All allowances being made for me jumping the wagon this late into the series (the blurbs of the first three instalments gave me the creeps), this remains a very sad mess of a book. Nothing is done to wrap up the background story in such a manner that a newcomer may be able to enjoy the specific plot of this story, quite the contrary in fact, for the prologue that takes place two years prior not only showcases atrocious writing values - it declines to explain, or rather expound, nothing, being content with the blandest of allusions to the role played by Sheriff Palter :
"He'd come here for an operation, and he was supposed to be right back out of town. That was two days ago. The Powers, Georgia, Sheriff had been into some shit. He came to town to help bring the corrupt fucker down before the racist and homophobic bastard tried to take out Scary’s crew for good",
the reason being that Mrs Dabney only cares about putting together the Sheriff and the twin pair for the first time so as to establish their chemistry. She fails at that by a quite large margin, because of the passionless, almost detached way she writes the encounter :
"He nearly hollered for Twitch when the little man darted away. He was a grown ass man so he could handle two pretty boys. Their platinum blond hair tousled around their beautiful faces. Fuck, he caught sight of himself in the mirror behind the bar, and he looked old, well, ancient compared to them. The silver patch in his goatee stood out starkly and reminded him he wasn't in his twenties or even thirties anymore.
Just don't be an asshole, Camden, he ordered himself. His hand locked tight around the bottle as the most beautiful men he’d ever seen flanked him on either side. Their slim bodies pushing in beside him, and he instantly knew which one was Sin. The boy pressed in tight to his side, while Ellison, Saint, kept a bit of distance. In his peripheral, he noticed the innocent pink that stained Ellison's cheeks and he wanted to reach for him. Chase the spreading color under the pads of his calloused fingers.
“Well, hello, sexy, you're new.”
Eric’s soft fingertips stroked up his bare arm only being stopped by the rolled cuff of his dress shirt. His stomach tightened.
“Camden.”
“You're Scary's cousin.”
Ellison's voice was softer than Eric's, and tinged with a hint of shyness that made him want to turn to him.
“Why don't you come home with us, Camden?”
“Why don't you go play with someone your own age, boy?”"
The outrageous characters of Ellison and Eric showcase the kind of intensity that can only shine in a crisp and tight plot proceeding according to a rational agenda; since the reverse is in evidence between these covers, they come off as gaudy and unidimensional and rather hard to like. As for the Sheriff, he wears so many masks, from good old boy at work to momma's boy, that his fractured psychology falls flat; all the more so since what little introspection there is to his character takes an utterly childish and choppy form because of the abysmal literary chops of the the writer (she must have missed Psychology 101) :
"Ellison, Saint, was beautiful with an innocence that called to him. His baby blue eyes seemed to be haunted by a past no one talked about. Eric, Sin, always had an in your face attitude. Fearless, yet vulnerable at the same time. He wanted to take care of them. Make sure they were always happy and content. They were blond, blue-eyed and femme. His temporary partners in the past were as muscular and masculine as him. Sex always seemed like a fight for dominance."
No need to say, after all this, that the storytelling irritated me and that I found nothing to root for in the drama. Finally, the proof-reading is as bad as the story deserved and rivals the idiosyncratic brand of English this writer confuses with style : dropped words appear on every page ("in his peripheral, he noticed" ~ "he didn't want to be some notch for boys with Daddy issues" ~"he wasn't going to call his — nothing his was in this bar" ~ "the thought of it amused him more than it should and way too tempting", etc), violently anacoluthic sentences are going haywire ("you old men pay too much attention to age or is your sexy ass still in the closet?" ~ "Eric looked at him like he was insane to turn them down and maybe he was, but he was a grown ass man, and he knew what he wanted" ~ "he was back to being that ignored rich kid. Envied for what he had, but wouldn't all those jealous fucks loved to have known just how miserable it was being him", etc), boorishly colloquial or carelessly obscure or very badly crabbed statements erect constant obstacles to the reading ("the Brawlers, Twirled World Ink, and Executioners Crews, along with Trenton Security laughed" ~ "his father probably had his secretary bent over his desk as he pounded one out before coming home" ~ "he crossed the deserted street and walked straight into chaos. Everyone called his name and waved, and Heidi nodded and went to put in his usual order. He loved it there no matter how lacking his parental units found him", etc). It amazes me that someone who has already published 21 books could still write that atrociously and yet continue to increase her followship.