Book Reviews

Book Blurb

San Francisco SWAT Lieutenant Connor Morgan and Crossroads Gin drummer Forest Ackerman make an odd couple. Connor, an Irish-born cop from a tight-knit family, never imagined he’d find his happily-ever-after with a raised-on-the-streets musician, but Forest had the gentlest soul he’d ever met. After a long, hard road of heartbreak, murder, and trouble, they fell hard in love and married.

 

Then Fate intervenes and throws their lives into a chaos neither one of them is prepared for.

 

During a brutal SWAT raid, Connor stumbles on Tate, an abused, vulnerable little boy caught in a shoot-out with his father’s drug-running gang. As heavy fire riddles the walls, an injured Connor rescues Tate from the fray… only to be struck numb when a caseworker pries a sobbing Tate from his arms.

 

Scarred from his own childhood experiences, Forest doubts he can be a good enough father, but Connor assures him they can give Tate what he needs and more. Soon they are on an insane ride where trust and affection are hard-earned, especially when coming from a little boy raised in society’s filthiest gutters. Facing down every challenge thrown their way, they battle to give Tate what Connor treasures and Forest never had—a family to call his own. 

 

Book Review

One man, raised on a bedrock of love, family, and support, and the other abandoned by the people who should’ve loved him and forced to fend for himself. Can they, should they, rescue a small boy desperately in need of a home? This is the core of ‘Port in a Storm’, the eighth book in Rhys Ford’s ‘Sinners’ series and it revolves around Connor and Forest, two of my most favorite characters.

 

“Promises weighed heavy on Connor’s shoulders—promises to come home, promises he’d keep someone safe. He felt every word he’d turned into a vow piercing his soul with each pounding stride he took and the boy’s scared, rigid body trembling against his chest.”

 

Connor is a lieutenant in SFPD SWAT, and as such, he spends his life in dangerous situations. He is a Morgan, though, so making the streets safer is bred into him. He’s the oldest of the Morgan siblings and once thought his life would follow a certain path, but a drummer put him on a new path and Connor never believed he could be this happy. That all changes when he rescues Tate, an eight-year-old boy found in a room with his dead mother, during a drug raid.

 

Forest is the drummer for Crossroads Gin, the band Miki and Damien made after the tragedy of losing their two bandmates. Forest’s mother was a whore to pay for her drug addiction and he was abandoned and left alone more times than not, in and out of the system, until he found Frank who owned a music studio, and Forest finally had some stability. But those dark places inside are still there, no matter how much happiness he has found in his life with the band and Connor.

 

“Forest knew the dull numbness living inside of Tate. He’d resided in that dreary oubliette for much of his childhood, surfacing out of its dank shadows to grab at whatever little light and hope he could, but those were rare moments. It took years for Forest to realize he had a voice, yet no one wanted to hear him, and he had absolutely no power over what happened to him, no right to exist except what he was given.”

 

This book is everything I wanted, and needed, it to be. It’s all about family. The one you’re born into and the one you find. It’s about love and strength when the world has hit you the hardest. It’s about two men not rushing into a situation, but truly communicating and deciding what’s best for their home and their small, happy twosome. Most of all, it’s about making the commitment to try to change just one person’s life for the better.

 

There are enough cameos to make any ‘Sinners’ fan happy, not to mention laughter and love. Honestly, if I could live in a fictional world and be a part of a found family, then this is one of the ones in my top ten. If this is the end of the series then I’m happily content knowing I can return at any time to these characters that I love, and this little boy who had a craptastic beginning to his life, but won the jackpot with the Morgans.

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been purchased by the reviewer.

 

Additional Information

Format	ebook and print
Length	Novel, 187 pages/67808 words
Heat Level
Publication Date	23-January-2024
Price	$6.99 ebook, $16.99 paperback
Buy Link	https://dreamspinnerpress.com/books/port-in-a-storm-by-rhys-ford-12421-b