Title: Home Work
Series: Life Lessons, 03
Author: Kaje Harper
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Super Novel (356 pages)
Publisher: MLR Press (5th October 2012)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating:♥♥♥♥♥4 ½ Hearts
Reviewer: Pixie
Blurb: Coming together as a family was supposed to make life happy-ever-after for Mac and Tony, but their two uprooted kids, demanding jobs, and a less than gay-friendly world don’t seem to have gotten the message.
Mac and Tony thought the hard part was over. They’re together openly as a couple, sharing a home, and building a life with their two children. It’s what they dreamed of. But daughter Anna struggles with the changes, Ben is haunted by old secrets, Mac’s job in Homicide still demands too much of his time, and Tony is caught in the middle. It’s going to take everything these men can give to create a viable balance between home and work. Especially when the outside world seems determined to throw obstacles in their way.
Purchase Link: http://www.mlrbooks.com/Bookstore.php?bookid=KHHOMEWK
Review: This book is part of a series and must be read in order. Mac and Tony are having their happily ever after, but happily ever after is harder than they thought, between Anna and Ben settling into their new lives with two parents, juggling work with parenthood for Tony and Mac and then Mac’s job interfering in their home life it’s a struggle to just be a couple. Can Tony and Mac cope with the stresses that life throws at them especially when Mac’s murder case comes too close to home?
This is a wonderful addition to the Life Lessons series. Showing the progression of Tony and Mac’s relationship and the difficulties, they face. But, with the added danger that is inherent, when you live with a policeman. Tony is starting to feel the strain of being a parent, especially when he begins to feel like a single parent when Mac’s job makes more demands on his time. Mac feels like he has to push himself more than ever now that everyone at work knows he is gay, and conveniently ignoring that he is leaving most of the parenting to Tony. But nothing will stop Mac from claiming Tony for his own and Tony will be there for Mac no matter what.
I have to say that Mac and Tony are one of my favorite M/M couples to ever grace the pages of a book. Simply because they haven’t had the most perfect of relationships and they have had to work at what they have. they have had the ups and downs, the struggles and arguments and they have now settled down as a couple with two small children. But, instead of Kaje Harper letting them settle down to the perfect family, she has written a story that still has them working on their relationship. showing the struggles that every parent has when combining two households and two families.
In this story, we see the strain that both men are under, the happiness they still have and the love they still feel. We see the juggling of time and the stress of coping with children as they settle and the strain of having a partner with a difficult job. There is also a great storyline with Mac’s job as he hunts for a killer and ties it in with a missing person report and the danger Mac faces because of the actions of a colleague, this is truly a great book that gives you slices of life that many books don’t show, it gives us characters that we love, dislike, sneer at, hate and also one or two that you wouldn’t mind taking into an alley to beat the crap out of.
I highly recommend this story to those who love crime, drama, mystery, danger, strong relationships, forging through difficulties and coming out stronger, family stories two men truly in love and an ending that will make you smile.