A scared, lonely past and a dangerous secret follow Dr. Aiden Sharp to the peaceful town of Lake Cliff, Illinois, when he arrives to testify in a murder trial for the district attorney.
Some heroes are built a little differently than the rest of us and some hearts love in a way we're not used to. Blood spatter and exit wounds make more sense to Aiden than a casual remark or a quick wink. Living faces and expectations have always been more of a mystery to Aiden than the cases he handles for the FBI because of his Asperger's but he's never let it stop him from getting what he wants. He wants Lane as soon as their eyes meet in the airport but Aiden gets a lot more than he expected when danger arrives with a text message and a threat he can no longer outrun. Luckily, Aiden finds a safe place to hide and learns he actually has a heart, he was just waiting for someone to teach him how to use it.
Detective Lane West is prepared to protect the gorgeous but confusing forensic psychologist from himself and just about anything fate throws at them. But what about Lane's heart? Despite his best intentions, Lane can't keep his hands off Aiden, keep it in his pants, or keep his heart out of it as soon as Mr. Morning After works his magic.
Passion and pancakes bring two lonely hearts together and an errand for the district attorney turns Lake Cliff upside down.
Author of the popular Nannies of New York and Boys of Lake Cliff book series, K Sterling has self-published dozens of books. K. is known for fast-paced romantic thrillers and touching gay romcoms. There might be goosebumps and some gore but there’s always true love and lots of laughter.
There are many flaws in this story: the editing is nonexistent, and the myriad typos and punctuation errors proved more than a little distracting.
One of the MCs, Aiden, who is a forensic psychologist, has Asperger syndrome. One word: NO. People on the spectrum do not act like Aiden acts. His portrayal was simplistic and unrealistic. It's like Sterling spent ten minutes doing research on Wiki before she wrote the story.
The other MC, Lane, a detective, has been having an affair with a married man for two years. He only stops because the guy's wife is pregnant with their second baby. That's right, there was a FIRST baby, and Lane kept right on fucking the guy, even though the guy's a cheating douche.
There are some major plot holes and loose ends. And, well ... this really isn't a good book, objectively speaking.
And yet.
I'm giving it three stars.
Because SEX.
Lots and lots of rough, tender, possessive, decadent, butt-clenching sex and enough orgasms to make my head explode.
Plus a HEA (Sterling writes stellar epilogues).
Basically, I'm a perv and easily bought. So sue me.
I enjoyed this just as much this time around. I love these two guys.
Originally read March 2018
**4.5 Stars**
Well this was a nice surprise. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I honestly didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. I loved Aiden and his no filter and I love how Lane just got him and accepted him quirks and all. And oh boy...this author knows how to write some hot sex scenes 🔥🔥🔥🔥.
Was it perfect? No, but it was still quite enjoyable. I’m definitely moving on to the next book!
Detective Lane had to babysit Aiden, an FBI doctor who was coming to town. It was lust at first sight. However, Lane was hell-bent on ignoring the intense attraction, avoiding to cross the professional wires.
Too bad Aiden was not thinking the same. 😏 Aiden was shameless, almost promiscuous, and got on with hitting hard on Lane with no pretences.
Aiden had Asperger's, and that's the reason I'm doing this under spoiler tags. It was interesting seeing his coping mechanisms. I can't vouch for the accuracy regarding the Asperger syndrome since I know almost zero about it. However, there were occasions I felt choked up and overwhelmed by Aiden's feelings, which, together with the sex, is the reasons for this turning into a winner. Well done!
It felt pretty much authentic to me the way Aiden reacted to certain things, or how he was touched by other things.
The intimacy between them escalated quickly and left me with such a warm fuzzy feeling! It was a beauty to watch Lane starting to care about Aiden. They were gorgeous together.
The sex was unbelievably hot. I don't think I need to elaborate on my gifs. You do get the memo, right?
