Warning: Hard Sell contains numerous descriptions of delicious food. Do NOT read if you are hungry or you'll be sad that you can't stuff your face with the yummy dishes the characters eat.

Now that I've gotten the disclaimer out of the way. let's get to the meat (haha) of my review.

Danny is the epitome of high powered, corporate businessman at the beginning of Hard Sell, and I wondered how this prickly character would win me and Tobin, his love interest, over. Of course, Tobin is the perfect match for Danny. Yes, Danny and Tobin have lots of history going way back, but it's their connection as adults that makes a sweet romance.

I loved the focus on family--bio and found--and Asian culture. I'm always eager for books featuring non-white characters, and both main characters are. Danny's struggle with having a romantic relationship with Tobin due to his bond with Tobin's family and his dedication to his job some together to create of perfect storm of conflict for Danny and Tobin. I couldn't help but ache for and empathize with both of them.

Tobin brings lightness and joy into Danny's life and, while their age gap is apparent, they fit so well together.

***Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.***

I always look forward to this author’s releases as they tend to be great, well-developed stories with original characters who stand apart from other books. That was certainly true for Hard Sell.

I liked the premise of a financial deal overlapping a romance with the best-friend’s brother. The business dealings of the three companies were somewhat intricate, but interesting, explained in an accessible way, and made for an original read. I also loved that the two leads were Asian men (a fact made better by the characters being represented on the cover).

Danny and Tobin were an interesting and complex couple from the start. Danny’s close relationship with Tobin’s family made for a romance ripe with conflict and the men’s intersecting business interests only added to those complexities. In a way it felt perfect- Danny and Tobin fit well together, had a deep bond from years of knowing one another, and appreciated one another greatly, but there were logical speed bumps that prevented them securing a future together. Unfortunately, I think navigating the complications took away from the relationship development. As a result, though I liked the characters and story in Hard Sell, I was never completely enamored with Danny and Tobin’s love story.

Overall, Hard Sell is a good, well-written and polished read. I think I was just anticipating to be more caught up with the couple rather than the financial deal.

What happens when you've got two men, one who's beginning to regret being married to his job and the other who's finally feeling like he's earned his place at his job when they unexpectedly end up on opposite sides of a business transaction? Tobin is Danny's best friend's younger brother. Danny is the best friend who's been around Tobin's family for ages. They spend time dancing around each other, their work lives, and the fear of telling Wei (the aforementioned best friend/brother). I am very excited to have the trope's of best friend's brother/business rivals feature non white people. In fact having two Asian leads added some different family dynamics that made the story more compelling. However, the characters were not likable at some times and in fact it seems like a several threads left things unfinished, yes it's a romance so the end is not necessarily a surprise in t at regard, but threads that were preventing them from being together ie, he business merger, how Tobin's roommates interacted with Danny, left the overall story a bit confusing occasionally. I'm hoping we'll see a sequel or a spin off where the lose threads are resolved or at least addressed.

Included as a top pick in bimonthly May New Releases post, which highlights and promotes upcoming releases of the month (link attached)

Danny is a determined, ambitious man with a plan. He is very good at his job, but lately, he's been losing his touch. He is burned out, tired, and beyond ready for an opportunity for a change. He just didn't expect it to come in a form of his best friend younger brother. :)

At the latest company he is trying to buy, he rans into Tobin. 7 years ago they had a one-night stand, and since then they basically didn't have any contact. While Danny is trying to get them to sell, Tobin is there to help them get back on their feet like a consultant.

The chemistry between them is sizzling from the start, but there is still a lot standing between them.

I love the premise of the story, best friends brother/sister & second chances are some of my favorite tropes, but for some reason, I had a hard time getting into the story. There were some kind of weird parts and the story is way different than I expected...

received from Netgalley

When I first saw Asian male leads on the cover of a romance book, I was sold right away. My heart was pumping with excitement and I really did had extremely high hopes. Were they met? A little.

Hudson Lin's Hard Sell pitched a book with two tropes I want to read more about: age gap and brother's best friend. I know there would be angst, pining, and some pain! I have to admit, this book really delivered that and I had a good time knowing both Tobin and Danny, as well as witnessing how their love story turned out.

