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friends2lovers 's review for:
Reasonable Doubt
by Gregory Ashe
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
I have mixed feelings about the murder case in this one. The suspects are largely unmemorable and the case is not as tightly plotted as it could have been. There are a couple of twists; one is revealed in a confusing way (Sister Hagar's real identity ), and the other comes out-of-nowhere (Kolosik's attack on Hazard and Evie ).
The most compelling suspect is Clyde because of how his religious trauma compares and contrasts with Hazard's. We learn in this book that when Hazard came out to his parents as a teen, they sent him to a religious conversion therapy center. Seeing Clyde's experiences of abuse and manipulation by the religious cult dredges up a lot of bad memories for Hazard.
There's additional personal stuff going on adjacent to the mystery plot. Hazard's father is in town. The reason for his visit is unsurprising, but his inclusion in the story serves a purpose for Hazard's character arc. As for Hazard and Somers, they are finally romantically together. Although it's clear (to the reader, at least) they love each other, they both privately fret over feelings of insecurity in their relationship. Their insecurities are mostly overcome by the end, but there's still enough unresolved to carry over into future books.
It took me a while to get into this one, as there are quite a few threads to follow—the murder case, past trauma, relationship angst, etc.—but they all eventually tie in to the story's key themes of belief, trust, and family.
Finally, after reading all but one of the books in this series, I have to criticize Ashe's overuse of epithets. Somers is repeatedly referred to as "the blond man" while Hazard is "the big man." Presumably these epithets are used to avoid pronoun reference errors/confusion but, as explained in this blog post, they're terrible and unnecessary.
The most compelling suspect is Clyde because of how his religious trauma compares and contrasts with Hazard's. We learn in this book that when Hazard came out to his parents as a teen, they sent him to a religious conversion therapy center. Seeing Clyde's experiences of abuse and manipulation by the religious cult dredges up a lot of bad memories for Hazard.
There's additional personal stuff going on adjacent to the mystery plot. Hazard's father is in town. The reason for his visit is unsurprising, but his inclusion in the story serves a purpose for Hazard's character arc. As for Hazard and Somers, they are finally romantically together. Although it's clear (to the reader, at least) they love each other, they both privately fret over feelings of insecurity in their relationship. Their insecurities are mostly overcome by the end, but there's still enough unresolved to carry over into future books.
It took me a while to get into this one, as there are quite a few threads to follow—the murder case, past trauma, relationship angst, etc.—but they all eventually tie in to the story's key themes of belief, trust, and family.
Finally, after reading all but one of the books in this series, I have to criticize Ashe's overuse of epithets. Somers is repeatedly referred to as "the blond man" while Hazard is "the big man." Presumably these epithets are used to avoid pronoun reference errors/confusion but, as explained in this blog post, they're terrible and unnecessary.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Death, Homophobia, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Forced institutionalization
Minor: Body shaming, Cancer, Fatphobia, Alcohol