A new real estate agent gets more than he bargained with his first client ....

Camden
I'm desperate to make a fresh start as a real estate agent after leaving my alcoholic boyfriend of way too long. Getting a call to list a house while parading as a hot dog for a few bucks seems like my lucky break. Then things go sideways. My apartment is broken into and burglarized. Getting caught half-naked while squatting in my own listing is a low point. Seeing the sexy-voiced stranger who is now my client -- and his gorgeous, cold boyfriend? -- major bummer. But hey! I might sell a house ... if we can ever get it in decent shape for the market and all the odd questions surfacing about my client don't get in the way.

Reid
I'm a washed up US marshal turned bodyguard, and even that's lost its appeal. A leave of absence to deal with a house I inherited from my great-uncle seems like a good opportunity to get my head straight. But then my boss pulls me aside and asks me to take on a witness in danger. We'd be off the grid, so to speak. The guy is a criminal, but he's young and gay, so we set up a cover as a couple. Might seem risky in Kansas, but all the gossip about those gay guys will make a great smokescreen to our true secret: Lee is a target of the Dragon Boyz gang, and I have to keep him safe until trial. Of course, I wasn't counting on the gorgeous blond, blue-eyed Realtor who makes me want something more in my life. When he starts asking questions, do I set him straight or risk losing him for good? And then there's still those gang members to think about.

Story includes inappropriate attire, gunfights, flirting while in a fake relationship and male/male naughtiness.

Romantic suspense is a subgenre that I generally enjoy, though like most romance hybrids, I often have issues with how well the author of a given book does putting it together in a satisfying whole. Full Disclosure is my first exposure to author D.J. Jamison, and while I thought it was a good story overall and was satisfied by the relatively light suspense it contained, the romance left me wanting.

In spite of messing up his most recent assignment and being put on unpaid leave as a result, the boss of former U.S. marshal turned disgruntled bodyguard Reid Bishop tasks him with going off the grid to protect a key murder witness with a shady past.  Having recently inherited a house in a small Kansas town, it’s the perfect opportunity to earn unexpected pay while having time to consider his future and get the house ready to be sold, and since both he and the witness are gay, posing as a happy couple is the perfect cover. Or it would be if Camden Lewis, the real estate agent Reid had hired before moving, weren’t so damned delicious in person. Struggling to build an independent life for himself after leaving his wealthy, alcoholic boyfriend, Camden really needs things to go smoothly and finally get his first sale, but the house needs a lot of work first. Since Camden could definitely use the cash, he offers to help Reid with some of the work. Unfortunately, that means a lot more time needing to ignore his attraction to his taken client. But as strange things start happening around the house and between the two of them, Camden can’t help but wonder what’s going on. Reid admitting the truth might give him a chance to build something real with Camden, but with gangsters after the blood of his charge, Reid’s honesty might come at a cost far too high to risk.

It is worth noting first that, in spite of the blurb being in the first person and present tense, Full Disclosure is told in alternating, first-person past tense. The storytelling style is generally light-hearted and engaging. In fact, though the first scene teeters on the verge of being cheesy, it does such a good job introducing Camden’s character that I wanted to know more right away. As the story reveals the situation that brings Reid to Fields, Kansas, the set up for each character individually had me looking forward to how things would turn out for with both the suspense story line and the romantic one.

Fortunately, the two story lines intertwine well within this story. However, as is often the case in romance hybrids, there were times when some of the progression in each plot line felt rushed, particularly the process of Camden starting to question Reid’s “relationship.” I think this is the first time I’ve read a book containing a fake relationship that involves only one of the people in the book’s romantic pairing. Because of the clear importance of keeping up the appearance of a real relationship, I was really looking for this to turn into a deliciously drawn-out slow burn caused by Reid’s desire constantly waging war against his professionalism. Perhaps the constraints of writing a romance novel of “normal length” is what prevented this from being realized as well as I had hoped, but even taking that into consideration, a few of the crucial scenes that forwarded this process crossed the line into that of feeling contrived, and there were at least a couple of scenes that felt out of place in the book, as if something else needed to happen first.

By the time I finished the story, though, I was pleased with the suspense portion—though it needs to be noted, as befits the storytelling tone and style, this is not a nail-biting suspense. It is still satisfying as a light suspense. Unfortunately, the story felt light on the development of the romance, so that even though Camden and Reid get their happily ever after, I couldn’t figure out what it was about either of them that made them perfect for the other. So as a result, I thought it was nice and a good read, but it failed to give me the intensity of feels that I long for in reading romance.

Despite the issues I had with it, I liked Full Disclosure overall. And that’s a good thing because even though the author did well with making sure all the loose ends were tied up, the ending of the epilogue leaves a big question about what’s next. This surprised me because I didn’t realize it was part of a series. As such, I’m looking forward to the sequel.

D.J. Jamison 
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