Dare Buckley has come home—or at least, he’s come back to Palladian, the small town he left as a teenager.
After a major lapse in judgment forced him to resign from the Seattle PD, Palladian is the only place that’ll hire him. There’s one benefit to hitting rock bottom, though: the chance to investigate the mystery of his father’s suicide.
Dare also gets to reacquaint himself with Finn Fowler, whose childhood hero worship ended in uncomfortable silence when Dare moved away. But Finn isn’t the same little kid Dare once protected. He’s grown into an attractive, enigmatic stranger who neither wants nor needs what Dare has to offer.
In fact, Dare soon realizes that Finn’s keeping secrets—his own and the town’s. And he doesn’t seem to care that Dare needs answers. The atmosphere in Palladian, like its namesake river, appears placid, but dark currents churn underneath. When danger closes in, Dare must pit his ingenuity against his heart, and find his way home the hard way.
Reviews
★★★★★ “Overall, I enjoyed this very book very much. I highly recommend Home the Hard Way to those who love a good mystery with a nontraditional love story and a little BDSM on the side.” — The Novel Approach
★★★★★ “The slow burn tension and suspense had me compulsively skipping to the bottom of the screen. The murder mystery and the romance vie for attention, which is just how I like the levels in my romance/mystery combos.” — Mariana Rose Martinez
★★★★★ “Z.A. Maxfield writes an incredibly fascinating and action packed story that builds relentlessly to the last page. I love it when a novel has no throw away characters but rather weaves them together in such an intricate way that they inevitably rub up against one another with serious ramifications. Home the Hard Way is a romance, a redemptive tale and a hard and fast mystery. It was an exciting story and I highly recommend it to you!” — Joyfully Jay
“Fast pacing, tragic characters and a solid multi-plot storyline keeps readers on their toes as Maxfield builds and explores an intriguing romance that is hampered by lies, secrets and murder.” RT book reviews, 4 stars.
