Ami's Hoard

3.5 stars

Oh, if only this book didn’t go that way when it came to the sexual intercourse and I would have gladly given this one a solid 4-stars...

I absolutely enjoyed this book for the most part. When it comes to murder mystery, I love when there is a paranormal element that comes to play. So when Oliver Marsh — who mainly relies on extensive research rather than an actual supernatural gift when it comes to his “conversations with the dead”– has his first psychic experience related to Robert Court’s cousin’s murder, the story became very interesting. A false medium who makes money by lying, so to speak, and a man who works in law enforcement who can actually arrest him? Well, that is a delicious set-up already.

It helped a lot that I thought Oliver and Robert had undeniable chemistry and both were likeable characters. Oliver has that cheeky attitude to him, which sometimes annoys Robert to no end. But it is clear that Oliver genuinely wants to help people, to put their mind at ease regarding their deceased loved ones. While Robert might be the grumpier between the two, but he is also solid and dependable. I loved reading how Robert finally gave in to the attraction he felt towards Oliver.

The identity of the murderer is given to us halfway through the book. So the rest of it is basically how Robert and Oliver work together to capture the murderer. Despite that there is no more mystery to solve, I found the planning and the action near the end as quite captivating.

Unfortunately, their D/s sexual scenes along with that one puppy play scene (with Robert actually calling Oliver ‘dog‘) totally turned me off. It actually ruined those intimate moments for me because it felt like it came out of the left field. I thought that maybe due to the popularity of D/s and BDSM, the authors would like to give it a go. However, it just didn’t fit in (with the characters or the storyline) and wasn’t necessary at all.

So enjoyable mystery-historical-romance EXCEPT for the sex scenes.