Mermaid Moon

I loved this. Full of the best type of angst!!

A second chance, teacher/student, MM romance.

I was so curious to learn about why Derek and Jordan were always at odd with each other after seeing them in Finley's book 1 in this series.
There was a lot of time jumps but overall this was done very well. I almost needed more but it was also the perfect length without getting too much.

Jordan is who is is and won't apologize for it. Derek is a tough guy with a grumpy exterior just trying to make it through the day. He leaned on Jordan during a tough time, and they kind of never gave that up. Years passed and still Jordan was the light in his life. His person to lean on and help share Derek's burdens.

This was wonderful and beautiful and a good representation of opposites and learning how to communicate feelings.

I've never been a fan of romance novels so I would never have picked this book up if I hadn't seen a review posted during a book swap game I was participating in. I read the review for this book and decided I wanted to read it. I read the first book first and it was great. I liked it better than this one but this book kept my interest too. I like the mystery and suspense more than the lovey-dovey parts but I definitely will be finishing this series and looking into more books by this author. Now I have to make myself finish the other books I've started before reading the third book in this series.

4.5 starsThis mystery may not have as many twists and turns as the first book, but it's just as hard to figure out. I really liked Mallory as a character, and it was fun to have so much of Claire, Luke, and Kate from book 1. (I'd recommend reading this series in order, as this book has a few major spoilers for the previous book, and some character relationships/history makes more sense through that book.) It was truly interesting to have a game warden hero; I haven't seen that used much in mysteries, and it was neat to see him work on the case with the help of the local sheriff and his Coastie friend Luke.The romance is tasteful and believable; I'm a sucker for second-chance love stories like theirs.Some fun appearances: I absolutely love it when authors borrow each other's characters! This book features a spot with Abby McKinley from [b:Married ‘til Monday 23582593 Married ‘til Monday (Chapel Springs, #4) Denise Hunter https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1416321465s/23582593.jpg 43186383], a book I loved, and an professional appearance by forensic artist Gwen Marcey from [b:A Cry from the Dust 18850687 A Cry from the Dust (Gwen Marcey #1) Carrie Stuart Parks https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387240112s/18850687.jpg 26795664], a book I haven't read but am now eager to.