In this story, both Danny and Tobin work in the world of business. Seven years after their one-night stand, they have a chance meeting through WestTec, a company Danny is eyeing to buy and where Tobin is working as a consultant. Sparks still fly between them. And Tobin, now older and braver, is ready to pursue and see where their attraction takes them.

What makes this book special to me is that these two leads actually grew up with each other. I wish the author expounded on their backstory because it would have been so awesome. However, the little things I got were still satisfying and it made me have a better appreciation for their current journey to love.

In this book, we experience a lot of push and pull in their love story. First, they are guarded with their feelings. Second, they have their work drama influencing their choices. And finally, the guilt they feel towards Wei, Tobin's older brother.

Aside from that, you will see glimpses of the inner struggles of both of these men. I saw how they felt about their families, their career growths, their futures, and how their current self compares to their past.

Now in terms of the romance parts, this book is a whole of seggsy. If you are wishing for an M/M read with on-page spicy scenes, this one has A LOT a lot. Honestly, I am happy about that because some of my recent reads had fade-to-black moments or off-the-page scenes.

What hindered me to love everything about this book surrounds WestTec, the company they are working for. First off, this book was filled with business jargon and it took a huge chunk of the story. I don't know if the goal was to educate, but for people who are not business majors, this can be boring and confusing.

Not only that, I felt uncomfortable with how this story handled human trafficking. It was touched on very little that you'll miss it if you blink. But when you notice, you would look for some point of resolution — but it was pushed aside. Until now, I don't know what to feel about that. It should have been just removed from the story if it wasn't going to be addressed anyway. So, I am removing 0.5 stars from my rating of this book because of it.

Overall, this book had tons of potential to be a new favorite for me. Focusing on the romance, Hard Sell gave me a love story — and the epilogue definitely did seal the deal!

The writing is well done and the story kept me engaged. Danny and Tobin were somewhat likable (Yeah, I can't lie, I had a some big issues here) and I felt they worked as a couple. I did enjoy their attraction, chemistry and the connection they shared. Overall, it was a steamy, angsty and dramatic read that had a lot of potential but fell just a bit short of the mark for me.

Let me start by saying I found the chemistry in this story on point. The author really did a wonderful job of portraying the sexual frustration, yearning for touch, and heated looks between Tobin and Danny. I also love a good best friend’s sibling story (or, to say it another way, brother’s best friend). The pull Danny felt between Tobin and his brother Wei felt real. Yet there were things that kept me from being fully engrossed in this story.

Tobin and Danny haven’t seen each other in many years when they bump into one another at the company Tobin is trying to help and Danny is trying to buy. The dealings with this company, WesTec, become a bit convoluted and even confusing. I guess confusing isn’t the right word, but some of the ins and outs of their jobs and what WesTec represents to them both took me out of the story. Especially when it came to Danny.

For the most part, these are two great guys. Tobin has a chip on his shoulder about being the baby of his family and therefore still being babied by them. But overall he’s a compassionate and wonderful person. Danny is great when it comes to his personal life. He’s a fantastic uncle to Wei’s little ones and treats Wei’s parents like they are royalty. He also has a chip on his shoulder, one from growing up poor alongside Wei and Tobin who grew up rich. In no way has Tobin or his family treated Danny as lesser or other, it’s a label Danny has put on himself. He’s now uber-successful and rich but is still trying to prove himself. Often, that leads him to make some not so morally great decisions.

Here’s one of the places I had an issue. Something comes to light less than halfway through the story about the owner of WesTec that is vile and illegal. (CW sexual abuse.) Danny knows it should be reported yet sits on the information because it will help him to reach his goal of obtaining this company. Every good thing Danny does after this is overshadowed, in my mind, by this one thing. It’s just not something I could overlook, so it really messed with how this story flowed for me.

Like I mentioned before, the chemistry in this book is phenomenal. I will definitely want to give this author another go on that fact alone. And, while I was taken out of the story in spots, for the most part this was a very enjoyable read.

One last thought, the author did many of her readers a disservice at one point in having a character express distaste in audiobooks. Maybe she doesn’t realize how many people read audiobooks. I am not one of them, they’re just not my thing. But I absolutely believe that listening counts as reading. I just wonder how that’s going to go over if this book is made into an audiobook. There was no reason for throwing that shade into this story, it didn’t further the story or even fit the character. It really put my guard up pretty early on.

