Fish Stick Fridays (Belen’s Review)

Title: Fish Stick Fridays (Half Moon Bay #1)
Author: Rhys Ford
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: November 30th 2015
Genre(s): M/M Contemporary Romance / Mystery
Page Count: 204 pages
Reviewed by: Belen
Heat Level: 3 flames out of 5
Rating: 4.4 stars out of 5

Blurb:

Deacon Reid was born bad to the bone with no intention of changing. A lifetime of law-bending and living on the edge suited him just fine—until his baby sister died and he found himself raising her little girl.

Staring down a family history of bad decisions and reaped consequences, Deacon cashes in everything he owns, purchases an auto shop in Half Moon Bay, and takes his niece, Zig, far away from the drug dens and murderous streets they grew up on. Zig deserves a better life than what he had, and Deacon is determined to give it to her.

Lang Harris is stunned when Zig, a little girl in combat boots and a purple tutu blows into his bookstore, and then he’s left speechless when her uncle, Deacon Reid walks in, hot on her heels. Lang always played it safe but Deacon tempts him to step over the line… just a little bit.

More than a little bit. And Lang is willing to be tempted.

Unfortunately, Zig isn’t the only bit of chaos dropped into Half Moon Bay. Violence and death strikes leaving Deacon scrambling to fight off a killer before he loses not only Zig but Lang too.

THOROUGHLY ENJOYABLE!

Deacon “Deke” Reid isn’t a paragon of society. He’s has a rough life, makes no apologies, and didn’t really give a shit what anyone thought – until his little sister dies leaving her six year old daughter, Bobo “Zig” Ziegfried, behind.

Determined to make a better life for Zig, Deke decides to do whatever it takes to get custody of Zig and raise her right. With a misdemeanor prison stint hanging over his head and an iffy career at building custom bikes, Child Protective Services and the Family Court definitely hadn’t bent over backward to give him the kid. It’d taken nearly eight months of wrangling, pleading, and rearranging his life back in Atlanta before someone finally decided to give Zig over.

In the process of doing this he sells most of his belongings—anything worth anything, leaving him with a battered truck, a Harley Road King and a matching sidecar – piles everything, including Zig, he had left so he could be the sole owner of Artie’s Motors, a mechanic’s shop in a California coast town called Half Moon Bay.

Lang Harris is a bookshop owner and property landlord in Half Moon Bay and has his own horror-filled past and problems to work through. One look at Zig and he’s smitten, one look at Deke and he’s a goner. Deke’s equally gone over Lang and the two begin seeing each other.

You—I took one look at you, and I felt like someone’d punched me in the face. I wanted you.

This story starts off with a BANG! and barrels through to the ending with only a few pauses to let you catch your breath. It’s exhilarating, invigorating, crazy, delightful, and exciting.

Side Note: Wondering how the book gets it’s name? In the Reid/Ziegfried house every Friday is Fish Stick Fridays.

Some of my favorite moments are when the story calms down a bit in places and you get to see the relationship between Deke and Zig and Deke and Lang develop and grow. The love that Deke has for Zig is so transparent and lovely to witness. It’s the highlight of the story for me. Though, as per usual with one of Rhys Ford stories, I wasn’t disappointed with the humor and, like always, I enjoyed the references to other books and book characters.

Spoiler

My only complaint is the timeline for things. It seems like only days between Lang and Deke meeting, falling in love, and mashing their lives together. It just happens so quickly I was taken a bit aback. But that could just be that everything was happening so fast and I was devouring the story so quickly that missed a “weeks go by” or something along those lines…

Bottom line: I had a rollicking good time reading this and will be looking forward to more stories set in Half Moon Bay!

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