Zero at the Bone by Jane Seville
April 2009
M/M Romantic Suspense
E-Book/Print , 308 Pages
Dreamspinner Press
Reviewed by Mandi
Why I read: It made the final four of the Dabwaha tournament, and when it beat The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie, I put down everything and read it.
Favorite Quote: Jack stood there paralyzed. “Say it again,” he whispered. D cupped his cheek and lifted his head to meet his eyes. “I’ll find you,” he said, low and implacable.
Dr. Jack Francisco stops to eat a cookie before heading to the parking garage to get to his car, and his life will change forever. When he gets to the garage, he witnesses a woman being stabbed by three people. These three people happen to be drug mobsters, and the woman, a very important key witness to an upcoming trial. Jack is thrown into the witness protection program, and is relocated. He gives up his job, years and years of school down the drain and is told to hideout until the trial date set in a few months. The mob brothers are a very dangerous group, and the state is desperate for his testimony.
D, and that is the only name he goes by, is a hit man. He is basically a shell of a human being. He is empty – just living day after day without much emotion or purpose. He accepts contracts to kill those who are more on the evil side, more with a reason to die. He always declines to kill those that look innocent on paper. He is good at hiding, becoming a shadow – or so he thought. The mob brothers have caught up with him and blackmails D into finding and killing Jack. D tracks him down, and even points the gun between Jack’s eyes, but he can’t find it in himself to pull the trigger.
Jack’s emotions go from shock, to begging for his life, to seeing a slim hope that maybe D is not actually going to kill him. D analyzes the situation and thinks there is more involved than just killing Jack. If the brothers wanted Jack dead, they could have hired any hit man. Why D, when they know he only takes certain contracts? D decides to make a run for it with Jack in tow. Together they start hiding out – but there are many twists to come in this story. D is determined to get Jack to the witness stand alive and a beautiful and unlikely romance develops between these two.
Zero at the Bone is a story that took me places I didn’t expect. When we first meet both Jack and D I thought I wouldn’t connect with the romance because I just couldn’t see them together – but boy was I wrong.
Jack is a doctor, someone caught up in this violent world purely by chance. Although he sees the aftermath of violence in the operating room, seeing it actually occur is something totally different. D is a very broken man. He has his reasons for being a hit man, and twists that make him quite a redeemable character. He hasn’t trusted another man for as long as he can remember, but watching him learn to trust Jack is a remarkable thing. The romance is very, very slow to build..but once it starts, it builds up momentum fast. These two have both been married in the past, and both are not even sure if this is the path they want to take. It starts out so subtle with just a pinky finger:
He looked down and saw his own hand resting at his side, just a hairbreadth from D’s. He took a breath and held it, then slowly stretched out his pinky finger until it just grazed the side of D’s hand; a tiny stroke of tentative contact. D didn’t withdraw; instead, his hand flinched a little closer. Emboldened, Jack covered D’s hand with his own; D turned his palm up and their finger slid together, interlacing and fitting against each other like they’d been waiting for nothing else but the chance to do so.
Jack likes to talk and wants to know everything there is to know about D. D, hasn’t talked to anyone for ten years and has no idea how to deal with this new man in his life. The action that unfolds is really quite vivid as well. It is a very violent book, evil people are at play. It is quite a journey to watch D go from reluctant protector, to coming to care for Jack in a way he never thought possible. I also like that Jack stops and questions – does he truly love D or is it just lust and gratefulness for not killing him and being holed up an extremely stressful situation? Of course, he realizes it is love – and D definitely reciprocates.
My only complaint is that I think the ending drags out for too long. I was ready for the end before we actually got there. Otherwise, the romance coupled with their desperation to live, to be together, to get out of this hellish lifestyle they have found themselves in will rip you apart. The bad guys just keep coming. There comes a point where no matter witness protection or not, they realize this will never end. It is an amazing and gripping story that I could not put down and made me an emotional wreck (in a good way!). Zero at the Bone is truly a captivating story and one that I highly recommend.
Rating: 4.5/5
Recent Reviews:
Dear Author – A-
Well Read – Excellent
Goodreads
I'm like you, this really caught my attention with Dabwaha! This sounds good, too! I love the passage you picked out. I definitely want to read this.
