Wild Angels

Lost Boys and Love Letters #3

by Bethany Brown, Ashlyn Kane

Book Three in the Lost Boys and Love Letters Series

A gunshot wound isn't enough to slow down Detective Patrick Hawkins, so his friends conspire to ship him off to visit his best friend and ex-lover, Dr. Julian Piet, for some forced recovery time. If only Julian and his new boyfriend weren't so disgustingly cute all the time, Patrick might actually have a chance to enjoy himself. Enter Brad Wilde, Alberta's hottest bartender. Brad might be inexperienced and shy by nature, but that doesn't stop the sparks from flying between them. But Patrick is used to casual flings and one-night stands, and he's not quite sure what to do about his attraction to Brad. All of Patrick's doubts seem trivial when Julian's neighbor's child goes missing and the whole town mobilizes to find her. When the search for Hallie turns up a decomposing body, the police begin to fear they'll never find her alive. As Brad and Patrick try to help, they will have to overcome the physical and emotional distance between them to have any hope of finding Hallie before she falls victim to the same fate as the mysterious corpse.

Genres: M M Romance, Contemporary, Romance, Erotica, LGBT, M M Contemporary, Suspense

262 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Between hiding from the snow in the winter and the grass in the summer, Bethany Brown ends up spending a rather absurd amount of time with her trusty laptop Desmond. Yes, she has named her laptop. She's also named her car Blue, but that's neither here nor there. While she hopes to one day be able to support herself by writing full time, she keeps herself fed with various customer service jobs, the most recent of which is at a tuxedo rental shop. Thankfully, spending the day fitting men with tuxedos helps to fuel the writing side of her brain. Other writing help includes: chocolate, ice cream, and movies with cute boys. On bad days, she can usually be found sitting on her couch with a stuffed penguin watching Donald Strachey movies. She is thrilled to have found a home with Dreamspinner and plans to stick around until she runs out of ideas. Or the Earth's sun implodes. Whichever comes first.

Reviews

[Nichole (DirrtyH) · Rating 4 out of 5]

::Deep Announcer Voice::
This season on Queer as Folk: Rural Alberta...

Will the small town doctor solve the pointless mystery?
Will an old friendship survive a "look but don't touch" threesome?
Will Brian Kinn - er, Patrick Hawkins ever find love?

::End Announcer Voice::

Okay, so Patrick isn't a complete Brian Kinney clone - he does make himself much more vulnerable than Brian ever did, but mostly... yeah, Patrick is Brian. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
I actually really enjoyed this book, I think mostly because it wasn't focused entirely on the two heroes. We got to spend a lot of time with Jack and Julian from True North and it gave us just enough break from the main romance not to get burned out on it.
There was a really stupid mystery in the middle that only sort of got solved and served no purpose to the storyline, and the end left things a little less resolved than I prefer, but overall a winner.

Vaguely related tidbit 1: Male lead Brad Wilde shares my last name and lives in Alberta, Canada, where my dad and his whole family are from. Am I related to this fictional character??? (If yes, a note to Bethany and Ashlyn, I think all the Wildes in Alberta are Mormons. I could be wrong though, I never lived there, just visited.)

Vaguely related tidbit 2: Has anyone heard the band The Rural Alberta Advantage? They're flippin awesome! Check 'em out!

[Ravyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Now that I've finished with Book 3 of the "Lost Boys and Love Letters" series, I can say without a doubt that none of these books had anything to do with lost boys nor love letters.

I'm not sure what happened with this book, but it managed to have an even less cohesive plot than the previous two books. The "suspense/mystery" component promised in the book blurb is ridiculously lacking and totally unbelievable. There is some vague storyline about finding a body in the woods and a little girl gone missing, but these plot lines are not integral to the story at all, nor are they even resolved adequately or believably. Rather, it all just feels like some ploy to make the book blurb sound more exciting. Really, I think it's about the worst attempt at crime drama/suspense that I have ever seen.

As far as the romance goes, it's a little too far on the side of sickly sweet for me. Any more "Angel" or "Sugar" endearments might make me swear off romance forever. Ugh. Furthermore, the book doesn't even resolve itself in the typical HEA fashion, instead choosing to leave the reader hanging. Not cool.

I admit, I read the first two books, and I even thought they were, well, not great, but at least kinda ok. But this one was a huge disappointment.

[FloJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Progress report. I am going to have to re- read True North and Picture Perfect because I have obviously forgotten some important details!

I just realised, 'Better Late than Never" in the Reflections of Love Anthology is a sort of prequel to this series. And I am starting to wonder if there are some other shorts I have missed as I keep feeling I am missing something crucial as I read Wild Angels.

OK, finished it. 4 stars.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

And this is why I NEVER read books from a series out of order... this was definitely NOT a standalone... *headdesk* :(

I needed this book for a challenge, so I thought I would take a chance. The outcome wasn't horrible, but I kinda got an HFN ending with an interesting book to follow up with! :)

I honestly don't know where the "lost boys" or "love letters" come in to play with this series or why we had the tangent that was Hallie going missing... but that is OK, I can't always understand where an author's thought process is taking them. I also seemed to remember that Patrick was older than Julian, but I may have been mistaken, hmmm...

