Home the Hard Way by ZA Maxfield
This review is from 2014 and is kept here for reference. Titles, prices and availability may have changed.
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- Stars
- ★★★★½
- Heat
- Fire
- Series
- Standalone
Recommendation
I’m a huge fan of ZA Maxfield and look forward to every single new release. There is just something special about her books–be it the writing, the characters, the setting–every single time I find myself captivated in a way no other author quite manages. In Home the Hard Way, what really caught me was the BDSM theme explored from an emotional perspective, the ‘why’ rather than the ‘how’. Maxfield expertly showed the difficulties someone who has never found himself in the hands of a Master can face in submitting, in facing this foreign need, and slowly accepting it. Aside from the BDSM element, the mystery was heartbreaking and well-thought out. Another winner for sure. ~ Solange [July 2014]
Publisher synopsis
Dare Buckley has come home—or at least, he’s come back to Palladian, the small town he left as a teenager. After a major lapse in judgment forced him to resign from the Seattle PD, Palladian is the only place that’ll hire him. There’s one benefit to hitting rock bottom, though: the chance to investigate the mystery of his father’s suicide.
Dare also gets to reacquaint himself with Finn Fowler, whose childhood hero worship ended in uncomfortable silence when Dare moved away. But Finn isn’t the same little kid Dare once protected. He’s grown into an attractive, enigmatic stranger who neither wants nor needs what Dare has to offer.
In fact, Dare soon realizes that Finn’s keeping secrets—his own and the town’s. And he doesn’t seem to care that Dare needs answers. The atmosphere in Palladian, like its namesake river, appears placid, but dark currents churn underneath. When danger closes in, Dare must pit his ingenuity against his heart, and find his way home the hard way.
Review published July 28, 2014