An interesting build and reconnection between the two men. They are brought back into each other lives due to a bad event, but they work it out between each other.

A bit of a slow start, but worth it in the end. Definitely more romance than mystery, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

A poet, artist, and art professor, Ian Start is struggling after suffering a horrific infection in his leg, one that left massive physical and emotional scars. Unable to find the poetry inside himself ever since, Ian has thrown himself into teaching and painting, and accepting that he will always be alone. Then one of his students is murdered, and the crime brings Ian's ex, Jake, now a police officer, back into the picture.

First, my advice is to push past the first chapter or so. I honestly almost closed the book within the first chapter, because I was really struggling to like Ian. He came across as very prententious, and all his thoughts felt like a lecture on art. But something told me to keep going, and I'm definitely glad I did.

Once readers were allowed to see the real Ian, his struggles, the emotional walls he put up after his tragic illness, his character began to really resonate and feel like a human being I was rooting for. When Jake and Ian first reconnect, I became even more invested, as their chemistry was apparent from the start. The mystery is a good one too, with a very surprising and dramatic ending.

I'm interested to see where this series goes next. Now that I'm invested in the characters and relationships, I suspect I will like the next book even more.

2.5 STARS

Ian Start is an art professor and a poet with writer's block. He's been disfigured and lost his self confidence.

When two detectives knock on his door, two things happen. He's informed that one of his most promising students has been murdered. And .. one of the lead investigators is Jake, a man he had a fling with years ago. He's surprised that he still has feelings for this man ...especially as the police suspect Ian of the killing.

The romance of Ian and Jake overshadow the mystery of who killed Ian's student. The mystery part is not suspenseful. I'm a bit disappointed with the characters, especially Jake. As a detective, he should be out there looking for clues, interviewing family, friends of the young man ... but he seems more happy to have Ian search for his own innocence.

This is the author's debut novel and I notice that she has no history of being involved in law enforcement in any way. I would suggest she find someone who is and can walk her through what a detective actually does and how he goes about seeking justice for a victim.

Many thanks to the author / Nine Star Press / Netgalley for the digital copy of this Romance. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

I quite liked this!
This was a quirky, cozy mystery, with more emphasis on the characters and their relationship than on the mystery. (Exactly how I like it!!)
The character development was good and I was glad that the author handled Ian's disability.
The plot was captivating and I was engaged in the world building that the author created.
Overall, it was well written, and I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.

Start to Finish is the first book in a new cozy series featuring an academic as an amateur sleuth and written by Pamela A. Williams. Released 19th Oct 2020 by NineStar Press, it's 196 pages and available in ebook format. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

I love amateur sleuth cozies. I especially love professor/academic sleuths, so the premise was definitely a plus for me. I wasn't expecting *quite* so much drama-romance content, but readers who enjoy a little mystery with their romance reads will likely find this one fits the bill nicely. The plotting and story arc are well done, I never found my interest flagging and it never felt rushed to me. It's a quick read, so the plot moves along at a pretty good clip.

The writing is competent with engaging, well rendered characters. If some of the secondary characters were a bit two dimensional and blended together a bit, it didn't detract from the storytelling overall in my opinion. I never felt like I was lost or needed to go back and re-read to sort out who the characters were in relation to the plot.

The romance plot often overshadows the mystery; there's definitely chemistry between main protagonist Ian and his sort-of-ex, investigator Jake. The language is rough - I'd say PG-13, and the book contains several scenes of graphic sexual content (consensual and used in context - but not really safe for a work read, in my opinion).

Engaging, with a satisfying (if not shocking) denouement - three and a half stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Ian Start is an artist and writer working as an adjunct professor at RISD–Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI. He’s independently wealthy, no thanks to a huge lawsuit payout he got after an injury at a chain restaurant turned into a flesh-eating disease he barely survived. Prior to the infection he had an on-again off-again relationship with a sexy paralegal in NYC, but that guy disappeared during Ian’s recovery, which was prolonged and agonizing. He has deep tissue loss and scars in his thigh making his former passion of running impossible. Ian has also lost contact with his mother since the injury–she had a hard time handling the aesthetics of it.