Seven years ago, Danny Ip and Tobin Lok hooked up. They haven’t spoken since, so their unexpected reunion is a bit awkward at first, but that doesn’t stop them from getting dinner together.

And before long, they’re hooking up again: this time, it’s more than a one-night stand, but it’s not a relationship either.

I loved the balance between the high-powered business world and the tight-knit shared family. To clarify: Danny and Tobin aren’t related, but Tobin’s brother Wei is Danny’s best friend and Danny spent a lot of time at the Lok house. He’s still close to the Loks in Toronto—closer than Tobin, who now lives in Vancouver.

Speaking of which, I loved the Canadian setting: there are scenes in three different cities—Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver. Danny and Tobin get to go to Stampede!

Danny and Tobin have great chemistry: there’s no prologue detailing their first hookup, but the feelings must have been brewing for years. And then seven years with no contact? They might have tried to brush the first time off as a fluke, but chemistry like that can’t be denied.

I would absolutely recommend Hard Sell. Not only does it hit several amazing tropes like best friend’s brother and second chance, but both protagonists are Asian. I’m always looking for diverse romances, so this was a nice find. One of the best signs that I’m enjoying a book is when I wonder whether there’ll be a sequel before the current book is even over. I’m pleased to report that there will be a sequel featuring Danny’s friend Ray—I can’t wait to read it!

I received an ARC of this book from Carina Press/NetGalley.

What a beautiful find it was for me to come across an m/m romance book with two Asian leads - with a beautiful cover with models to boot!
This won me over in the premise alone - an age difference AND brother's best friend combo. Delicious!

Daniel "Danny" Ip walks into WestTec, a start up that's starting to crack hoping to swoop in and prove to his boss Joana, at Jade Harbour Capital, that he still has what it takes to run the equity investment game.

What Danny doesn't expect to find in Calgary is a very grown up Tobin Lok. Tobin. Tobin who wants to be called by his full name, and who bristles at any mention of being "baby Toby". Because that's who he use to be. Danny's best friend Wei's baby brother.. The baby brother Danny spent a long night seven years ago doing unspeakable things to after Wei's bachelor party when Tobin was 19.

Filled with starts and stops and conflicting emotions, this was a great start to what I can tell is going to be a fantastic series.

I confess I struggled a bit with the characterization of both Danny and Tobin. I felt like there was a lot of conflicting information about them, and not a lot of opportunities for the reader to pick up on their characteristics for ourselves.

There were also quite a few subplots in this that felt really out of place and tangential to the story.
From Tobin's life in Vancouver, his roommate and her girlfriend's - including some unfortunate and unsavory wording and decriptors that I wish were caught in editing. At times it seemed like Tobin and Monica were good friends, and at others it seemed like they didn't really care about each other and that confused me.
To a completely unexpected trafficking subplot that came out of left field and never really panned out..
At some point Tobin's dad asks if his English is troubling him, though there isn't a single other mention of it throughout the story and up to that point it felt safe to assume that the Lok children had been raised in Canada from a very young age, if not born there.

I wish there were stronger secondary relationships in the book. Tobin talks about not wanting to leave his life behind, but he honestly doesn't have much of one? I understood Danny only having Wei in his life since he is very much married to his job., but I felt like I didn't have the full picture of what Tobin's life was like.

The biggest wasted opportunity in my opinion was understanding Tobin and Danny's relationship better when they were younger. Maybe a couple of well placed flashbacks or reminiscing could've shed some light on that area.
Tobin also mention's avoiding Toronto and Danny after their initial hook up, but we never got to see the emotional toll that took on both of them, and the idea of "it was always you" didn't sound all that convincing without the goods to back it up.

The epilogue moved me greatly, though I wished we could have explored how Tobin and Danny's relationship altered the Lok family dynamic, and how they were able to grow and evolve within that space for a greater sense of fulfillment.

I hope we get to check back in with these two in Ray's book, and I'm very excited to read his story..

This book has so many aspects I love in my romance reads so it's no surprise that I really enjoyed it! Danny's newest job takes him to WesTec where he runs into his best friends little brother, Tobin, for the first time in seven years.

