T.A.G. You’re Heard

I have been deliberately reading series entries lately where I have not read any previous entries in that series. I find I like that for two reasons. First, I get to see how the author handles recurring character descriptions and background summaries and get a feel for whether or not they are skilled enough to tell me enough to enjoy the current story without feeling the need to do huge info dumps from previous books. If they do this well, then I like to go back to the previous books and see where these characters came from. Second, I just kind of like to read about characters that I know have a history but I don't know every detail about what that history is. Again, if I like the character I want to go back to previous books and learn more about them. So, I have not read the first book in the Assassin's Guild series but I am certainly going to do that after reading this book.

I liked Connor from the first. He is young, kind of immature and goofy around his group, but there are clearly layers of toughness there that could only have been laid down by a past with some serious stuff in it. Oz, was a harder for me to like at first. I understand the use of characters who have shut down emotionally because of past experiences only to have their eyes opened at last by a special someone. It is one of my favorite tropes in the romance field. Here, though I thought Oz could have been more open with Connor since even he admits that he know Connor will understand and accept what he has to tell him. It did, however, make the eventual thawing of Oz that much sweeter and the author creates a backstory for him that explains his feelings that he can't give Connor what he wants and needs.

When Connor is kidnapped, things get grim both in what Connor endures and in how his group frantically searches for him, fearing the worst. There are certainly books of dark romance that are much, much darker than this one, but the scenes with Connor and his kidnapper are still realistically scary and nerve wracking. Reminds me a bit in tone of when Dante Torre is recaptured in the Sandrone Dazieri novel Kill the Father.
I enjoyed the scenes depicting the hunt for Connor and all the technology that was being used as well as getting to meet The Haitian (hope we get more about him in the future).