The Caretaker by CP Harris (Infidelity #3)

TITLE: ⟫ The Caretaker

AUTHOR: ⟫ CP Harris

SERIES: ⟫ Infidelity #3

RATING: ⟫ 5/5

BLURB: ⟫ The only thing Noon Waters is sure of is his undying love for his wife. But when a devastating accident ripped both her and a good deal of his memories away from him, he’s left to navigate a new life weighed down by grief, anger, and confusion.

After stumbling upon an old receipt dated one day prior to the tragic event, Noon’s curiosity leads him to Haley Cove, a place he can’t remember but is somehow certain holds the key to regaining his forgotten years.

So focused on the memories he hopes to recapture, Noon is unprepared for the oddly familiar stranger he finds there instead. As a tentative friendship between the two men blooms into something more, Noon’s reasons for being in the quaint town become less clear. What starts as a quest for answers ends with a revelation too painful to bear.

What happens when the beautiful life you thought you had lived was a lie, but that lie is all you can remember?

**The Caretaker is a MM romance and book 3 in the Infidelity series. It ends with a HEA, and can be read as a stand-alone but may be better enjoyed if read in series order. Themes include amnesia, hurt/comfort, and second chances. Both MCs are consenting adults. Please use the Amazon “Look Inside” feature for a full list of what you can expect.

REVIEW: ⟫ Well this one is going to rip your heart out and squeeze it into a million pieces in every chapter! My goodness – it’s 6 am in the morning and I’ve just finished reading The Caretaker and the bonus scene available on C.P. Harris’ website and I had to get down how I felt immediately.

Each time I begin to read one of their books, I find myself wondering if I will care about the characters as much as I did the first time. And each time, I find myself dragged into a maelstrom of emotions – fear, pain, love – literally tears making it hard to read the words but needing to keep reading because I need to know how they make it through the hell that they are in.

Noon and Solace are no different to Jasper, Cole, Leland, Frankie – they are human beings with good and bad within them, fighting to find a way through their life that means something and contains some happiness. And it is a battle – Noon and Solace fight to get back to each other, even when one of them isn’t aware that that’s what he’s doing. This story was just freaking masterful in the way it wove the past and the present together. Even when you KNOW what’s coming, it’s still so heartbreaking that there just aren’t words.

I think I’ve said it before that C.P. Harris is quite possibly one of the few authors that can make me read infidelity and understand it – the understanding of people’s motives, how they live and breathe, what they need – it shines through in each story, and the Caretaker is no exception.

I would dearly love it if this one was made into a movie – simply because I would love to see if there was a man out there who could play Noon in all of his seven foot, intimidating glory. That and I think the sex scenes would be hotter than fire.

An easy 5/5 from me and please don’t forget to read the bonus scene – it was the literal cherry on top of a perfect sundae!

The Fishermen by C.P. Harris (Infidelity #2)

TITLE: ⟫ The Fishermen

AUTHOR: ⟫ C.P. Harris

RATING: ⟫ 5/5

BLURB: ⟫ At the age of twenty-five, Leland Meadows has his whole life mapped out in front of him, with four rules to live by:

No new friends.

No dreams or aspirations.

No repeat hookups.

And definitely no committed relationships.

Leland’s looking for safety, not heartbreak and disappointment. Then one day he receives an offer he can’t turn down. Rent is due, and the catering company his best friend’s sister works for is suddenly one server short for the biggest event of the year. Leland accepts the job—but those rules he’s been so careful to follow? They don’t stand a chance against Franklin Kincaid.

At forty-five, the lie Franklin Kincaid has been living his entire life catches up with him.

His job no longer fulfils him—if it ever had.

His marriage is in crisis.

His heart yearns for something he can’t identify—or maybe he’s just too terrified to admit it.

And his children are clueless about all of it.

On a cold and lonely night, Franklin’s search for courage leads him to a rooftop in down-town Seattle, where he finds Leland Meadows instead.

Neither of them would ever be the same again…

***The Fishermen is a best friend’s dad MM romance and Book 2 in the Infidelity series. Each book features a new couple, can be read as a stand-alone, and ends with a HEA. Themes include age-gap, possessiveness, hurt/comfort, and second chances. Both MCs are consenting adults. Please use the Amazon “Look Inside” feature for a full list of content warnings.

REVIEW: ⟫ No one does messy relationships like C.P. Harris and boy, was this story full of messy relationships.

Having read the first book in the Infidelity series and grabbed hints about Leland and Franklin, I was confused by the start of this book. Had I misinterpreted what was going on? Were they not the people I was thinking they were? This misdirect was masterful – the story wouldn’t have had anywhere near the impact that it did if it wasn’t for (a) reading the first book and (b) the stellar writing.

Leland refuses to connect to anyone. Well, he allows himself one person but that’s it – his trust won’t extend further. So finding himself getting to know Franklin, telling him things that he hasn’t revealed ever before and falling into a ‘summer’ together was never on his radar.

Franklin is at a crossroads where his perfect looking life is beginning to crumble – along with the person that he presented to the world and kinda thought he was. How do you stay married to someone, live your life, when everything inside you is screaming for just a bit of freedom? He feels like a failure as a husband and a father and has no idea where to go from there. Taking Leland’s hand and ‘looking down’ is the beginning of a journey that he would in no way ever have been able to prepare for, or expect.

