Book 862: His Haven (His #3) – Con Riley

This one was a little bit of a disappointment for me. It doesn’t feel like it’s the story of this book that disappointed, more just that the last two were so strong and had such big emotional impacts that this one just fell a little short.

His Haven features Kier, a no-nonsense lawyer whose spent the last year hiding his hurt from being jilted at the altar, and Mitch, Justin’s (Tom’s younger brother with some mental disabilities, from His Compass) health assistant and friend. They’re thrown together when Tom and Nick (protagonists from His Compass) decide they want to purchase a place for Justin and Mitch to stay before/after their various sailing trips.

The story was well written, the characters were believable and the sex scenes worked (minus the let’s talk about being verse but not following up on it). I was glad we got to not only see Tom and Nick from His Compass, but also got a brief glimpse of Jude and Rob from His Horizon.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man who wades across a lake, must want to do more than casually rummage in your pinstripes. (250)

I think the reason the story didn’t work as well for me as the first two in the series is that Riley decided to do the slow reveal for why Keir’s being left at the alter was even worse than it sounded at first pass. We find out who his ex-fiancé was late in the novel and the reveal did have a punch, especially when Keir has to interact with them again, but it just felt dragged out for a lot of the first half of the story. I also felt that Charlie, Keir’s best friend kept stealing some of the scenes and frankly I wanted to know more about him and his love life and whether he would find love. Definitely glad to see Charlie gets his own story in Charles: Learning to Love, which I’d already flagged because it sounded interesting.

The same issue happened with Mitch, but even more-so, especially in that when his backstory is finally revealed it only takes a couple paragraphs and I felt was really short shifted. This is, I’m sure, in large part due to the fact Keir is our primary narrator and it’s not a split narrative.

Even though there was an epilogue, I didn’t think it added much to the heart of the story other than to show that Keir and Mitch made it to a year and had forever plans. It also showed that Keir had repaired things with his family and ex-fiancé, but things with Mitch and Justin weren’t really resolved and overall, I was just left wanting.

Recommendation: This is a well written book with a lot of emotion and intense scenes. The only reason I rated it lower than the other two in the series is that it just wasn’t as strong on the same levels as those. I found Keir to be charming when he gets out of his head and Mitch sweet in an annoying kind of way, and the couple of Jane Austen co-opted quotes were PERFECT! Overall, it’s definitely worth the read.

Opening Line: “Keir Brodie’s self-control slipped a mile off the Cornish coastline, aboard the Aphrodite.”

Closing Line: “Us next will be perfect.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)