My negative points: The end was a bit cheesy. The writing was sometimes confusing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
After receiving a few comments from folks telling me that MC Lane is actually redeemed by MC Adien, I decided to give this book another shot. Stopping at 2% just isn't fair to a book with such a great overall rating. I thought I might be missing something, and I most certainly was! This was a fantastic book with hot-as-fire sex with a double dose of passion. I absolutely fell in love with MC Adien and the way he said the first thing that popped into his mine. Appropriate or inappropriate. It was charming. (An also the result of his Asperger's syndrome.)
Highly recommended folks! Adien wields his magic and turns MC Lane from a married-man-fucking-douche-nozzle to a witty, vibrant man with lots of lots of love to give.
This review is also posted at
At 2% done with Hide And Keep and... Wait. MC Lane just came out of a relationship with a married DA whose wife just had a baby? And he knew about it but kept going back for the strings-free sex?
Not particularly fond of Douche Nozzle romantic heroes. DNF
5/14/2019. Author is read/kink shaming people on twitter. Cleared my rating, no more for me with this author.
The premise of this book was not unusual but what made me like it was the characters. I love it when the characters are flawed, when it's not all smooth sailing.
Here we have Aiden who is young, beautiful and smart. Life should be perfect for him but he is struggling because he has Asperger's. I read in other reviews that some people thought his behavior described as silly and his condition not researched well enough. So I was intrigued. Since Asperger's syndrome has been put on the Autism spectrum recently I would risk to suggest that Aiden might be a highly functioning autistic person who is also a savant. There were certain characteristics that were spot on that he clearly exhibited that made me think that this author did her research well. I don't claim to be an authority but I do know a lot about autism and I liked how K. Sterling created Aiden for the most part - the exchange with Lane in the end about laundry spoiled the whole effect for me - that part was immature and infantile behavior. Otherwise I liked him and how he coped with everything around him.
Detective Lane West was easy to like despite his weakness for married scumbag men. Lobbing all the blame at him would not be right as he was not the only one participating. The man in question, Clark the attorney was a questionable choice from the beginning and that made me wonder why Lane even started their affair considering how bad it turned from the start. But I am glad his taste improved and he succumbed to Aiden's raw magnetism and his abdominal six pack. Those were some hot fun times.
The rest of the book was good, the writing style was easy and a joy to read. There is something to be said about the steady flow of words that just makes you read on and on. I liked all the secondary characters who provided support and at times comic relief. All was well-put together, with a very romantic ending that was very satisfying. I recommend it!
Oh man, this is quite HOT🔥🔥🔥🔥 4 smocking stars! Off-the charts sexual chemistry. *fans self*
Aiden had Lane completely an utterly mindless and disintegrating into an incoherent human puddle under his sexually skillful hands. He was ruthless, aggressive, meticulous and insatiable. And it was HOT!
Soooo, the rest of the story. Focus M. I adored these two together even outside of bed. The insta-lust/love, hit the spot. They were possessive, jealous, protective, territorial over each other.
Was this story believable or rooted in reality? Nope. One definitely needs to suspend belief in order to enjoy this.
Aiden’s portrayal had moments when it didn’t quite ring true, but I’m no expert. Chief of police was so incredibly unprofessional and blatantly discussing the D.A’s and Aiden’s sex life right there in the courthouse and precinct. I died when he googled pegging. Lane’s morals are also quite compromised, so one would need to be willing to forgive a morally ambiguous character.
So yeah, it’s OTT, unrealistic and highly entertaining! And did I mention, HOT? Just incase I wasn’t quite clear ^_^
I’m not a big fan of short-fiction, I prefer my stories lengthy, but this is actually quite well rounded for a 92 page story. The pacing does waver here and there but for the most part it does a solid job of encompassing a year in the life of Aiden and Lane with an OTT epilogue and adorable HEA.
Definitely recommending to anyone looking a quick, fun, steamy read and is willing to overlook unrealistic aspects of the story.
When I started this book, I did not know one of the M/C's had Asperger's, and the way the author portrays the character just felt wrong to me. Of course, this is just my personal opinion. I did try to skim, but I just couldn't do it.
I am not going to rate this book because I feel this is my own personal issue. All of my friends loved this series, so please read their reviews. I do not want my review to influence your decision.
