Final Orders

What to say? My heart is full. I'm depleted. I'm happy. I'm sad. It's all true. ❤️❤️Way back when I read the first chapter of [b:Pretty Pretty Boys 36623175 Pretty Pretty Boys (Hazard and Somerset, #1) Gregory Ashe https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1511094676l/36623175.SY75.jpg 58383961] I knew I was in good hands. I wasn't wrong. In this, in what seems to be the final entry in the H&S series (I'm not mad about it) the case/mystery was to my mind unimportant. More like a frame onto which the MC get to continue the eternal tinkering of this thing we call life. The blurb pretty much encapsulates the kick off point and then the story moves on which is a good move. There are too many ways to get lost in the weeds with a subject like this. Instead we get the recurring thematic themes of this series as a whole: monstrous parents (even when they don't mean to be) and the ones who are doing their best; the past always returning like the tide (it recedes, it's never gone, and will come back); how things can and do change for the better (even when we're not looking); how people are more (and sometimes less) than what we imagine them to be and have layers upon layers that can take a lifetime to peel and parse. I'm sure I'll be doing a reread and will perhaps have more to say but in the meantime:I think this was a perfect way of leaving Emery & John-Henry, surrounded by old and new friends, family, though some can be a cross to bear. I loved how there were echoes of many of the things that have happened throughout the series. I loved that the ending was happy in a realistic, romantic, non-mushy but absolutely hopeful way. I loved that the two rather explicit sex scenes (a rarity for Greg) served a narrative purpose and were perhaps even not sexy at all. It wasn't the point.I loved that there weren't rainbows and unicorns raining down on everyone we've met in this universe but there's a path forward for them. I'm talking about Dulac and NicoFinally that last scene ... my heart stopped beating for a second because you could see things go not-optimally. But GA took pity on us the readers but primarily on his characters. Thank you.