This was a new author for me and I am sure that if the next book can be used for a challenge, I will make a point to use it! *grin*

[Eyre · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is closer to a 3.5 for me.

Patrick isn't doing anything to help himself recover from his gunshot wound, so Cam sends him to Partick's ex-boyfriend Julian. This creates a bit of a tense situation since Julian is living with Jack, his new partner. Once there, Patrick begins to heal physically, but seeing Julian with another man is taking its toll emotionally. Luckily, he meets Brad, but Patrick is going to have to deal with some old insecurities if he's going to make things work with his new love interest.

Okay, I liked all the characters in this book, but I was a bit uncomfortable with some of the interactions between Jack/Julian and Patrick. Of course, I'm sure that was the authors' intent. Both Julian and Patrick really needed to settle their relationship, and there was just no easy way to do that. For those of you who don't like menage scene, there wasn't a true menage scene in this book, but it was close. This time, however, the repercussions are devastating for the characters and more true to life than in Picture Perfect

I would've given this one 4 stars, but there were a couple of points that bothered me. There was an incident involving Roy, Hallie, and someone from the past that just seemed too coincidental. It just didn't seem plausible at all. Secondly, the ending was not a true HEA for me. It was more of a tentative HFN. I hope the authors will clear this up for me in a future book. There are definitely some secondary characters who deserve their own stories in this series.

[Sadonna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good follow up to Picture Perfect - but really left things hanging. Really enjoyed getting to see Julian and Jack again as well as the rest of the characters from the first book in this series. I guess the biggest thing in this book is a little more insight into Patrick's personality. He's obviously got a lot of unresolved issues from his past - from his parents' rejection to his low self-esteem and his fulfilling his needs with apparently empty sex with lots of men. It really seems like he needs a bit of therapy to deal with all his issues. Brad was a thoroughly likable character who seems to do amazingly well with his first relationship with a man in a small town in Alberta. I'm on to the next book in the series to see what gets resolved and what doesn't.

[Phoenix · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still have a little bit of a problem with the writing in general but this one was much! More thought out and felt a lot more organic than the last one. Biggest problem I had was the number of times people act like a freak and then someone asks "is something wrong?" Of course, something's wrong. Ask, "what's wrong?," instead. Also again the fore shadowing to the kidnapping made it very obvious who was responsible. Especially since the person responsible wasn't even mentioned in the first book, nor was their absence explained. Also Patrick's mention of a kidnapping statistic should have tipped him off to who it was. In general though, loved the book and it even squeezed a few tears out of me

[Suze · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book that probably only really makes sense if you have read the previous 2 stories. I enjoyed it as a continuation of the universe and stories we've already had.
There are lots of characters in the series and in this one, Patrick gets his story. He probably is a lost boy, for all the big bad cop bravado, he is quite insecure and seems to have a traumatic background story. I would love more about Patrick, and give him a hug! He just seems to keep every one at such a distance (well, except for Brad most of the time).
We had met Brad before, albeit briefly and again I would have loved more depth to his character.
I enjoyed the contrasts in Patrick's character, though the middle part of the book got a bit too soft for me - as with the other books the nicknames get a bit much at times.

[Tj · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book like the second is hard to classify. The bedroom antics from shared history between Patrick, Cam and Julian is confusing and you need a scorecard. Mos so when Jack allows Patrick to watch him and Julian. He later explains he does it to insure that Julian is truly over Patrick.

Patrick meets and falls for Brad. Things seem to be going well for them... but Patrick leaves to go back home. Not sure why .. but it sets up for the next book in the series.

[Marguerite Long · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave the first two books 5 stars but I have to give this one 4. The problem I have is there are so many contradictions in this book from the last two. Silly stuff... like where Julian has been... where Patrick grew up... to big stuff like who Patrick has in his life to care for him... ummm... Cam and his family!!! Totally left that part out. Silly, I know, but there is no reason for the contradictions.

[Linneth · Rating 3 out of 5]

God Patrick deserves so much more than this plot, I mean is Canada that small that they know each other from somewhere else pff I can't believe a bit of this. Also I didn't find a reason for the missing girl I just don't understand it. Also I thought they would give Roz and her baby's father a happy ending -_-"

[Olivia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Patrick's character in the last book and that continued in this one. Other than it being mentioned that he's a "total slut", we really didn't see it other than one time. I enjoyed the development between him and Brad.

[Rayner · Rating 4 out of 5]

actually 3.5

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I fell in love with Patrick in Picture Perfect and having him be one of the main characters in Wild Angels made my day.

[Vikki]

Brilliant, just simply brilliant.

[Linda-Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely adored it love the characters. Did wish though that the information matched what was said True North about certain things but nothing that spoiled my enjoyment of the book.

[Sayuri_x · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much better than book 2 in the series. I would have given it a 4 but it was spoiled by a sucky ending.

[Ivka_s_knihou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Totally loved the ending. I knew he's going to be awesome when he fells in love. :)

[Kiki · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Shelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Tam · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Idamus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reread, I liked it better the first time