I will say I don't understand a lot of the business/job discussions that were going on in this one - it was all flying over my head - so let's get into what I did understand haha

Tobin has always had a crush on Danny but Danny never reciprocated or ever thought of him in that way, until seven years ago when something happened between them on Tobin's birthday. Seeing them come back together after no contact for so long was wonderful. They have such a real, intense chemistry and I loved seeing the bond they shared through knowing one another so long. There are obstacles in their way so their relationship does have some stops and starts but I always believed in the connection between them.

I enjoyed the relationship so much that I actually was tearing up a little towards the end, which is always a sign of a great book for me. The work conversations that I always felt a bit lost on stopped this being a 5 star but other than that I have to say this was a near perfect read for me! My first from this author but certainly not my last.

Honestly, when I started this I though it would be your run of the mill brother's best friend romance. Then, at 6% there's a paragraph that really touched me and gave me a glimpse of how much depth the story and the characters will have. And it kept going.

The characters are very well-rounded, and even though I didn't see their relationship as that difficult to wrap my head around, I could understand why they did. I hate using this term because - cliché, but it did break my heart and put it back together in several instances, usually because of Danny. It truly shows how much the obstacles we face are the products of our own minds, and I love that. I'm not Asian, but I am from a culture that puts a lot of emphasis on family, and where said family is very much in your business all the time, so I can definitely relate to how much that affects your relationships.

This is very well-paced and engaging. The writing is excellent, with vivid imagery and great, effective turns of phrase. The author has a distinct voice, and a knack for tugging at your heartstrings in such a seemingly non threatening way, which makes the impact that much stronger. It's not a slow burn, but it feels like a slow burn.

There were a few things I was a little conflicted about. Some of Tobin's comments felt a little off, even if they were part of his characterisation. I thought the B-plot got a little too much attention at times, or for longer stretches of time, but nothing to detract from my enjoyment of this book.

Just a very well-written story that definitely makes me want to follow this series.

*I have received an ARC from Netgalley and I am leaving an honest and unbiased review.*

If there's one thing I don't like is characters not talking to each other, not looking for clarification to something they know they want to understand. And they go days, weeks sometimes months ignoring each other, being mad for reasons that maybe a serious talk could've solved way sooner.

Danny and Tobin took their time. They crashed soon and hard, and they had way too many stops along the way, they made my head spin.

I didn't get much the finance part of the story but maybe it was supposed to be that way. I liked their interactions and chemistry and I enjoyed feeling the love blooming. I didn't enjoy them ruining everything constantly by not communicating. TALK!!

I liked how it was written, the story flows nicely and it keeps you interested enough to keep going until the end. It was emotional and cute, maybe a tad too angsty.

This was sadly not what I expected.

I cannot condone when MCs basically know there is sex trafficking...and look the other way. This is unconscionable and unforgivable.

Also...treating lesbian friends in the manner done in this book is horrible.

Do better. Who sensitivity read this book? Beta read? Edited? Because all y’all (with the author) missed all that...unless the author blatantly ignored all advice?

Such a disappointment considering that cover.

This was such an addictive, angsty and swooning second-chance, forbidden love m/m romance! I loved the diversity, the family bonds, the thrilling finance world setting and the heart-warming childhood friends-to-lovers plot, but most of all the message about finding out what you really need and want in your life and being brave enough to risk losing it all for love and happiness.

Danny Ip is the big shot private equity investor, a true investor shark, who’s worked his way up from his poor childhood to the absolute top of the Canadian finance world. He didn’t do it all on his own though, but had help along the way from his childhood best friend Wei Lok’s supportive family. For long he’d truly enjoyed being married to his work with its thrills and the luxury that came with the big money, but lately he’s started to feel burned out and has begun to slip. To not lose his position he needs to pull himself together and close the new deal, the acquisition of WesTec from the infamous Cyrus West.

Tobin Lok is the younger brother of Danny’s best friend Wei and has been almost like a younger brother to Danny himself. Tobin’s feelings for Danny have never been of the brotherly kind though, and at Wei’s bachelor party seven years ago his dreams about Danny became real in a drunken hook-up. The happiness was short though, as Danny left during the night full of guilt and did his best to avoid Tobin ever since. Until they suddenly meet at WesTec, both working with the company but on different sides, and the forbidden attraction is back with a burning intensity.

