Title: Paid Leave
Series: N/A
Author: Hayley B. James
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Novel (230 pages)
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (May 3rd, 2013)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥4 Hearts
Reviewer: Thommie
Blurb: Albuquerque police officer Benji Miller made the choice to hide his sexuality and devote his life to his career. He guards his secret carefully, believing he is protecting his job and happiness. Then, during a routine traffic stop gone awry, he shoots a suspect to protect a young girl, and his life spins out of control. A department-mandated paid leave rips away the only distraction he had, and he has to deal with the unsympathetic media who criticize the police department’s every move.
One day, needing to get out of the house, Benji walks into a café, where he meets Neal McCoy—a gay man living without shame, unafraid to speak his mind or stand up against prejudice. Benji quickly falls for Neal but struggles to combine his new love interest and his career. With the media threatening the careful illusion he’s built around himself, Benji can’t stand the pressure.
Benji has to decide: sacrifice his happiness in the name of his career and an easy life, or find the courage to give up the lonely existence he knows and take a step into the unknown.
Product Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3796&osCsid=fgfudf65uip8shpt5avlt9pao1
Review: What an interesting book this one was, I quite loved it and enjoyed every aspect and turn this story took.
Benji is a closeted cop with no intention of ever coming out. His job doesn’t permit it. His experience forbids it and his family life has left him believing that not only he’s not normal, but that if he could not be gay, he would. Nothing in his future includes a family or even the possibility of a normalcy for his love life. His only consolation is his love for his job. Until he shoots a suspect on duty and everything changes. He’s forced to a paid leave, his sex-buddy who is also a very cruel reporter is one of the first to leak the story and participate on the Media twisting every fact into making cops look like criminals, and he stumbles into Beans where he meets Neal.
Neal is the exact opposite of Benji. He is out, he is proud, he has a loving and supportive family and he’s looking to settle in a permanent relationship, something Benji can’t even contemplate. He is also a man Benji can’t seem to stay away from even knowing that he should do just that. But Neal has a lovely smile and an attitude to life that is almost compelling and in the torrent of everything coming crashing in Benji’s life, Neal is the only person to make him smile and lift the weight from his shoulders.
This is how a very lovely story starts with a great touch in the human soul and fears that overwhelm us. The parts of life that Benji kept separated all his life will start colliding and Benji seems almost reluctant to prevent it. As much as he want things hidden and apart he comes to understand that would not be fair for the man he comes home to and while trying baby-steps in something he has never done, the enormity of his slowly coming to terms with being gay and in a relationship is not lost on this character. We get to feel that pressure acutely in every line and every new change.
I loved the fact that both characters here were not mindless creatures, victims of their lust. They were intelligent and each had a unique personality and while everything starts and ends with sex, that doesn’t take priority in this story. We rather get to experience a wholesome change in two people’s life with all the good and bad parts such a change brings. We get to see Neal relinquishing some of his own wants in order to maintain Benji, we get to see him settle for things he never even thought of doing and even contemplating staying hidden for Benji’s sake, and we get to see the beauty of a man facing all his fears one at a time for the sake of a dimple showing in the face of a man who won his heart. The relationship between them two was wonderfully written and it made me slowly but steadily to fall for them and wish they get the normalcy they both so much craved.
We also get to see the hardship of being a Police Officer. The deaths they witness, the pieces of soul they lose every time an innocent is killed and their feelings of helplessness and not being there to prevent the evils people are capable of doing. We get to see how their world interacts with minorities in the force as well and all in all makes for a very solid and enjoyable read.
I might have has some trouble with understanding one particular character in this book, and that would be Neal’s mom. She was quite disturbing at some point and I simply didn’t get her actions. Hence, when the ending came I felt it was a bit rushed and left some holes and gaps there. Yes, it was quite romantic, yes, it was not cheesy or over sweet, as most HEA’s tend to be, yes Benji takes a 180 turn and shocks us all. But even though he reasoning seemed logical, it was almost too much to believe it happened in such a fast succession.
However, it didn’t throw me much and my enjoyment of this story didn’t change at all. This is definitely one of those books I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend even if you’re not fans of closeted cases. If you love romance, cops and realistic plots then this is a book you don’t want to miss.