Sophia's Reviews > If I Ever

Five years ago, I finished the last entry in this series to date and was left with lots of questions and that delicious kind of dread one gets for the book that will culminate a fantastic series. As life often does, the author had a hitch in her plans and this grand finale had to wait. But, like a trooper, she came through and here we have the last in a series story arc for Prophet and Tom and a transition for what is to come for Mal and Cillian. It was emotionally tough, gritty with action, and a twisting plot that kept peeling back further reveals delivering a superb high-adrenaline story to finish off the series on a high note.

If I Ever is the fourth and final book in the Hell or High Water series, but is a transition book in the Extreme Escapes world. It is not a place to start and will spoil earlier books if one was to pick up here.

At the end of of Daylight Again, things are left in a precarious place for Tom, Prophet, and the rest of Proph's special ops team who are all wanted for a traitorous action they did not commit. They have all been working together to find the true traitor who is like a ghost in the shadows hunting them as much as they hunt him. In If I Ever, Proph's onsetting blindness, his deep relationship with Tom, and his coming adoption of Remy, have him determined that enough is enough. He will not let the danger from his past continue to touch what he loves. He might privately have his doubts that Tom will stand by him when he knows all his secrets, but those doubts don't match up with the fact that Tom is standing fast through everything. So, he turns the tables and forces the prey to become the hunter. And, he's not the only one with dark secrets.

The book focuses on Proph and Tom as they come to a crisis point in their relationship. Proph has to trust Tom with some pretty brutal facts that might break them apart and Tom has to be strong enough to accept those facts. Their volatile way of handling things and each other is back and as hot and sizzling as ever. But, behind Proph and Tom's story are the secondary stories of Mal and Cillian, the rest of Proph's team, Doc and Nico, and Dean. There are a lot of important players in this one and its like a huge chessboard moving people about. There are conflicts that cause an ever increasing tension in the plot to a series of crescendos.

There is a trigger warning for a rape scene. I found it fit within the context of what was going on, but I bring it out so those who are not in a place to read something like that can avoid it.

I liked how the author stayed true to the earlier tone and pacing of the series even though this one came later. There is a strong emphasis on the relationships both romantic and familial. These men are not birth family, but have come together as a brotherhood against villains who stack up against them. Everyone is some sort of top-level operative so the action and suspense is believable.

All in all, this was a sensational finish to Proph and Tom's story and I don't have to mourn because there is still Mal and Cillian's story already begun in Dirty Deeds with anticipation toward the second installment in that series. If I Ever and the Hell or High Water series is one I'd recommend toward those who want hot and spicy m/m romance and gritty spec ops suspense action.

My thanks to Riptide Publishing for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.