Life Lessons (Life Lessons #1) ~ Kaje Harper

I have had this book on my TBR for an embarassingly long number of years and with it being rereleased, I decided that now was finally the time for me to read it. And boy am I beating myself up for waiting so long to read this one because I had such a good time reading this book. Brief summary Tony is a teacher and one night he is working at the school he teaches at and he stumbles upon one of his collegues who is dead and has a knife in his back. Mac is a homicide detective and they meet because of that what happened at the school. They start hanging out together because of the case and they fall in love.

I’ve never called anyone “babe” in my life. Pet names. Sharing a bed. Being willing to do anything to keep him safe. What next? Mac was scared as hell, but he couldn’t wait to find out.

First, Mac is closeted and he has no intention of ever coming out. I really liked how that part of the book was done. I really enjoyed how he had a reason that was realistic and understandable for staying in the closet, I probably wouldn’t have been very eager to come out if I was in his situation too, so that really worked for me. And I liked how we got to see him experience being closeted through his point of view and the effects it had on him. I really enjoyed how we got to see how being closeted affected Mac’s life and how he wished that things could be different but it was hard for him to imagine how he could make that work too. I really enjoyed how we got to see during Mac’s point of view of how being closeted for so much time affected him and his actions, that part really worked for me. Also I really appreciated how Tony was super sweet about it and never told Mac that he had to come out or made him feel bad about being closeted, that part just really worked for me. Side note, this is a small detail but one that is very important to me. Mac had a wife but she died before the book started. I will be honest, the trope of a gay man who married a woman when he knew he is gay is very triggering for me and it’s hard for me to read a book in which that trope is featured, but I really appreciated how it was done in this book. Mac had married his ex-wife for the legal benefits and she had known the entire time that he was gay. The fact that he didn’t lie to his ex-wife for such a long period of time really worked for me and I was a big fan of it. Second, I really enjoyed Mac and Tony together, they were a good couple and they balanced each other out really nicely. However, I felt like how they got together was a little too fast for the events in the plot, mostly everything that had good reasons to keep them apart, I just wished that there was a little more pining and everything before they got together, but that's just a preference. I really enjoyed the time that they spent together and I felt like they were well suited for each other. Also I really enjoyed how they were always there for each other, that was so sweet and I adored it. Third, I really enjoy following investigations in books and I really liked how much of the investigation we got to see in this book. I liked that we got to see every part of the investigation and that we got to follow the characters around while they were investigating what happened. I do wish that the mystery was a little less predictable, because I guessed the suspect a little too early for me to have a lot of fun trying to put all the clues together. But I did really enjoy how the we got to see so much of the investigation happening on page. As this is the first book in a four book series about the same couple, don’t be surprised when you find me reading the next book in this series very soon, because I really enjoyed this book and I just need to know what will happen to these guys in the next book.