Rating: 4🌈
“What happens when a group of forty-something first responders come together to support their recently widowed best friend? The result is the MOUNT HOPE series”
That’s the overall theme for the stories grouped under this Mount Hope series and it’s an emotional, heartwarming concept. It hits home on so many levels, especially when Albert adds in her own familiar, well written elements. Readers of her many series aren’t surprised by returning military or veterans characters that carry their own issues, foster care children with special histories, or just threads that are layered with mental health, commitment issues and recognition of bi-sexuality. In other words, a lot of subjects areas are part of character’s development and histories.
Albert writes all that with amazing sensitivity and awareness. Especially veterans who have served overseas and returned home with internalized trauma, PTSD, or other mental health issues.
In Off the Clock, the veteran is freshly retired Army Ranger Tony Capo, 42, recovering from his injuries, returning home to Mount Hope to figure out his next step forward. In his case, he’s opted to hire on as a firefighter for the Mount Hope Fire Department. It’s a job he has wanted since he was a child and where he has old friends. But he’s also starting over as a much older man with younger colleagues, with all that encompasses mentally and emotionally.
One of those is Caleb, a young firefighter who appeared in the first book. Congenial, somewhat clumsy, he’s recently been named guardian of his troubled teenage brother. That brother has brought him an entire set of new issues to face as well as the new hire, Tony, he’s training.
Albert’s book is an age gap, mental health, multiple issues storyline. There’s much I admire about this book. It’s begins with the characters. Each are well written, beautifully defined, by their respective histories, their life experiences, and their personalities. They are believable and flawed.
The relationship dynamics between Tony and Caleb are among my favorite and least favorite things about the story. Their ability to communicate about each other’s feelings, their experiences with emotionally charged situations that have left each traumatized, whether it’s fires, missions, or childhood damage brought about by parental loss. Loss by death in Caleb’s family or in Tony’s case by his parents drug addiction and abandonment. As Albert powerfully describes it, “matching wounded kid emotions “ bonds them but is also keeping them from being together.
Tony and Caleb’s friendship and the surrounding support from friends and community is the best part about the narrative for me. My issues are with the romance. That part where Albert has two grown men hiding a sexual/romantic connection (one the town easily guesses at and is gossiping about) but that causes Caleb great emotional distress. Tony’s fears about being openly bisexual which directly pushes any relationship between them back into the closet does harm in multiple ways. Yes, the author repairs this to a degree when Tony works through his own personal issues, but it’s striking that even when they are in a committed relationship, it’s Caleb who has insecurities about where he stands with Tony. That shows an inequality that should have been understood by Tony given their backgrounds.
It’s a miss by the author and an unsatisfactory note for the romance and storyline.
The next novel in this series is yet another age gap, mental health issues storyline and I wish that Albert had used the promise found in the series arc to at least give us some more depth and variety among this interesting group of older men. A romantic story between men of the same age would be a great addition.
Off the Clock (Mount Hope Book 2) by Annabeth Albert is a good book, a nice addition to the series with some heartfelt moments and lovely characters.
Mount Hope series:
✓ Up All Night #1
✓ Off The Clock #2
◦ On The Edge #3 – Oct 31, 2024
Buy link
Off the Clock (Mount Hope Book 2)
Blurb:
Starting over after retiring as an Army Ranger shouldn’t be this hard…
For twenty years, I traveled the world as a special operations warrior. Newly retired at forty-two, I’m back in my hometown of Mount Hope, pursuing a second career as a small-town firefighter. My meddling sisters and best friends all have opinions about my life, but the only person who seems to truly understand me is Caleb, the younger firefighter tasked with my training.
After a lifetime of denying my attraction to other men, Caleb reminds me of everything I’ve missed out on. I’ve never even kissed a guy.
Until now.
Until Caleb.
Until I push our growing friendship to the next level. While sneaking around like a pair of teens, trying not to get caught by our coworkers, friends, and family, our sexy connection leads us to some…interesting places.
And it turns out that I like taking risks. I’ve never wanted a relationship, and neither of us should be fooling around with a coworker, but we keep courting danger.
The more time I spend with Caleb off and on the clock, the more I like him and the less certain I am about everything else in my life. The one thing I know for sure is that I can’t afford to lose this intense bond we share. Can we find our way from super secret to super real before the clock runs down on this fling?
OFF THE CLOCK features two coworkers with an age gap finding out that opposites really do attract and that first impressions aren’t always accurate. All the big emotions, small-town feels, and hot romance readers expect from this acclaimed author. While certain subplot threads continue throughout the series, each guaranteed happily ever after stands alone!
• Publisher: (July 25, 2024)
• Publication date: July 25, 2024
• Language: English
• Print length: 266 pages
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 