I think this had potential. Liked the whole enforced closeness, living in the forest, subsistence living but then the story had some pretty hard to believe twists and turns, some of which made me uncomfortable. It was also difficult to suspend my disbelief. Not a favorite read. ( )

Lately I find so good books that I wonder if my "taste" is changing, since these books have strangely some things in common: the hero is not a good boy, and give the fame of bad boys as good lovers this one is not a strange thing, but he is also a criminal, and not repentant...

Leon is an assasssin (yes same name of the assassin by Luc Besson). No matter that probably he works for the government, he is still an assassin and he is well paid for his work. But one day he is back home to his lover Ted and finds him tortured and murdered on their bed. As an assassin should do, he tracks down the serial killer who has done that and kills him. But killing him doesn't bring peace in Leon and also he is not good at his work like before cause his emotions are unleashed and he is no more able to focus. So the boss sends him to a private refuge in Alaska, to heal his mind.

Here Leon starts to go out from the foggy that has dumped his mind but a strange accident happens and he is rescued by a reclusive boy, Grim. Grim apparently is 20 years old and lives alone in the wilderness. He arrived six years before with a man, John, who was also his lover. But Grim has strange reactions, like a beaten animal, and given that he was only fourteen years old when he met John, Leon begins to imagine what type of relationship Grim has had with John.

Two lost souls, two damaged minds who need each other to heal. An almost claustrophic setting, which sometimes made me thing to a Stephen King's tale. With this novel Ally Blue reaches the level of my favourite books by her: Easy and Forgotten Song. Ally Blue has gained the title of Queen of Angst, and with this novel she strengthens her right to the crown.

What it is good in this novel which makes it different from the usual romance? Well, let say, in an usual romance plot, the hero, faces with the choice to kill the villain, who can't defend himself, probably would have made an honorable choice as leave him alive and deliver him to the police... here he kills him with a shot to the head. And in a normal romance women usually are the good one, who try to make peace and held you an hand when you most need it... here you have to watch your back, cause they are the worst.

Leon and Grim are quite similar in strenght and pain. True at first Leon is weaker in body, for an injury, but Grim is weaker in mind, due to his horrible past, so it's like a hand wash the other hand: working together they do a better job. There is no master or slave in this relationship, no top or bottom. And meanwhile Leon helps Grim to heal from his past, he doesn't know that he is helping himself to heal from his own past.

Strongly reccomended, plus it is the first time since a lot that I read in rapture also the sex scenes, that sometime bother me: in this case, they are right and good, for the plot and the reader.