Name: An Unnatural Vice
Rating: 4.25 (4 reviews)

Nathaniel is a regular at the Jack and Knave who is still grieving his partner's death five years ago. He is a journalist and is assigned to debunk a medium. He starts his investigation with Justin Lazarus and finds himself intrigued. Nathaniel is surprised when investigating Clem's mystery also leads him back to Justin who met one of the players in the saga one year ago. This is not a slow burn romance like the first book. This is hate/lust leading to sex leading to regret/embarrassment. Then they are forced back together and over time a relationship builds.

Justin had a rough upbringing and has major trust issues. He doesn't feel bad at all about fleecing the rich and gullible. Nathaniel is firmly on the side of living a moral life and not hurting anyone. He has a hard time accepting the good in anyone in a dishonest profession. Nathaniel is also uncomfortable moving on and feeling attracted to another man for the first time. He especially doesn't want to fall for someone so unlike his beloved partner. The book talks about how difficult it was grieve when no one in the outside world knew of the love between the men.

The mystery continues to be resolved. In each book a little bit is solved so it doesn't feel like you are missing a conclusion even if you don't have the whole picture yet.This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story

An Unnatural Vice in the second book in the Sins Of The Cities series. I had previously read and reviewed An Unseen Attraction and really enjoyed that book. So when I saw that book 2 was available on NetGalley, I had to request it. I am glad I did because this book was fantastic.

I am going to come right out and say that this book is not a stand-alone. You need to read An Unseen Attraction to follow the events in An Unnatural Vice. The events in An Unnatural Vice closely intermingle with the events in An Unseen Attraction. Actually, the storyline in An Unnatural Vice is the same time as the events in An Unseen Attraction. Several scenes from An Unnatural Vice were rewritten to be from Nate and Justin’s point of view. I know it sounds confusing, reading what I wrote, but it actually worked. I got to see what was happening to Clem and Rowley from another point of view….along with Nate and Justin’s main storyline. It was different and again, like I said above, it worked.

I enjoyed reading about mediums in that time period and the length’s that they went through to convince their clients that they were actually talking to spirits. From the setup to picking their apprentices to the real senace, it just fascinated me. Justin was pretty good because he had me, a reader, convinced that there was something supernatural going on for a couple of chapters…lol.

Nate was still grieving for his lover, Tony. Tony died in a freak accident 7 years earlier and Nate was devastated, as any normal person would be after losing a loved one. So when he attends a senace to expose Justin Lazarus as a fraud, he wasn’t expecting to be attracted to him and it threw a wrench in his plans. While I felt bad for Nate, I absolutely loved seeing him come alive in this book. Not only was he hell-bent on exposing Justin as a fraud but he was working to help Clem with what I will call family issues (read the book because it is so much more). But both of those worlds collide, in a big way.

I did like Justin, even if he was a fraud. He was doing the only honest work that he knew how to do. So he is intrigued when Nate keeps coming around. I did have a giggle over how much of a foul mouth that Justin had, which again was a breath of fresh air. Also, he protected those he considered his….which meant that Sukey and Emma (a 12-year-old and a mentally challenged 15-year-old) were under his protection. It showed that under his façade of not caring, he was a very caring man. The scene where he was panicking over the girls being in the house was very telling because, at this point, the author chose to portray them as only servants/apprentices.

The romance between Justin and Nate was not a slow burn. I wouldn’t dare say that it was Instalove but it bordered on it. To be honest, it was pure lust. The first sex scene was mad sex. The men were arguing and one thing led to another. They were even arguing during sex, which did made me giggle. It was almost like they were having makeup sex while fighting. The other sex scenes were just as hot.

The storyline with Clem and the storyline with Justin did merge about halfway through the book. Like I said above, it was pretty interesting to read the events of An Unseen Attraction from another angle. It answered a lot of questions about certain events. I have a feeling that book 3 will do the same and honestly, I can’t wait to read it.

The end of the book was an HEA, for the most part. The book did wrap up, for the most part, Justin and Nate’s storyline but left Clem’s wide open. I can’t wait to see where it goes in book 3!!

How many stars will I give An Unnatural Vice: 4

Why: Great characters with a compelling storyline.

Will I reread: Yes

Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes

Age range: Adult

Why: Sex, violence, and language

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

jamiereadthis

Written on Mar 16, 2019

I did the audiobook, and I think the narrator’s voice for Nathaniel made him so booming and dour that I liked him less than I would have on the page. Still, a great story. The spiritualist con artistry was a lot of fun, so much so that I begrudged Nathaniel for taking such moral offense to it. (Spoiler alert: Any Old Diamonds handles that morality much more to my liking.) And speaking of Any Old Diamonds, swell timing to finish this one right as I picked up that one, which serves as an unexpectedly delightful “twenty years later” for a few of these characters. Awesome.

Heather

Written on Dec 14, 2017

chymerra

Written on May 30, 2017

An Unnatural Vice (Sins of the City, #2) (Sins of the Cities, #2)

by Kj Charles

Matthew Lloyd Davies (Narrator)