seriously romantic: hitting black ice by heloise west

after surviving a hostage crisis in the e.r. where they both work in hitting black ice, hunter and shawn are forced to face the attraction that has been building up between them. yet, both of them have past baggage that weighs them down.

shawn is on the run from the witness protection program after his handlers proved to be double agents for the crime lords he was ratting out. there's a lot of crazy convoluted twists to his part of the story, and the explanations for those things come late in the game, and i'm not one hundred percent sure i understood where everything went wrong for him, but basically he's running and falling in love with hunter is such a bad idea, because he is lying to him about who he is, and he also is so worried about putting him in danger.

meanwhile, hunter had an emotionally abusive ex who killed their dog and then proceeded to shoot himself in front of hunter's eyes in the parking lot of the hospital he used to work at. so needless to say, there's a lot about the hostage situation that is triggering, and later on the danger that he and shawn find themselves in, brings back some bad memories.

but the key thing here, is that in spite of all the trauma and baggage, and the hurt these two cause each other, there's also a deep connection. hunter can't quit shawn, and shawn can't let go of hunter either, even when he's worried that staying will make everything worse. so somehow they need to untangle the mess and make everything right again. but they'll need help, and some of it will come from the most unexpected places.

**hitting black ice will publish on august 19, 2019. i recieved an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/ninestar press in exchange for my honest review.