderstanding of each other.
This is one of those books that is a very satifying read, but you would not object to a sequel either, I liked the characters that much! I just believe it is a compliment to pay if you enjoyed the characters and their story enough to want to read about them again!
I'm a fan of Cassandra Gold, not one book so far has ever disappointed me and The Cost of Secrets is another one to add to that list. Great characters that you want to cheer on, you want them to have the happy ending they deserve, I loved it and highly recommend it!
Isaac and Dan are both flawed and only a little broken by the things they've overcome. Mostly they are survivors bumbling along trying to do the best they can. Neither of them were physically perfect either which I always appreciate, but I think the characters would disagree with me when describing one another.
My quibbles are minor...It's a bit too short for the major issues involved. The story would have benefited from having a little more time for the romance to marinate. I wonder if that's why the ending felt a little abrupt. I think an epilogue would have helped me feel more confident that the ending was really a HEA. As written, I'm only 75% sure that's the case.
Isaac's story is one that's been seen quite a bit and it getting to be almost cliche in the genre. But Dan's is one I hadn't seen before and would really have liked to have heard more about it. I wonder if the book would have been even stronger if it had been written solely from Dan's POV instead of the head hopping, which was very well done by the way.
Overall, a good read. Well worth my time and money.
Two adorable guys, suffering from severe lack of self esteem. I should scoff at Isaac for selling Dan so cheap – but, given his experiences, his bleak outlook on people’s reactions is somewhat understandable. This is just a really cute story. Both protagonists are tentative, almost clumsy in handling their relationship, albeit for different reasons. It’s endearing.
Hm. I don’t know how likely it is that
When Dan eventually messes up he does so really badly. I’d have expected a different kind of reaction from Isaac, actually (the one we usually get in such stories – in this case justified) Even so, I am satisfied with the way it turned out, on both sides.
This entire story remains very simple and straightforward; no fancy footwork here. Then again, it needs to frills. It’s sweet.
3 WORDS OFF THE TOP.... WHAT THE HELL!! 2 Gorgeous male don't-know-what-the-hell-to do virgins, so not real or believable. Two hunks that have never been on a date, or even how to get to second base.... really?? Now I will be honest I am only on page 42 but I am struggling. I had to stop and write this. It was so annoying.. the over abundance of blushes and stuttering and timid touches and not knowing what to say or how to act. It was just too high schoolish for me to continue. My overall... not recommended ecspecially for 6 bucks.
I REALLY wanted to like this one. I am big Cassandra Gold fan and I snatched this up the day it was released. This was a bit of a disappointment. I finished it, so there is my two star rating. The characters personalities were not realistic, the storyline was a bit boring and it was just....not that good. I think my main issue for me was the main characters.
it's not a story with 3 stars, their issues were written with tact. and it's really sweet. i would give this piece 4 stars, but i couldn't see the chemistry between them. so something between them. 3,5 or 3,75 stars.
It was very very cheesy, that's pretty much all I can think about this book, It was nice, but the characters were too insecure, both of them! it was a bit irritable at times, overall a nice read to pass the time regardless.
Not my favorite thing from Cassandra Gold, and I love this author. I didn't really feel any chemistry between the characters, who I also felt were written very unevenly.