Rating: 4.5 Stars

Publisher: Hodgkin & Blount

Tags: Gay Romance, LGBTQ, Ongoing Arc(s) Series, Humour, Darker, Emotional Elements. TW: Trauma, Gore, Remembered Abuse, Violence, Drug Use

Length: 411 Kindle Pages

Reviewer: Kazza 

Purchase At: author’s page, amazon

Blurb:

All men are flesh. And all flesh must burn.

Teancum Leon just wants to get through the next few weeks. Quietly. Without any fuss. That’s why he and his fiancé, Jem Berger, are keeping their wedding low-key. That’s why they’re not inviting anyone. That’s why Tean hasn’t told his family.

But when a woman knocks on their door, Tean’s hopes for peace and quiet go up in smoke. History seems to be repeating itself: Amy Graham is the host of a local true crime podcast, and she claims someone is following her. Worse, Amy’s co-host was a woman named River Jordan—and less than two months before, Tean watched as a pack of killers slaughtered her to keep her from revealing a secret.

Convinced that Amy is now a target for the same reason, Tean and Jem begin their own search for answers. As River’s notes lead them toward the past, though, they discover the killers have plans of their own. And their attention is fixed on a boy who has already escaped them once.

Review: 

“Bone of my bone,” Tean whispered, tracing Jem’s bandaged ribs, “blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh.”

One of the big reasons I’ve been on a six book journey with these characters is the banter. I truly appreciate it. It was mostly missing in the first book of this extended Wolves Among Us series, The Same Bones. Got a bit better in book #2, The Same Blood. Here, though, the banter was so enjoyable with discussion that could range from mature… sometimes – snort, trying not to laugh. Sometimes sweet. Sometimes crude – hello Jem. Sometimes nihilistic or deeply anxious – hello Tean. They bounce off each other so well. The rolling catastrophising or doom bantering from Tean with Jem – who lives for it – is back. 

“How do people do this? I mean, Jem, we’re not even his parents. We’re like his—”
“Super cool gay uncles.”
“—part-time caretakers,” Tean said, “at a failing zoo, and we don’t have any resources, and we have to make sure people don’t poke him through the fence with sticks—”
“Didn’t see this coming,” Jem said, “but that’s mostly on me.”
“—and all he wants to do is climb over the fence and get out and run wild where literally everybody will be able to poke him with sticks, and the more we try to keep him from doing that, the more he wants to bite our heads off.”

I’m also here for the murder/mystery. The overarching arc of the wolves is back in full force in The Same Flesh. After River’s death, an investigator and co-host of a true crime podcast – book # 2, The Same Blood – the other co-host contacts Tean and Jem. Amy is certain she is being followed by the same people who killed River and she’s scared witless. No one believes her. Not her family. Not the police. Tean and Jem know just how relentless the wolves are. So they do what they always do – they sleuth because someone needs them. I mean, they also remain in the wolves sights, as does Daniel, so there is personal incentive.  

“And I’m not sure why they’d care. We can’t locate them. We don’t have any evidence against them. We’re not a threat to them.”
“Because we fucked them up, Tean. Twice. These people, they can’t let that stuff go.”

They know who they’re chasing now but need to get their heads around primary motive and what their next move might be. The police aren’t invested. They arrested the wrong man for River’s murder. This time the case takes Tean and Jem into some behavioural territory, piecing Kai’s background together to be able to find him and his murderous pack. It takes them all the way from the city (back) out to the Uinta Basin and then (back) closer to home again. This certainly includes life threatening events and situations. On top of this, Jem’s ongoing trauma arc hits too close to home at Rainbow House, a group for LGBTQ+ teens that Daniel goes to. It causes triggers and some chaos.             

The other primary arc is Tean and Jem finding themselves co-parenting Daniel, Ammon and Lucy Young’s fifteen-year-old  son. It’s been a series-long build. Daniel feels more comfortable with Tean. Also Jem. They’re modelling a gay relationship and that’s a good thing for Daniel. They help because he needs the validation. He has a few understandable issues, alongside the fact that he’s simply a hormonal teenager.

Daniel gave Jem a look that Jem had once told Tean was called Death Ray Thirteen, and then he got into the front seat and slammed the door.

Tean is bewildered with the whole co-parenting a teenager of his problematic ex. Thankfully there’s not much about Ammon in this book. Jem is not unlike a teenager himself at times so it isn’t too much of a stretch for him in his (I think) late twenties. He allows Daniel to just be a kid. To have some fun and silly moments with zero complexity involved. But he also has street smarts about safety that he makes sure Daniel hears. Tean is a more serious person in general. He sets boundaries. Tries to. Between them they do a good job helping Daniel navigate being a gay teenager from a Mormon family whose father is gay but closeted. Well, not closeted so much now as weirdly out in a troubled way. It’s complicated and is part of the reason I would recommend having read prior books to this one.

Daniel and Tean and Jem provide some genuine laugh out loud moments. Like Daniel going to the “drag store.” Also, in Utah? It’s much needed relief because this book can be heavy. It felt a lot like work to me on more than a few occasions and I had to put it down to recalibrate. Be aware that this series has Family of Origin issues. Foster care issues. Juvenile facility issues. Old creeper issues. Dissociation. Blood and gore. All roads lead to trauma. This is Gregory Ashe. 

Ashe clearly made a decision to fix relationships in this book. A number of smouldering bridges were doused. Ammon has a small but positive moment. I’m happy for Daniel’s sake. However, I got whiplash at how quickly Tean’s father had a sudden ‘epiphany.’ I didn’t buy it because his position for many years – Tean is not far off forty – has been how Tean’s wrong because he’s gay. He didn’t approve. It was against the church. Then suddenly good old dad is giving relationship advice to his gay son. It’s lovely, and all that jazz, but didn’t feel realistic. What I do believe is the time spent on Jem and Tean’s trauma. That Tean is struggling to go to therapy. I understand that completely. That vows are hard. Those struggles are all believable. That Tean’s dad’s religious belief system and behaviour is rectified in a couple of pages of this one book? It doesn’t track.  

Tinajas is always the best supporting character with a minor role. A gold star for her ongoing sage advice and care of Jem while also being able to read him the riot act when he behaves in a way that could wreck his relationship with Tean. It’s  most solid thing Jem has ever had, outside of his previous care of his foster brother Benny – The Same Breath. The original book #1.

“Oh my God,” Tinajas moaned, collapsing over the sink. “Why, God? Why did You put this impossible White boy in my path? What did I do to deserve this?” Without waiting for an answer, she spun toward Jem again. “There is one man in this entire universe who will put up with you, and this is how you behave.”

*~*

“It doesn’t matter that it was twenty years ago,” Tinajas said. “It comes back. It comes back when you’re scared. Or it comes back when you feel safe. It keeps coming back. That’s what this shit does.”

Tinajas is bang on the money.

I started this series six books ago with The Same Breath. Definitely start there. Again, don’t be confused at this being book #3. This is book #3 of this extension of The Lamb and the Lion series. I don’t quite get the way Ashe does this but it’s his thing. I’m a big fan of Tean and Jem. I’m assuming? Hoping? There may be more of them at some stage? Big emphasis on the question marks because I have zero clue. If you like gritty, psychological, queer murder/mystery books with romance, very limited sex, which suits these books and these characters, this series is a very good read. For The Same Flesh it’s 4.5 Stars!