This one has been on my ereader for ages. I guess I'll have to move it up the list.
Carolyn – I know..it somehow slipped under my radar! So glad it got the attention it deserved in dabwaha!
Eyre – Yes!! It is soo good ;)
Saw the winning spree of this one and I screamed nooo, my brackets ;)
LOL – I know! I had Lord Ian winning..I was mad..until I read this book :)
I couldn't believe my eyes when this made it to the final 4. Once I was finished crying over my brackets I put it on my to buy list. I'm excited to read it and you picked a nice quote.
I know! I was rooting hard for Tigers and Devils in the GLBT category…I was very surprised to see this in final four. Well deserved though!
OMG! I LOVE that fav quote! Sold to the Sassy Lady!
:)
I loved this book, too, although I had the same issue with the ending that you did. Jane Seville has a couple free short stories about the guys on her website, too.
You've officially sold me. I've seen this book around for months (how can you miss that cool cover?) and mentally stuck it in the maybe-someday-I'll-read-it pile. But you got me with those quotes. I'm a sucker for moments like that in a book :)
Fabulous review, as always, Mandi!
Sassy Brit – Yay :)
Chris – Yes, I read them!! I like when authors do that.
Ava – It is a cool cover…there are sooo many good moments in this book. Very SIGH worthy! :)
Yay! So glad you liked this book. I thought it was a wild, breathless ride ride – even if I did have the same reservations about the end as you.
There's a sequel coming out at some point and I'm very much looking forward to that.
Hi Mandi – thanks for the great review! I'm thrilled (and still kind of amazed) by the book's performance in the DABWAHA tournament and how many people seem to have noticed it because of that.
I wanted to let you know that my FANTASTIC cover art was painted by artist Paul Richmond (http://www.paulrichmondstudio.com) who is a personal friend of mine. He has been painting a lot of covers for Dreamspinner since Zero, which was his first one. He produces fantastic, funny and cheeky art of his own (check out Noah's Gay Wedding Cruise on his website, as well as his Cheesecake Boys series) and he's wonderful.
The most common criticism of Zero is the, shall we say, lengthiness of its denouement. I admit that as a writer I'm a bit of a sucker for a substantial coda to the action. I hate abrupt endings. As a reader I always want to know MORE about what happens to the characters after the story ends, so as a writer I do tend to go on in that regard. That being said, this one is a bit longer than I might write it now. I've also taken reservations about the depiction of D's accent to heart while I work on this darn sequel. Unfortunately, after getting about 40,000 words into that sequel, I decided that the plotline I was developing wasn't the right one for a followup, so I've scrapped it and am starting over. Argh.
Thanks so much for the review. The DA BWAHA was great not just for me but for the visibility of gay romance in general and for my publisher, which features a ton of fantastic authors. I especially recommend Brooke McKinley's "Shades of Gray" for fans of Zero; they share some thematic elements.
Thanks for the info Jane..I just went to Paul's site..LOVE it :) The cover is amazing as well as his Cheesecake series…LOL..I love.
I liked D's accent..it did take awhile to get used to but I think it is a big part of him…he wouldn't be D without it ;)
Looking forward to the sequel :)
BTW Jenre, like I said on Twitter, I am stalking you now for every review!! ;)
Ack! I didn't read this review (except to see the 4.5 rating) because I'm so psyched to get stuck into this one.
Thanks for the rec – I'll start reading ASAP.
I was so excited to see you review this one, Mandi!
I first saw ZatB over at LesleyW's, and when I finally picked it up, I was kicking myself that it took me so long to read it.
So glad to see that we will be getting some more of Jack and D! :-)
Somebody really cool let me know about this awesome book ;)
When D's said "I'll find you" it brought me back to my last of Last of the Mohicans flutters. I think my only wittel teeny tiny niggles was D's excessive accent and some of the aspects of the story could have been left out. I sort of Zero at the Bone as the Director's cut – bottom line this book was/is awesome!!!!
Sounds like a good read. Thanks for the review.
You really picked a quote that caught my attention Mandi and the review, wow! You know I have to get me this novel now. I have to have a one on one experience with this story!!
