Defending You (Rough Edges Book 5) by Matthew Dante

Oliver and Sven together just should not fit. There are so many events that keep pushing the straight Oliver together with Sven. All the past characters show up and add plenty of entertainment to the story.

From the blurb for Defending You:

Sven Kolczynski

25, Polish, amateur car thief… and apparently unkillable.

Being a hero can be painful and seriously hazardous to your health. What can I say? I’m not a smart

man. It’s been two weeks since I started following the brown-haired, cheery little puppy. There’s nothing special about the guy. He’s a mechanic, hangs out with a bunch of scary-looking dudes, and never seems to stop smiling. Like seriously, how can one man be so happy all of the time? Okay, fine, the guy is kind of cute, and that smile can make a man weak in his knees. But tell me, is a cute face really worth becoming someone’s next target? Not to mention, this dude's creepy brother keeps threatening to dismember me if I do anything to hurt his little brother. Like, seriously. What’s wrong with this family?

Oliver O’Maley

29, mechanic, and little brother to Patrick, the crew’s… “information extractor”, which is also a nice way of saying, “scary dude who will unalive you if you don’t do as he says”.

Arg. Who knew that having Patrick as a big brother was going to result in me having to live my life in a protective bubble? Seriously! Everyone on the Crew treats me like their kid brother and won't let me do anything even remotely dangerous! All I want is a chance to prove myself. A chance to show the guys that I’m more than just Paddy’s little brother. All that changes when some big Polish dude saves my life. Now, suddenly, we are both being hunted. I’m having to fight off assassins in the dark and make sure that nothing happens to my would-be protector or family. That includes stopping my overprotective big brother from murdering the rest of the world in retaliation. We’re a close family. We take things personally.

This is an MM dark romance filled with plenty of heat, steam, violence, and mayhem.

Reedkaye's Review:

I love this series. Defending You is a little on the dark side, but the characters and relationships override it to me.

Sven is a down on his luck guy. Needing money for medical reasons, he returns to trying to be a car thief, only it doesn’t work. He gets caught and blackmailed into stalking Oliver. While doing surveillance on Oliver, he ends up actually saving Oliver’s life.

Oliver is working as a mechanic trying to gain more status in the crew. He is an easy-going guy when some stranger knocks him out of the way of an oncoming car. This guy ends up in the hospital and there Oliver and Sven begin a friendship/relationship that is not workable in many ways. Sven is hiding plenty from Oliver. Oliver is straight and has never had attractions to other guys.  

There is humor, mystery and a lot of relationship things going on as the characters from the previous stories in this series appear.

One example I keep remembering and laughing at it the part with the chihuahua and great Dane. The only bad part is I can’t set these stories down and yet am sad when they end. I can’t wait to see the next story.

Rating: 5 Stars

Defending You is available to buy as an ebook, paperback, or to read with Kindle Unlimited subscription.