Sinner's Gin was full of quirky characters and danger, and Whiskey and Wry is no different. I found parts of it harder to follow, more poetry than prose, but that didn't detract from the emotional punches of reunion and new love, danger and overwhelming family (remarkably similar if your mind's been messed with as much as Damian's has).

And the end. It is a masterful hook into the next in the series, Tequila Mockingbird, which I want right now but I must finish reading other novels before I indulge. SIGH ( )

I believe this series can take its place among my favorite M/M romances. After just 2 books in the Sinner's Gin series, it can join the Witchbane, the Badlands series of Morgan Brice....Josh Lanyon's Adrien English series....and Robert Winter's Pride & Joy series. What Rhys Ford has done so well is allow us to meet these broken men, and witness the long, slow ritual that leads to their discovering each other's hearts. We learn about Damien's not-too-distant past and wonder who could hate him enough to orchestrate the freakish hijacking of his life. We meet and get to know Sionn's, a cousin to the Morgan family and learn about his own emotional burdens. Best of all we get to watch these two men warily circle one another, but eventually know and accept that this is going somewhere special...and we are allowed to go with them. From the very first moment we and Damien know the hired assassin is there. The question is when will they meet? We know that only one will and walk away, and we sincerely hope that it's going to be Damien. Nothing else would be imaginable or acceptable. Now...on to Conner's story. ( )

1.5 star

This review is kinda spoilerish~

I'm gonna stop at 66% and leave it at that.
I think it was a mistake reading book #1 and this one one right after the other.

What I liked:
- Not much, actually. In the previous book the best parts were Miki and Dude. With them not in the spotlight... Well, I did like the reunion.

What I didn't like:
- I have forgiven Kane's cheesiness because I thought it was just how he is. And Miki's reactions to it were kinda funny. But, it seems the cheesiness is either a family trait or just the way this writer does things. Sionn's lines were... I can't find the right word, but this says it all:

"Hold on, Damie love," he whispered, suckling the spot he's bitten. "Let's see how close we can fly to heaven."

- There were lots of things that broke the flow of the story, like when D and Sionn were getting hot and heavy and D suddenly started comparing Sionn to Dread Pirate Roberts from The Princess Bride. Or when Sionn was looking for D and started talking to God in the middle of a full street when he found him.
- In general, people seem to do a lot of talking out loud to no one in particular in this series.
- The motivation of the villain is flaky at best. This has been said many times before but, why was Damie kept alive? If the motivation is money, why spend a load of it on an assassin?
- Speaking of the assassin, I get it. He is super bad. He is a sick fuck. But his bits of POV were not helping me wanting to continue reading the book.
- After talking a bit with Tara, the conclusion is that the way the Murphy family is speaking is just a bunch of words and phrases that sounded "Irish" enough thrown together. The word "boyo" especially made me think of really old Irish mobsters in American cop shows typically set in NY. Incidentally, the word isn't used anywhere in Ireland, by old people or young.

In the end, I didn't think I needed to finish this book to be able to enjoy(?) the third one, so I didn't.
( )

I'm so glad I finally bit the bullet and read the first one of this series. If I hadn't, I might have missed out on this one!

In this book, the focus is on Damian. The progression from basically barely knowing who he is, or who to trust, to the man he should be is beautifully done. It's a very believable progression which is something I greatly appreciate.

Sionn is a man also with a history. Nothing like Damian, but he carries his own battle scars. Together they make an unlikely, but beautiful (and hot!) couple.

Miki and Kane also get airtime in this book, and once Damien comes back into the world as the "risen from the dead" rockstar, the action ramps up. I'll admit, the "who-dunnit" was slightly predictable, but enjoyable non the less..

I'm finding I'm loving this authors style. Her characters are strong, but flawed. Answers and solutions are fought for, not instantly fixed and her smexing? Well, very satisfying to say the least lol. I'm really looking forward to continuing this series. ( )

I enjoyed the love story here, Damien and Sionn are an interesting couple, both have a lot of baggage to work through and the scenes together are rich and full of depth. I loved Sionn's Gaelic coming through and could almost hear his Irish brogue.

The mystery portion, though, left me with more questions than answers. I want to know how Damien's death was faked, why wasn't he killed outright, why lock him away and make him believe he is someone else?

So I really like the story, and I hope there are more answers in the next book. ( )