Review - From the Noblest Motives by Angel Martinez

Damien and Blaze are back on the trail of the remaining children who went missing from a Variant school after a new lead comes in. Unfortunately, the trail Damien picks up suddenly disappears. Just as the two are deciding whether or not to quit the search, news comes that their friend and Variant rights activist Shudder has been arrested. His capture and show trial sets off a chain of events that reunites the three men but also places them firmly in the eye of a storm brewing around their rights.

Although this sequel to Rarely Pure and Never Simple has been released nearly ten years after the original book, it's set just a few months after the close of that first volume. Don't worry if, like me, you don't remember much of the first story. There are enough little reminders as the book gets started to bring you up to speed on the two men and, in particular, Damien's quirks.

Blaze and Damien are still the odd couple that somehow work well together, even if they refuse to admit just how well they get along. I don't remember Shudder playing that big of a role in the first story, but we definitely get to know him much more in this volume. There's an interesting tension set up as all three men struggle to accept their attraction to each other and understand what it means.

This is an action-packed story with several twists and turns along the way. It ends in a relatively good place, but with a lot of loose ends left dangling. There is another book of the series announced. Hopefully it won't take another ten years to get written.

“From the Noblest Motives” is available from Amazon (commissionable link).