This book had so many things I love like second chances, forbidden love, strong family bonds and wonderful friends. I also really loved the diversity both in regard to the LGBTQIA+ representation and the Asian characters. There was also the right amount of angst and a burning attraction, and some truly amazing character developments, as well as really interesting insights to the private equity world. I rooted so much for both Danny and Tobin from the start. Their love was so obvious and strong, and I so wanted them to get the happiness they deserved that at times I almost wanted to scream at them both to just be brave and take a chance on each other, and not let the respect for Wei and his parents stop them. The only minor objection I have to their romance was how the book took a jump from a sweet romance to being quite explicit sexually, but that’s just my personal reaction and I can certainly understand how other readers might appreciate these hot scenes more. And then there was the issue with how the love story started and the ‘almost-being-brothers-growing-up’-aspect. It’s always a fine balance with this trope, especially since there was a quite substantial age gape between Tobin and Danny, but all along the story Hudson Lin did a wonderful job keeping this balance. I’m very happy that Tobin was 19 at their first hook-up, so that there were never any uncomfortable underage issues.

All in all, Hard Sell, was such an addictive, emotional and highly enjoyable story about second chances and overcoming barriers for a chance to find love and happiness. I can’t wait to continue the Jade Harbour Capital series with Ray’s story in the next book!

Thank you to Carina Adores and NetGalley for the ARC and blog tour invitation for this wonderful book! All opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Hard Sell is the first book I’ve read by Hudson Lin even though I have several others in my digital library; I really need to make time to read some of them. Hard Sell is a great love story but it’s also about family and how family doesn’t have to mean blood relatives.

Danny and Wei are best friends and Wei’s younger brother, Tobin, tagged along with them a lot. Danny and Tobin had a one-night stand after Wei’s bachelor party. Tobin has had a thing for Danny forever and when they run into each other several years after their night together he wants Danny again.

I love the setting for this book. I’ve visited both Toronto and Vancouver and they are both beautiful places I’d love to visit again. Danny moved to Vancouver to get away from his wealthy, overprotective family and to prove he could make it on his own. Danny still lives in Toronto and is a hot-shot in the financial industry. He’s always felt a bit inadequate because he doesn’t come from a wealthy family like Wei and Tobin. He’s clawed his way to the top but it’s no longer satisfying to him; he’s getting burned out.

Danny and Tobin are keeping their relationship a secret from Wei so it wasn’t hard to figure out that one of the big conflict moments in the story was when Wei found out about it and it resulted in Danny and Tobin breaking up.

I liked that both Danny and Tobin showed their emotional side at various places in the story. There were several tender moments that had me tearing up and I love that in a book.

I seem to be struggling again when I try to write a meaningful review. I’ll just stop and say I thought this was a good story and it took me away from real life while I read it and that’s one of the big reasons I read romance. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in this series.

A review copy was provided by the publisher via NetGalley but this did not influence my opinion or rating of the book.

***Reviewed for Xtreme-Delusions dot com***

This book had a lot of tropes in it that I liked, but at times I did feel like there were almost too many tropes and too many subplots, so they didn't quite get the attention they deserved. Having said that I really enjoyed the relationship between Danny and Tobin. They had a clear connection from the get go. The relationship between the two definitely made up for some of the things that were mentioned once and then never addressed again. The writing was fast paced and easy to read, even if some of the subjects weren't exactly relateable to me. I would definitely pick more of Hudson Lin's books and more in the series.

I was immediately sold when I saw there were two Asian men on the cover, and even more interested when I saw this was a best friend’s sibling book. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting, but my reaction to the book was, well, complicated.

“Yes, we’re both working with WesTec, and potentially at cross-purposes, but that doesn’t make us enemies or competitors.”
No, Tobin agreed. But what did it make them? Family friends? Childhood friends? Acquaintances? Former lovers? Maybe future lovers?”


Tobin’s had a crush on his older brother Wei’s best friend Danny since they were kids. Seven years ago, they had a one night stand at Wei’s bachelor party, but haven’t talked since. So it’s a big surprise to run into each other while they’re both evaluation WesTec – Tobin to help them determine how to remain solvent, and Danny as a representative of Jade Harbour Capital, who want to buy the company out. They reconnect and can’t deny that there’s still an attraction between them, but is a fling worth ruining both of their relationships with Wei?

