Books: Faith & Fidelity, Love & Loyalty, Duty & Devotion, Cherish & Blessed, Truth & Tenderness
Author: Tere Michaels
Series: Love & Devotion
Genre: Contemporary Romance; M/M
Pub dates: 09/23/2008-05/01/2015
When going through all of the books that I read when I was sick so that I could write reviews I almost skipped over this series. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to figure out which book was which since I read them all in a row within a few days other than the first one. So this review is for all 6 books.
In book one Faith & Fidelity we meet Matt and Evan. Both think that they’re straight. Evan’s wife died around a year before the book starts leaving him to raise his 4 children alone. Matt made some mistakes that lost him his job in the police force and also made him lose most of his friends there as well. They’re both lost and lonely. After they meet they start going out every week or so and share their problems. Friendship morphs into something neither of them expected. As far as I know I’ve never read a m/m book in which both characters didn’t realize they were bi. It was pretty interesting and at times heartbreaking. I cried more than once.
When I finished Faith & Fidelity I was really upset to discover that Love & Loyalty wasn’t a continuation with Matt and Evan. There was so much unfinished and I was left confused. I decided not to even bother reading it. Then it kept popping up on book lists as a favorite couple and favorite book in the genre and I decided to heck with it I’ll see if I like it. I’m glad that I kept going because to my surprise and delight book 3 Duty & Devotion picks up with Matt and Evan again! The rest of the series after that is a mix of the 2 couples.
As I said, in the second book Love & Loyalty we meet Jim and Griffin. Jim was in Faith & Fidelity for maybe a chapter. When I read the description and saw that this book was about a cop and a screenwriter I don’t know why but I thought it sounded stupid. Kind of out there ya know? But, once I read a bit of it and got some background and understood how they met and the dynamics of their relationship it made a lot more sense. Unlike Matt and Evan in Faith & Fidelity both Jim and Griffin are openly gay. It seems like you don’t see that very often in this genre so it was a nice change. Despite Jim being a cop there isn’t any mystery or anything. It’s a romance with some underlying story related to one of Jim’s cases. Pay attention to this case as it plays a part in later books.
In Duty & Devotion and every book after it the point of view jumps between the four characters. Things that I felt were left completely unfinished in Love & Loyalty with Matt and Evan pop up. We also have the very tense and very entertaining meeting between the four. I think my favorite part of this book would have to have been the lunch meeting between Evan and Griffin. So funny!
Altogether, I enjoyed this series. My favorite character was Matt with Griffin as a close second. Evan annoyed me quite a bit and looking through other reviews of the books it looks like I’m not in the minority with that opinion. I liked Jim okay but found his obsession with the case wore on me. The ending nicely wrapped up everything for Jim and Griffin but kind of left things oddly with Matt and Evan. I guess we were supposed to read between the lines in the last few paragraphs with them and I think I understood what they were trying to say but I wasn’t really sure and it just left me confused.
I would highly recommend the Love & Devotion series. I’m glad that I decided to go back and read the second book. I would not, on the other hand, recommend this series to anyone new to the m/m genre. The first book Faith & Fidelity would be fine since it’s not very graphic but any of the books following that are. I think the books mesh together quite well from the first to the last. It’s always nice seeing how characters grow as time goes on.
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