Book 996: Hot Lips (The Hot Cannolis #4) – Tara Lain

This book, the conclusion of Eli Easton and Tara Lain’s The Hot Cannolis series, slid under my radar at the end of last year (totally blaming school for that one). I knew it was coming because Easton had written her solo of the series, and yet I still missed it.

I’m so glad Tito got a story! Ever since he was mentioned in one of the earlier books I knew he’d get a book and it would be different from the others. Tito was always described as slight and incredibly beautiful, unlike the other muscly hyper-masculine first-responder protagonists.

The second protagonist is Ari, an undercover cop with the hate crimes division who works with Rick from Hot Pursuit. He’s masculine and out but spends most of his time undercover in horrible anti-gay anti-jewish situations.

After hiding at the Canali compound for quite a while, Tito finally talks to Rick to confess that he’s being stalked online and that he thinks it’s the stalker that attacked him in New York and forced him to move to California.

Fear’s a reaction, but courage is a decision, as the saying goes, and it seems like he’s decided to be at least a little daring. You helped with this. (101)

Rick connects him to Ari and the story explodes from there. We find that Tito is a drag queen, named Tina, with a massive following on YouTube. Attacks start happening on drag queens in the local club district and Tito decides he’s going to help out via Tina. And after uncovering the Tito/Tina connection Ari convinces him to help out in finding the perpetrator.

The novel then turns more whodunnit/crime/mystery/thriller than romance, but it was well done and I thoroughly enjoyed it! There are a couple of moments when Tina has to figure out how to get out of danger and I held my breath! My favorite part of the novel though was when Tina joined a local drag club for a benefit performance and this happened:

Tina sobered. ‘There are a lot of forces that tell us we have no right to exist, but all of you put the lie to that assertion.’
Melinda leaned into the microphone. ‘Just remember, Jack and Jill went up the hill so Jack could lick Jill’s candy.’
Tina purred, ‘But Jack got a shock and a mouthful of cock, ’cause Jill’s real name was Randy.’ They both threw a fist in the air.
‘Drag forever!’ (248)

If I would’ve had a drink I would’ve done a spit take! I have never heard that before, but it’s hilarious and perfect.

The only thing I would’ve asked for since this was the final book in the series was a bit of face time with everyone from the other books. We got to see Rick, but not his partner, and Mike and Sean (from Hot Seat) and the others may have made brief appearances but they were so short that I honestly can’t remember. There was also a lot less family time in this one which made the other so perfect! That being said Lain did a great job saving it with the hilarious epilogue of Tito’s parents and all the Canali’s and Ari’s parents coming to a Tina sendoff show. The wedding conversation and Ari’s bowing to the inevitable even though they weren’t even engaged was chef’s kiss perfection for the end of the series.

Recommendation: This was a great end to the series. It introduced a different type of masculinity and strength and brought in performativity which was incredibly well done. Tito and Ari are perfect for each other and Lain saved herself with the epilogue giving me the extra Canali time that I desperately wanted and time with Ari’s parents too which left me chuckling days later. I enjoyed revisiting the series so much that I dove right into an entirely different series by Easton and Lain!

Opening Line: “Shit, look at that mouth. He swallowed and stared at the computer screen.”

Closing Line: “I couldn’t agree more.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)

Additional Quotes from Hot Lips
“Trying to assume my Harry Potter cloak of invisibility, I walked, not too fast and not too slow, to the coffee table, put down the plate of eggs beside the paper napkins, made eye contact with no one, and turned to leave.” (32)

“We both watched the performer on the stage who was really good. She called herself Kobayashi Marie, which was funny right off. A wonderful play on Star Trek’s unwinnable scenario. Her costume harkened back to the old Star Trek outfits, with short skirt and high boots; her wig was blonde and had a tight flip; and she lip-synced to a medley of ‘Fly Me to The Moon’ and then morphed into ‘Rocket Man.’ She had the whole audience on its feet.” (79)