One of Ian’s students, a young gay man call Thomas, has been murdered, and Ian has been clumsily implicated as a person of interest. It seems that Thomas, whom Ian knew well as a student, was turning tricks to pay his expenses at school since his family had disowned him in his teens. The news is shocking to Ian, who would have gladly helped out Thomas if he had known. Ian is also unsettled that one of the lead investigators of the murder is Det. Jake Quinn, a man Ian dated heavily in one of his off-times from his NYC beau. The broke up badly, and Ian still has feelings for Jake, but he’s too mired in his own self-disgust over the state of his leg–and how he hobbles on a cane now instead of being the virile man of his pre-infection days.

Ian is determined to do right by Thomas, even in death and pays to bury him, collects his personal drawings before they are trashed by the landlord’s cleaning crew and generally makes it clear to Jake that he won’t rest until Thomas’ murderer is found. Ian is initially a suspect, but the original leads turned out to be planted, and Ian’s sure that the case is growing cold. All his poking is aggravating the situation, however, and Ian finds himself not only threatened, but attacked in his own home. Jake is steadfast in his feelings that Ian should stay out of it–but he’s also warming to reopening their closed love story , if Ian’s up for it. There’s a good deal of soul searching in this slow burn mystery-romance. Ian is an interesting character, and he sees patterns and symmetry where others may not. He’s afraid to hope that Jake might become a partner to him, because he feels so unlovable, and that vulnerability is really poignant. It doesn’t help that Jake has some complications, an old lover who wants to rekindle things might beat Ian to the finish line there. Ian does solve the mystery, but it’s not a triumphant experience with as much tragedy that occurs in the climax.

I loved how Ian rediscovers himself in the course of the few months of this story’s timeline. He’s been depressed for so long, and he has to battle his inner doubts over and over to make things right for Thomas, and between himself and Jake. There is a happy ending, on the romance front. The mystery, as I mentioned, gets solved with a maximum of carnage, and that was more dramatic than I had truly anticipated. The book is quiet, with such lyrical prose I was one hundred percent in the head and experiences of Ian from the beginning. I really liked the story and wonder how Ian will continue to solve mysteries now that he and Jake are coupled up.

After reading the synopsis, I decided to take a chance on this novel, and I’m glad I did. It’s a good debut for a new author.

Given the reference to murder in the book’s description, I expected the focus to be on the mystery surrounding the murder. The main character, Ian, does do some poking around after he is suspected of being the killer, but he doesn’t go full on sleuth. Ian more bumbles into uncovering the truth than anything else. The resolution of that part of the plot is also rather awkwardly inserted into the narrative, like the author just decided it was time to wrap up that plot thread. In my opinion, it’s the least successful part of the storyline.

Really, the murder serves more as a catalyst for other parts of the story, I think. It’s what brings the one that got away, Jake, back into Ian’s life, so that they get a second chance at building a lasting relationship. The mystery of the killing and Jake’s return also jolt Ian out of the routine of the circumscribed existence that he’s built for himself after nearly dying.

Ian coming to grips with his what happened to him and finally attempting to move on from is an essential part of story, maybe even more so than his romance with Jake. Ian’s close brush with death completely upended his life and left him with continuing trauma (flashbacks, nightmares, etc.). It also left him disfigured to the point that he avoids intimacy; if he can’t bear to look at his own body, how could anybody else? Jake ultimately helps Ian overcome that assumption, forcing Ian to recognize that he’s much more than just his injury. Beyond Jake’s influence, though, there’s also a lot of personal reflection on Ian’s part, as he thinks about his life before and after his illness and all the choices he’s made along the way.

In the end, I’d say this book is as much a character study as anything else, with romance and a bit of mystery thrown in, written in a more formal style than the average genre romance novel. It’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but I enjoyed it and am looking forward to more from this author.

A copy of this book was provided through NetGalley for review; all opinions expressed are my own.

I have some rather mixed feeling of this book.
Let's start with the bad stuff - the middle was a bit of a drag for me and I found myself skipping a couple of pages. Mostly the sex scenes, because I think they were rather repetitive.
I loved, however, how Ian's disability was handled. He wasn't stuck in self-pity because of it and I loved how Jake was making him feel loved despite his injury because I think it's an issue we don't come across books too often and it needs to mentioned more. It was my favourite scene of the book, to be honest.
I also loved all the poems across the book, though sadly they fell flat in the middle. Nontheless, it was a pretty strong read, but since there was a little bit too much sex for my taste and the middle felt rather forced to me, I can only give 3.5 stars. Nonetheless, thanks a lot to the author and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC.

