Melissa reviews Oversight (The Community, #2) by Santino Hassell Published June 26th 2017 by Riptide Publishing, 242 pages.
Spoiler Alert! The following blurb contains spoilers for Insight, book one of The Community.
Holden Payne has it all . . . or so he thinks. As heir to the founder of the Community—an organization that finds, protects, and manages psychics—he’s rich, powerful, and treated like royalty. But after a series of disappearances and murders rock the Community, he’s branded the fall guy for the scandal and saddled with a babysitter.
Sixtus Rossi is a broad-shouldered, tattooed lumbersexual with a man-bun and a steely gaze. He’s also an Invulnerable—supposedly impervious to both psychic abilities and Holden’s charms. It’s a claim Holden takes as a challenge. Especially if sleeping with Six may help him learn whether the Community had more to do with the disappearances than they claimed.
As Holden uncovers the truth, he also finds himself getting in deep with the man sent to watch him. His plan to seduce Six for information leads to a connection so intense that some of Six’s shields come crashing down. And with that comes a frightening realization: Holden has to either stand by the Community that has given him everything, or abandon his old life to protect the people he loves.
An ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Why I read this book: After reading Insight (book 1), which does end on a kind of cliffhanger, I knew I could not stop with just one. I desperately needed to know how everything unfolded in Oversight.
Wow, I really liked it! I completely enjoyed Insight, and was beyond eager to read Oversight. When Holden was introduced in Insight, I knew he would be something special. Yes, he was an ass and secretive and basically not helpful to Nate in his quest to learn the truth about what happened to his twin, Theo. But in the end, Holden proved to be an okay guy and I needed to know more about his story and who would finally tame this seeming self-centered man. I wasn’t expecting Sixtus, LOL.
“Sixtus Rossi is a broad-shouldered, tattooed lumbersexual with a man-bun and a steely gaze.” Ha, yeah, he is definitely that, but he is also an invulnerable, which means he has a very strong mental shield and no other psychic can read him or influence him with their talents. When Six is placed as Holden’s new “watcher” by Holden’s father, Holden is of course curious about Six and if he is a man to be trusted (since his previous “watcher” turned out to be a psychic vampire villain).
What really brings these two men together is that Holden knew Six from when they were kids. Not in a playmate sort of way, but in a Six was basically captured by Holden’s father and sent to the farm for “realignment” and tortured kind of way. When Six was “sentenced” Holden and his father were there and Holden was a teen at the time and worried for this kid who was about the same age as him. He wanted to make sure Six would be okay, because he didn’t have anybody else to look out for him.
Holden never forgot about Six in the 10 years that have since passed…and neither has Six forgotten about Holden. Call it destiny or soul mates, regardless – these two men were meant to “meet” as kids and to come together again as adults, because Six – even though he is an invulnerable – he felt Holden’s worry for him during his sentencing and kept Holden’s concern and caring with him during his time on the farm being tortured and “realigned” to the Communities way of thinking.
And now with his mother acting even more strange than usual, with the Community seeming to treat Holden as the scapegoat to what happened at his club (Insight book 1), Holden is starting to question everything he grew up believing, or even things he saw. Nate and Trent return to help Holden find Chase and to finally get some real answers on what the Community is doing to psys. With the help of some ex-Comm members (which is a group of people who are fighting to destroy the Community) they risk literally everything to break into the Farm.
This does end on a cliffhanger but I am not scared! 😀 I am not afraid to wait because I know it is all going to work out in the end – I just don’t know how much our heroes are going to be put thru (read – tortured) before the big win at the end.
I loved the intrigue and the secretes of Oversight. This is a real thriller of a story and is full of action and plotting and planning. Let’s just say I am so glad this is fiction because I would not be well suited to live in a world where this was reality, LOL. I don’t like to go down dark alleys, and I would be less than helpful in the stealth department when trying to sneak into a dangerous psychic Farm. Why do you think I stay in my home and read books all day? Except for when I go to work. 😉 I live enough excitement just driving to the grocery store (sometimes it’s amazing to make it back home in one piece – people are crazy!).
I highly recommend this story and series, but be warned that if you don’t like cliffhangers, you should wait until the final book is released so you can read them all together. I plan to re-read this series myself once that happens so I can get it all in one giant psychic smorgasbord. 🙂
Santino is a highly talented writer and I have not been disappointed yet with anything I’ve read by him. Well crafted characters and story line that I think was storyboarded or something because so far I haven’t found anything that niggles at me as being not quite right. Enjoy!
Where to buy: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Riptide Publishing
Santino writes queer romance that is heavily influenced by the gritty, urban landscape of New York City, his belief that human relationships are complex and flawed, and his own life experiences.
To learn more about Santino you can follow him on:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/santino…
Twitter: @santinohassell
Facebook: theonlysonnyhassell | santinohassellbooks
Instagram: santinohassell
Newsletter:http://santinohassell.com/newsletter/
And at his official website: http://bit.ly/16sgcSu
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