Books To Look For: Shattered Glass by Dani Alexander

I read this book over the weekend, just finished it Monday night, and I am still at a loss, because if this book can only have five stars, then I need to reevaluate every other book I've given five stars to. This book was just BRILLIANT.

I'm going to go on a tangent for a minute, and just say that discovering this genre has changed my habits as a reader. I've always been a ravenous reader, but this genre, it's made me a glutton. I gobble up books frantically, some I like, some I don't like, some I hate, some I love, some I really love. But there is one thing that doesn't happen very often anymore...I am seldom SURPRISED.

This book quite simply BLEW ME AWAY. I mean I love books all the time, I do, and I share my thoughts and all that, but you know what I rarely do? I rarely start writing love poems in my head about feeling cared about as a reader in the middle of reading them...I did with this book.

Ok, so the story...Austin Glass is a detective for the Denver Police Department, he is engaged to be married to his fiancee Angelica, he's also a trust fund baby. Austin is a complicated man. He is callous, immature, superficial, self-deprecating, cynical, and can just be a big asshole sometimes. As messed up as he is, he's a nice guy, his life for the most part is pretty uncomplicated, he has one goal, to join the FBI. He has been working towards that since he joined the force, and he has taken careful steps to get there. He is a good cop and there is no reason why he can't get in...That is until the gets a peek at a pair of bunny slipers walking towards his table at Colorado's Finest Diner. The bunny slippers belong to Peter, the most beautiful man Austin has ever seen (and What the fuck? He's gay now?!).

After Peter comes into the picture Austin's life as he knew it dissolves before his eyes, by his own doing. Everything is different now. Because there is finally something Austin wants so bad that he is willing to do anything to get it.

The plot for the most part, is pretty straightforward. Straight cop falls for a guy that is involved in a case he is working on, things get out of hand. Love interest has a past, LOTS OF BAGGAGE, things come out, there are lies, corruption, there are twists, there are turns. Entertaining, solid crime novel.

The thing that makes this book brilliant though is how this story was told. First of all, Austin Glass, his voice, it's the reason why God invented First Person POV. I knew Austin, everything about him. I understood him because he told me everything. Even the things he didn't want to know about himself. Austin's humor barrels right through cynical, and goes straight into the absurd, the shit he says, pure goodness. I was laughing the whole way through. He didn't just make me laugh though, he made me think hard too, more than once I was yanked out of a laugh with a sobering thought, or a hard truth that seriously, just left me speechless. His voice was so open, so guileless, so PRESENT...I felt like he was MINE. Peter and his Brothers Cai and Darryl, Austin's police partner Luis, his best friend Dave, his fiancee Angelica, they were all mine too because they were Austin's.

With Austin it was all about realizations, he discovers who he really is, he understands the importance of feeling what he does for Peter. It takes him some time, he is a stubborn little fucker, but he gets there. At the same time, Peter is a difficult character too, he doesn't know how to trust, his whole life has been about protecting others. He is paying penance for things he did, even if the sins were never really his to begin with. All he knows how to do, is to sacrifice himself to atone for things that were put on his lap, so unfairly and too early in his life. All these things have made him broken. He's a whore, a hustler, a liar. Austin is not the guy to fix a broken boy, but they manage.

I can go on for another ten pages about how much I loved this book, it is without a shadow of a doubt one of the best I've read in a long time. Amazing characters, great story, carefully and respectfully written. It has been a long time since I've read a book, and felt this cared for by a writer. I hope there is lots more coming from this author, because I want more.

Do I recommend it? If I could MAKE people read this I would. All I can say is I STRONGLY encourage people to take a chance on it.

Shattered Glass is available for purchase on Amazon.com for $2.99 which frankly is insane, because this book is too damn good to be selling for that amount. So count yourself lucky and go buy it! You won't regret it!

Book's Goodreads Page