From the synopsis , Start to Finish seemed like it would be a home run for me. A disfigured and traumatized artist and an investigator. I was ready to form some strong emotional connections with these characters. Sadly I didn't love it, it wasn't bad but the writing style wasn't for me. There was a lot of information dropping, not about the case but of the characters histories and backstories. I would have preferred to have it intertwined within the story . I also didn't feel the connection between our two male characters at all. Besides the well written intimacy scenes between them, it wasn't believable to me, but that could be because Jake didn't seem fully developed character wise and Ian..I'm not sure I could tell you anything I really liked about his character.

Ian Start is an art professor ... poet with writer's block ... who is trying to get his life back together after suffering a debilitating illness. He's single, teaching part-time, and focussing on his art when a past lover comes back into his life. The problem is that ex-lover, Jake.. is now a detective who is investigating the murder of one of Ian's most promising art students.

Ian had nothing to do with the murder, but suspicions are cast upon Start because of "evidence" at the crime scene. Sure, he knew the young man who was killed - Thomas was a talented artist and Ian had sensed that Thomas was interested in him. But, he would never enter into a relationship with a student. He's puzzled by what "evidence" might exist and Jake isn't revealing anything.

The mystery in this story was interesting and it's always enjoyable when the main relationship is something that is happening along with the unfolding of the plot. I liked the way that the details appeared... the evidence was there and if you were wanting to you could begin to come up with your own theories as to what was happening.

The relationship between Jake and Ian was interesting. They had only been together for a short fling in their past but Ian had returned to his partner of 10 years rather than taking a chance on Jake. Interestingly this decision comes back to haunt him when he finds that Jake has someone in his life. This wasn't an angst-filled dramatic type of relationship. It is mature and authentic and I really enjoyed it.

A lot of this book is about Ian and his recovery from an illness that has left his body disfigured. He's lost his confidence at the same time as he lost his ability to write poetry. As he has sunk deeper into a type of depression, he has lost himself in his painting - often losing track of what's going on around him. In a way, he seems to be exploring his life and the wounds that have been inflicted upon him. Ian is a very interesting character... quite a unique voice.

This was an enjoyable read and I would definitely read anything upcoming from this author.

Williams's novel is a promising debut. The plot drops you in quickly, Professor Ian Start is accused of murdering a former student. Start proceeds to prove his innocence and becomes quite the amateur sleuth in the process. He's a cross-section of television characters that fans of serials will recognize: Hugh Laurie's House and Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock. He's socially awkward and bitingly sarcastic. He is still suffering the aftereffects of a serious illness that left him with a significant injury to his leg, and the pains of living with chronic pain are handled fairly well. Start's love interest is Jake, a former paramour, who is now one of the detectives into the murder that Start has been declared a suspect of.
Williams has clearly done her research into the genre and it shows through the escalation of the plot. There was a steady build of clues and facts to allow the reader to play sleuth alongside Start. The final reveal of the murderer could have been played out a bit more; it was a bit rushed compared to the pace leading up to this point. Yet, it's clear there are opportunities for more Ian Start mysteries and this was a strong entry point with room to grow.

The romantic component was primarily dominated in this murder mystery causing it overshadowed the actual plot, Thomas death and why Ian is being framed for a crime he did not commit. The mystery, suspense, and thrill of whodunit was missing from this piece and it was overall predictable to determine who the actual killer was.

And let’s not forget the half ass detective work demonstrated by our lead detective Jake. How the hell is Ian finding all the clues? All the connections? Where is Jake in all this? I am absolutely baffled by the homicide detective skills. During the course of the read, his focus was rekindling his romance/relationship with his past lover and it’s almost like he had just come straight out of the academy with his pathetic ‘detective work’.

All things considered, there is a high chance I will read from this author again. Though unimpressed with this novel that I would categorize this as mediocre, there is potential and I hope the next release delivers.