Reread September 2020 Just as good as the first time ❤️
Oh how I love Aiden and Lane. These two are absolutely perfect for each other. This is my first book by this author and I will be binge reading her books soon. I loved it from the very first page. These two both needed someone to truly love them and deserved their hea.
K. Sterling writes some interesting stories with endearing characters. The only complaint I have is that she really needs an editor. She doesn't do well using commas, there are quite a few spelling errors sprinkled throughout her books, and enough word swapping to convince me it's caused by simple ignorance. "Confidant" in lieu of "confident", for instance (). Or someone feeling their curiosity "peak" instead of having their curiosity "piqued" (). And one should "defuse" a bomb, not "diffuse" a bomb (). Different words, completely different meanings.
I think there's a word for that. And I think it's covered in most basic English classes. Or maybe not, given the state of education today. (The word is malapropism. Thanks, sraxe!)
Sterling also uses periods at the end of quoted dialogue before "he/she said" instead of a comma, which can get confusing for the reader. Not to mention the ever pervasive "its/it's" confusion. That one is probably small to most people, but it's one of my biggest writing pet peeves.
Anyway, the editing wouldn't be restricted to fixing spelling errors ("eery"? ), but would also have to address Sterling's tendency to put way too many sex scenes in her books. There's only so much I can take before I want to know what's going on with the actual story.
She has potential, and her stories are good. With a little work, they could be great.
4.5 stars. K. Sterling missed the mark with Aiden. Her portrayal of a character with Asperger's Syndrome was not believable. But Aiden was endearing. Definitely a favorite character.
Well this was not a well researched book at all, for an autistic man Aiden reminded me of Monk 😅, Almost everything that Aiden is, is far from his diagnosis I kept on correcting a lot of things in my head and it was exhausting, I ended up pretending that he was just misdiagnosed and it was better Lane sucked at being a detective he missed so many things he might as well have been a rookie cop and even rookies might be better than him. The only reason why I rated this a two stars book is because of the sex to be honest 😊, they really burned the sheets. Don’t judge me 😂
I loved this book and Aiden was everything. I just loved his personality. I love a book when both the MC's don't really realize how much they're missing their other halves until they meet each other. This is what happened to Lane and Aiden. I just loved them together. The sex was super hot too ;-)
I wanted to like this more but man, I thought things were a bit overly dramatic until that scene in the Chief's office...and that was some next level cray-cray. Which, okay I was willing to roll with until the climatic confrontation that was, well, kind of anti-climatic. So, that was disappointing. And then we get like 2 more chapters AND an epilogue afterwards, most of which felt unnecessary.
Everything procedural in this was just...off. The investigation, the take-down, the "not-gay" gay DA acting like the biggest drama queen ever. No, that would insult actual Drama Queens. He was just...nope. Don't see how someone like that keeps his job.
(Definitely stopped seeing Aiden as Spencer pretty quickly, too, because I actually like Spencer and he isn't anywhere near as inconsistent; seriously, the characterization for this MC was kind of a hot mess.)
I really enjoyed this book and these characters. Do I sound surprised? Probably, because it was a little bumpy initially. I didn’t totally buy into Aiden’s Asperger’s Syndrome.
But the book won me over in the end. Now it’s straight onto the next one for me.
Lane, a police officer (maybe detective?) send by his boss to pick up an expert witness from the airport. Aidan (a.k.a Dr. Sharp, and I still don’t know what kind of a doctor he is) has Asperger syndrome. Aidan refuses to stay in hotels because a lunatic stalker who’s following him for three years. Lane insists that Aidan will stay at his place and the rest is history.
I have so many problems with this book. - Aidan showed very little Asperger’s symptoms. In fact, his behavior was so much not like people who has any kind of autism. IMO it was unnecessary for the story. - What Lane’s deal is? Is he a cop? Detective? It felt important because he was protecting Aidan from that so called “stalker� but We didn’t get a lot of information about it. - the suspense felt forced and again, unnecessary. - the editing was basically non-exist.
Those was my main issues, but there is more. At some point I decided not to take it seriously and just tried to enjoy the story But I don’t think I really succeeded. 🤷🏼♀�
I'm no expert on Asperger's but I liked Aiden, and all his quirks. I like how he thinks, and what he says, and when he stood up for himself in the courtroom I smiled a smug smile for him.