“What happened to that guy who thrived on hard work, always looking for the next challenge, eager to conquer every mountain before him? When had he faded into this shell of a man who wanted nothing more than to lie down and sleep?”


Both men were complicated individuals. Danny has a serious chip on his shoulder about wealth. He was raised by a single mother who worked hard to provide everything she could, but he lucked out by being best friends with Wei Lok, whose family was rich and basically considered him another son. He’s done everything he can to repay them (or at least everything they’ll let him do, which isn’t much), and he enjoys the finer things in life. The rat race is never-ending, though, and Danny’s frankly burned out by his job, tired of the long hours and constant travel required. But besides work, what else does Danny have? In contrast with Danny, Tobin grew up with all the advantages, but he’s chosen to go it on his own, refusing his family’s help. He’s always been treated as the baby of the family, especially by Wei, and it seems the majority of his decisions are to reinforce that he’s an adult.

“It was probably the hottest sex they’d ever had. It was definitely the worst idea Tobin had had in a long time.”


Their relationship has several complications, both internal and external. First, of course, is the best friend’s sibling trope. Danny still thinks of himself as unworthy of the Lok’s status, that they would be upset if they knew he and Tobin were together. They both worry that their relationship will impact each of their relationships with Wei. There’s also Danny’s workaholism (even on “vacation,” he’s spending hours working) and the fact that they live on opposite sides of the country. Danny’s obsession with work – and how he downplays it – is almost infantilizing to Tobin, and it takes a lot of time working on their communication before they get their HEA.

“If he came between them, if their friendship ended because of him, even for as ridiculous a reason as Wei’s misplaced guilt, Tobin wasn’t sure he could live that down.”


Wei’s relationship with both Danny (who lives near him and frequently babysits his twins) and Tobin was, well, also complicated (I swear this is the last time I’ll use that word in this review). I was initially frustrated by his reaction to Danny and Tobin’s relationship, but liked the way he owned up to being in the wrong. What little we see of the Lok family in general seemed wonderful, and I would’ve honestly liked to see more of them on the page. It was nice, comforting found-family vibe, very much in contrast with Tobin and his roommate and Danny’s relationship with, uh, everyone.

“This week was supposed to be a fun getaway with his hot lover. And now suddenly, there’s a greedy ex-wife and possibly trafficked sex workers, and everyone seemed to be okay with it, except him.”


And now for the negative. There were a lot of content warnings I wasn’t expecting. At one point, both MCs find out that a private investigator took photos of someone they’re working with in flagrante delicto with someone who “could be very young-looking eighteen-year-olds.” While both separately realize they should report it to the police, they… don’t? Instead they (and the ex-wife) intend to use it as leverage to get him to sell the company. I’m honestly not sure what the point of including this was – the character involved was already plenty skeevy without that additional complication. There’s smaller things that really rubbed me wrong as well. Tobin makes several derogatory comments about his roommate’s girlfriend, calling her a dyke and a bleeding heart liberal for raising questions about how Danny earns his money (and capitalism in general). It was weird and gross and I have no idea why it was there, either.

Overall, while I enjoyed the book – I do love messy characters – the content greatly affected my enjoyment of it, and I’m not sure whether I’ll continue with the series.

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I was really looking forward to this book, but this is maybe a case of "it's not you, it's me." Nothing in the blurb prepared me for the dark edges of this story, particularly the sex trafficking subplot, and I was expecting something more like Dynasty, with glamour and backstabbing, and less of what I got.

Hard Sell is a male/male, best friend's brother, workplace romance with a few other things thrown in. Now, I won't pretend to understand all the business stuff going on here, but it wasn't completely over my head either. Our romantic couple, Danny and Tobin, do have chemistry, but it took some curtain-parting to really get a feel for that. What I mean, is the story gets a bit busy with the business stuff and subplots, and the relationship gets a little lost. Not completely, though, and once I got invested, I wanted to see how their relationship would play out. I will say that some things in this one ventured toward darker tones, so that's something to keep in mind. I like dark and gritty storylines, so that didn't bother me, it just felt a little out of place in this setting, I suppose. In the end, there were things I liked and things I didn't, but the good far outweighed the bad for me, and I ended up really like this couple. This is the beginning of a series, and I am interested to see where things go from here.