I enjoyed this book too. I picked it up after reading the DA review. It wasn't an A read for me – I'd give it a B/B+ – like you I thought the ending was too drawn out – there were parts toward the end that I didn't know what they were there for (sorry for the bad grammar!) and I kind of got a bit lost and it took the shine off a little for me. Also, the suspension of disbelief factor was a bit high for me with all the shadowy govt. agencies.
Still, I really enjoyed the book, especially Jack's sense of humour – I highlighted many passages esp. in the first half and most of those were Jack's POV.
I'm curious about the sequel – I'm not sure what could happen next that would make a good story (I mean, a happy life in the burbs would be great for them but not so much on the reading if you know what I mean). I'm interested in what this author will come up with for these two next.
One thing, which is neither good nor bad, but something I noticed and wondered if anyone had any thoughts on, was that the book, while marketed as m/m romance, started off with no clear identification of the lead characters as gay (at least, I didn't think so, anyway). Both have been married (to women) before and been divorced. I didn't see any 'cues' that clearly showed these characters as gay until about 1/3-1/2 into the book. Like I said before, it's not a bad thing but it made me think. I wondered if, as a reader, I need those cues, and if so, why and what that says about me. I wondered whether the book was making a statement of some sort along the lines of people first, sexual orientation second, or if I missed cues that were there. I read a little while back (I think it was on KB's blog but I may have got that wrong – apologies if so) where the blogger had read a book and assumed the character was white and was thrown when, quite a ways in, the character was identified as African American. It made me think of this book. As a heterosexual, do I assume that all people are straight until I'm told otherwise? Is that wrong? Anyway, it was a point I pondered with no real answers coming to me, other than it made me think and that's not a bad thing. I'd be curious to know what others thought/if they noticed etc.
Hi Kaetrin
I don't know if this book is necessarily making a statement about assuming who is gay or not. I took the men's past sexual history and more subtle clues as to their preferences in the beginning of the book, more to enhance the difficulties these two have to overcome to be together…rather than trying to make us think they are not gay.
Dreamspinner Press (the publisher) is a gay romance publisher – I believe that is all the pub. So at least for me going in, I knew where the path would eventually lead.
On the other hand, if I pick up an unsolicited print book from a big publisher and start reading, and the main characters turn out gay, yeah, I would be surprised…I kind of wish that circumstance would happen! :)
And to address if you should assume if all people are heterosexual – I don't know how to answer that. No? :) If I picked up this book without knowing it was a m/m book to begin with, after the first chp or two, without a female POV, or thoughts from the male about a woman, I think that is your cue. But m/m books are in the minority, so assuming m/f is common.
Hi Mandi. I didn't beat myself up about it or anything, but I did note it as a curiousity, at least to me. Of course, I knew going in that it was a m/m romance and I was expecting it to head that way. It wasn't that it took a while for the romance to start – I thought that was one of the strengths of the book – the romance between the two leads took time to grow – in so many rom sus type books, the leads are having TSTL sex while dodging bullets and I'm so glad that didn't happen in this book. And, D's a hit man and Jack's in witness protection – you can expect them to jump into bed with each other straight away and have any sort of believability to the relationship.
I guess the other m/m books I have read have been much shorter – this one was refreshingly long – and the characters have identified their sexuality clearly in the very early stages of the book (ie, checking out a guy, remembering a relationship etc) – eg, Collision Course and No Souvenirs by KA Mitchell. In those books there is no way that a reader could mistake them for anything but m/m romance (even the covers!).
But this one, the cover was subtle (I liked it) and apart from the publisher and the review I read, the cues were much more subtle. If I'd have picked it up and just started reading without reference to the publisher (or, I presume, the blurb), I might have thought it was a darker version of one of those buddy movies you see, or maybe a dark White Collar. At least, until quite a way into the book.
It didn't bother me. I just noticed it. Perhaps what I noticed was that there was a lot more subtlety in this book than in a lot of m/m romances that I've read and that's what I'm struggling to articulate. In any event, it spurred me to think and reflect on my preconceived notions and test whether they need an update. Hope that makes sense.
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