But what isn't working for me is the interplay between Lane and Cabbot and Aiden. And when that's done we have to deal with Aiden's
This kind of drama is not for me. Ive just lost interest.
What can I say besides I really enjoyed this one and can't wait to get to the next. I hope this series as a whole is a good one. Book 1 leaves me hopeful. Lane and Aiden are fantastic together and I want more...
You know what? I really appreciate an author who knows how to deliver a good time. In the Romance triangle of Plot/Characters/Smut she chose Characters and Smut, made that pretty clear from the start and then proceeded to deliver on it with prejudice.
This is me writing this review from the fridge because WOW there is A LOT of well-written smut in this book. Now that I have established that let me quickly talk about the characters: Lane is actually nothing new if you have met a cop/military/other dudes who carry guns protagonist before. He looks great, definitely leans more towards protective and growly alpha than subby bottom BUT is luckily versatile in bed. The suprise depth comes from the way he handles meeting and naturally falling in lust and then love with Aiden Sharp.
Aiden is pretty much the reason to read this book. He has Asperger's and this story is not interested in making that fact an inconvenience to the abled people around him. Instead the first thing Lane does is find out how Aiden's Asperger's affects HIS life and how he can make him more comfortable. This attitude can be felt throughout the book. That doesn't mean that Aiden is not also extremely gorgeous, funny as hell, happily promiscous and absolutely interested in getting into Lane's pants as soon as possible.
The suspense plot takes an absolute backseat here and is dealt with in the background in warp speed. By that time I was so engrossed in Aiden and Lane that I really did not care and neither should you.
This is the story most of the DNF's in my graveyard where trying to be - read it if you want to be lightly entertained and thoroughly turned on!
So this was free, and I love characters with asperger, so why not read? Right?
Well, when I started this I was really excited, the story was introduced in a very interesting way, the leads promised to be complex and then they started having sex, and that was all that happened next...
I have read a lot of books with asperger characters, one of my favorite authors is autistic and she writes romantic books about it, with asian dudes, so it's perfect for me! � (Her name is Helen Hoang, and she is known for The Kiss Quotient, but I love the series) Her books are much more deep, they explain a lot more about the quirks and details about being in the spectrum and maybe I'm used to that, so this one didn't compare.
The characters were really interesting, so the author had room to go deep with them, explaining how Aiden copes with everyday stuff, not just with sex, would have been nice. And how Lane had to adapt to those changes, but it didn't happen.
Oh shit I just read other reviews and DO Not Approve of people kink shaming, no matter when.
No matter.. this book and audio had problems so it's a DNF for me. Seriously who makes rude comments through a character about Asperger's syndrome in a book. A big nope from me especially with this part in the book and audio. I hate wasting money. :(
What an amazing book with one of the most fascinating characters I've ever read about. Aiden is definitely my new favorite person : ) The author portrayed him so very well. I'm in awe. I loved the plot and the ending was perfect beyond words. Definitely 5+++
Great story, and very well delivered. On the short side, but has everything it needed.
I loved Aiden and Lane as MC's, but especially Aiden, and how Sterling wrote him. He was thoroughly understandable and believable, and was wonderful for Lane.
The supporting characters rocked--lol, the chief!--and I liked all they collectively went through.
The only negative was that this needed a good editor. And this author should probably learn a few things, like that when you use the plural form of a word, you just add and "s" to the end of the word, NOT an apostrophe then "s," e.g. if you're saying suits, it's just that, not the possessive form "suit's," which would mean something belonging to the suit being spoken of.
Even though frequent grammatical issues like that interrupted the read, it was still very good, and I highly recommend.
I didn't know what book I wanted to read next, but apparently this was it. It took me by complete surprise. Lane and Aiden are the best main characters. When Lane researched Asperger's syndrome I knew I would learn a lot. The sex scenes were smoky hot and well written but it was their daily interactions that made me fall in love with these two. Who knew that someone sorting laundry would make me laugh. I'm closing this book with a huge smile in my face.