Hellion by Rhys Ford

Hellion by Rhys Ford

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Blurb

From the moment SFPD Detective Ruan Nicholls meets Ivo Rogers, he knows the tattoo artist is going to bring chaos to his neat, orderly life. A hellion down to the bone, Ivo is someone Ruan not only doesn’t understand, he’s not even sure he needs to. Everything about Ivo is vibrant, brash, cocky, and arrogant, and Ruan wants no part of him.

Or at least that’s the lie he tells himself when he damps down his desire for the social wild child life tosses into his path.

For Ivo Rogers, life revolves around two things—his family and 415 Ink, the tattoo shop he co-owns with his four brothers. His family might be stitched together by their battle scars from growing up in foster care, but their brotherhood is tight—and strong enough to hold Ivo together during the times when he falls apart.

Now Ivo faces a new challenge when he falls for a cop with an old-school mentality on how a man looks and acts. Ruan is the promise of a life Ivo thought he’d never have, but their clashing perspectives threaten any chance of a relationship. Being the family’s hellion makes it easy to be misunderstood, yet Ivo has faith Ruan will not only embrace who he is but love him as well.

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Review

I was so excited for this book to come out. I was waiting on pins and needles from the moment I closed the cover on Savior*. I read Rebel and while I didn’t love that one as much as I loved Savior, it was still a great book and it didn’t lessen my desire for Hellion at all.

With all that anticipation and hype, you’d think the book HAD to disappoint, right?  I almost hesitated to read it. I mean I thought it couldn’t possibly live up to this fantasy I’d built up in my head. No book could. It would have to clear up my shin splits, fix my back, re-fill my bank account, AND give the Bruins the cup in 2020.

Well, 2020 is still a way off. My bank account is still empty, though, my shin splints are still splinty, my back still hurts, and this book still got five martinis. That’s how good it was. And since this book is at least partially about expectations and not having them, there’s probably a lesson in that.

If you’ve been reading the 415 Ink series, you already know who Ivo is. Or, you think you do. He might even already be your favorite brother. (Mine is and always will be Mace, but I’m pretty fond of Ivo.)  We get a lot of Ivo’s backstory here. I’m not going to talk about it, because it’s spoilery. Suffice it to say that Ivo is twice the badass you think he is, and ten times the guy you want to bring home, bake cookies for, and maybe wrap a blanket around.

His co-host for this ride is a cop. He’s not just any cop. He’s significantly older than Ivo and comes from a world that’s very different from the one Ivo has inhabited. He’s got some ideas about how men should present themselves, for their own safety, and he’s got those ideas for a reason.

It sounds terrible. It is terrible. I’m from Ruan’s generation. Matthew Shepard wasn’t just a name for us – he was killed during our lifetime. He wasn’t the only one. While his name wasn’t brought up during the book, the specter of his death and others like it hung over his perceptions and my interpretations of Ruan’s reactions to Ivo.

I’m not saying it’s right to conform to outdated ideas of presentation or gender because of fear and terrorism. Quite the opposite. I just remember what it was like in those days, so I tended to view Ruan’s reactions as more safety concerns than actual ideas about Ivo being somehow less masculine (whatever that’s supposed to mean.) 

Some reviewers felt differently, and that’s okay. It’s a sensitive topic for a lot of us, and we’ll all view stories involving gender presentation and sexuality through the lens of our own experiences.

What we have with Hellion is two guys who are both dealing with a lot of damage finding a way to come together, support, and love each other. Hellion is about expectations, but it’s also about family (just like all of the other books in the 415 Ink series.)  We should all be so lucky as to have a strong family around us, as Ivo does, and be able to draw on that strength to lift others up.

(I kind of want to blow off the rest of the books I’m supposed to read and read this one again. Alas, I have to go and adult. But I can live vicariously through you.)

* Metaphorically speaking, I read on a tablet most of the time.