Oh man, this story took us down some dark paths and even though I fell down this rabbit hole willingly, I still wasn’t prepared for what was going to happen. Leland and Franky were so destructive, so blinded by their past and present that you could see the damage they were going to cause each other and yet you followed along with them. It was like watching a car crash between your fingers, feeling pain for the people involved in it, wanting to hug them, cry with them – coming out of this story felt like awakening from a different universe and the book hangover is real.

C.P. Harris is quite possibly the only person who could have me reading about infidelity and cheering on the adulterers – now THAT is talent. Told in three main parts, this book provides background to Jasper and Cole’s life growing up and just how much Franklin did to try to protect them from anything and everything. And because it’s an older protagonist, there is a lifetime of mistakes and experiences that Franklin regretted and wished he could change. All of this went into his relationship with Leland because Leland was absolutely the only person that Franky could be himself with. Not even just warts and all – Leland knew the good, the bad and the ugly about Franky but loved him anyway. Loved him fiercely and without reservation in a way that could only lead to hurt because neither of them were ready.

I worry that this review is just incoherent ramblings as I try to encourage people to read this story without ruining any of it. C.P. Harris is one of my auto-buys and hasn’t let me down once. Even when I’m shaking my head at the circumstances her characters get themselves into, I’m flipping pages desperate to see how things turn out. It really is brilliant writing to capture human nature whilst inspiring hope for the future – the world may be dark, people may let us down, cause us pain and damage, and yet hope remains. That is special.

I can’t leave this review without talking about the sex scenes. They were – well, almost feral and base and primitive. I don’t think I’ve ever read the kink that Franklin displays and was kinda shocked at how into it he was, but dang, it was hot af and suited his well-hidden caveman perfectly.

I need to go and read something light and fluffy to recover from this hangover, but I cannot wait for the next book in the series. I have an idea who might feature in it (and am SO here for it) but in the meantime, I heartily recommend this book. Just make sure you have tissues, time and an open mind before you start!

I received an ARC from the author.

The Good Liar by C P Harris (Infidelity #1)

Title: ⟫ The Good Liar (The Infidelity Series #1)

Author: ⟫ C P Harris

Rating: ⟫ 4.5/5

Blurb: ⟫ Six years ago, Jasper Des Moines traded in the only life he knew. In order to keep a promise and a secret, he walked from the only man he’d ever loved.

Now, he has a career in need of constant defending, a best friend who knows nothing about his past, and a husband he should love. He has the life he believes he deserves.

Until one day, the unfinished business he’d left behind catches up with him, and he’s faced with the one man he’d never been able to resist or forget.

Cole Kincaid arrives in New York City with ulterior motives, but good intentions. He simply wants a place in Jasper’s world again. And if Jasper is happy, then so is he. But as the truth of Jasper’s new life unfolds, the role Cole wants to play in it begins to shift.

He soon reminds himself that Jasper belongs to him, and no promises made before God to a man who isn’t him will ever change that.

Cole’s presence threatens the carefully constructed life of penance Jasper has created. And while Jasper is focused on maintaining the existence he’d rightfully earned, Cole tempts him with the existence he actually wants.

Tragedy might have torn them apart, but lies will bring them together again.

**The Good Liar is Book 1 in the Infidelity series. Each book features a new couple, can be read as a stand-alone, and ends with a HEA. Themes include possessiveness, jealousy, and second chances. Both MCs are consenting adults. Please use the “Look Inside” feature for a full list of tropes and trigger warnings.

Review: ⟫ C P Harris has a way of writing possessive, obsessive love in a way that grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go for the whole story, and this was yet another stellar example.

Jasper is a happily(ish) married man, living in a rut of ‘okay’. He’s had consuming passion and it cost him too much and he doesn’t want to risk anything like that ever again.

Cole wants whatever he can have of Jasper – even though he knows it might kill him to accept that he can’t have everything.

And Daniel wants to be the best.

I did not expect this story to take me where it did. I expected the impassioned writing; the steamy scenes; the gut-wrenching reasoning behind decisions even, but I really did not expect the rest of what I got.

I have been struck down with some kind of mutated flu, but not even the coughing, sneezing, wheezing and revolting medicines could prevent me from devouring this story whole. And then I went and read all of the bonus scenes that were made available. And then I wanted to reread the story again with the benefit of those bonus scenes.

This was hot, possessive and intense and the codependency between Cole and Jasper was palpable – you could practically feel their skin yearning to touch whenever they were in the same room together. All of the pieces on the board had their role to play – and perhaps a future role for at least two of them maybe? – but this just didn’t play out the way I thought it would. There were times when I was practically raging at Jasper for the hurt he was causing – to himself and to Cole – and other times when I just wanted to scroll to the end of the book to see that they did get their HEA and their suffering would come to an end because I couldn’t stand the pain any longer.

The back-story involving the artificial heart, prosthetic limbs and child amputees was handled sensitively and with grace, and I loved the glimpses we had into the lives of the people Jasper let himself be with – the relationship Cole and a certain young lady constantly made me smile.

I adored Surviving the Merge – I’ve reread that more than a few times since the first time – but this one might just be a close second. I freaking loved this story so utterly and cannot wait for more. This may be only the second time an author has made me see past the infidelity tag and I am so incredibly pleased I decided I loved Harris’ work enough to give it a try.

I received an ARC from the author.