Friends-to-Lovers is way too simple a trope for the men here. I've already come to love these men so much throughout the previous stories in this series and I needed to know their story. There is complication after complication, a wife and kid, deep affection, shared history, separation and reunion...what Brax and Holt have is so vast that they needed to tell their story, I needed to read it.
But something to keep in mind before reading... This is the conclusion of the drama and danger surrounding the family and the villain is one that is important enough that you have to have context behind why it's such a huge deal and you won't get that by starting here with Silent Knight. For that you have to dive in from the beginning with Prince of Killers. It's also in the rest of the series that you see all the complicated mess and longing and affection that's apparent between Holt and Brax. So my suggestion is to go back to where it all started.
Holt and Brax didn't get a trilogy like Chris and Hawes got, but the angst building up throughout all of that up to this moment was enough to make me yearn for Brax and Holt's story. FINALLY!! They get their HEA. And while it took a long time to get there, including most of this book too, it happened. We started with the past, the one hinted at but never shared before now. In Brax's words, his feelings, we see just how deep his feelings went and how they built from their first fated meeting where he fell head over combat boots in love with the scared giant of a young soldier. It answered all the secret questions of how a bond so strong could have existed.
Both men were fierce, caring, and committed to saving the other, almost to their own detriment. Holt had been the quiet force, the tortured gentle soul in the other books in the series, but here we got to see him take charge, running in to save, to protect, and threatening their worst enemy for the sake of those he loves. The ultimate villain was expected, but the way it played out, seeing everyone put the pieces together while also battling Brax's savior complex and his pride and stubbornness, it all worked out to a sufficiently dramatic confrontation that was resolved without the flash-bang of the drama and distractions that preceded it.
I do wish we had spent more time with them on the happier, more settled side of the conclusion. It was a little too abrupt and off-page for all the angsting we'd done up to this point. The choices made at the end were exactly right for everyone and I couldn't be happier with finally seeing Holt and Brax be together as they were meant to be. There was a mention of a certain company, Redemption Inc., and I'm pretty much salivating over that becoming a new spin off series. The world the author has created in San Francisco is addictive and compelling; I'd be ecstatic for another reason to rejoin it.
I won't let anything happen to you.
Fourteen years ago Braxton Kane's feelings were forbidden. As an officer, he couldn't fall for an enlisted...no matter how much he longed for Holt Madigan.
Now―as a police chief in love with a digital assassin―his promise to always protect Holt is becoming harder to keep.
I'll protect you.
Holt doesn't understand why his best friend has been pushing him away for months. But when Brax's life and career are threatened, Holt refuses to allow the distance any longer.
The Madigans protect their own, and Brax is family, whether he believes it or not.
I won't let anything happen to you either.
Forced together, Holt realizes his feelings for his best friend have changed.
His desire to explore the promise their single night together held is undeniable.
His resolve to protect the man who has always protected him is unshakable.
But if Holt wants a future with Brax, he'll have to search and destroy the person who attacked him―before Brax activates the kill switch and sacrifices himself.
*Silent Knight is the fifth book in the Fog City romantic suspense series. It can be read as a stand-alone but is best enjoyed after reading books one through three of the series, in fact, it's definitely my opinion that you should really start with Prince of Killers.
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