Miles to Go [Paperback]

Wanting to prove he can do the job just as anyone else on the force, openly gay police offer Rick Miles risks his life to go under cover to catch a notorious drug lord. With his mission unbeknownst to his commanding officers Rick's only back up is his partner Graciela Cruz. Once his cover is set as one of Gareth `Hairy' Carey's henchmen, it is nearly blown by Carey's `boy toy' lover Billy Rose.

Developing an attraction to his `boss'' sexy boy friend is the last thing Rick needs but Billy knows his sexual powers and he doesn't hesitate to use them to get what he wants. As Rick's mission into the underworld deepens so does his connection to Billy and Rick finds that falling in love is a lot more dangerous than taking down viscous drug lords.

Miles to Go is great story! At first I didn't know what to make of Billy but the more I read the more I felt for him. I didn't find Miles to Go to be a highly intense story, but it was very dramatic, especially where Billy was concerned. There were some surprises and unexpected moments but what surprised me the most was the depth of feelings between Billy and Rick. When I read the title of the book the first thing that came to mind was the poem written by Robert Frost. After reading this story and how Connie Bailey tied the poem into the conclusion of the story, what I always thought of as a sad poem was given a lighter tone. Miles to Go is an enjoyable story that Ms. Bailey fans will love.

Ley
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

Rick is a good cop but he made a big mistake: he came out of the closet. In the book is not explained why and when he made the decision, we only had some hints on a previous marriage which was not so perfect. Anyway now Rick is the "gay" cop and he is roaming the street with another misfit cop, a spanish woman; and so Rick decides to volunteer to go undercover when an English drug lords decides to "acquire" the Los Angeles district. Rick is the perfect man since Gareth, the vicious criminal, has a penchant for gay handsome man. Rick's idea is to enter Gareth's bed to find out ALL his secrets and then drags him to justice. Problem is that Gareth didn't come alone from England: along with him there are three bodyguard, one best friend and... Billy Red. Billy is a pretty little thing whom mission is to grace Gareth home and pool and to satisfy every whims of the man; but Billy seems not to be a victim, he has a strange power on Gareth and he seems to have a plan on his own. Rick can't help to fall for the imp.

Meanwhile Rick's partner, Graciela, finds out that also an English cop is undercover among Gareth's crew... All right, first of all, don't think to have understand all the story from my resume: while reading I have three thesis, one very original (according to me), one obvious and one that would remind me too much another book I read recently... no one of my thesis was the right one.

Rick is a good man, but maybe he is not a so good cop (if good is the classical cop from the movie, the one who kills all the bad men alone); he made some big mistakes, but all in all he is a cop by the book: till the end he behaves as a team worker, he has not the core to be a lonesome hero. I don't want to say that he is not hero, only that he is an average "hero"; truth be told, all the climax event on the story are of average danger and the violence is always as in undertone. The only one who really seems to feel pain and joy and anger is Billy; all right, he is also a good player, he knows how to use that deer eyes he has to manipulate the men around him, but all in all he is the one who has the worst experience out of the story: Billy is Gareth's boy toy and for all the story he is used and mistreated. It's strange there are more than one sex scene in the story, but unfortunately they aren't "happy" sex scene; only in the end we read something happy. So it's only natural that I feel for Billy more than all the other, he is probably the truer character in the story; he manages to be strong and detached in the worst moment while at the same time maintain his impish image and the joy of life of a still young boy.

All in all the story is good, even if sometime I felt as the author let it go the tension: I never really felt as if my heroes were in real trouble, sometime I almost felt as if all was a big role game; as I said, the real bad moment were most targeted toward one person and in a one to one situation. But since I'm not for too much violence, I really didn't miss them, and on the contrary, I was glad to haven't to worry for all the novel.

Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.

Rating: 5/10

PROS:
- I can easily see how the two leads would be attracted to each other, not just physically. Rick is the stoic protector and Billy is a beautiful, haunted victim, so they fit together naturally.
- Billy's tell-all scene describing the horrors of his past is worse than any I've read before. That scene did a lot toward making me forgive him for every indiscretion he wanted to commit to get back at any or all of his tormentors.
- There's not a lot of sex, for which I mentally applauded the author, because the characters are too busy staying alive to pull off too many sexual rendezvous. When they finally do go all the way, there's an unusual element to the encounter that I found very sweet.

CONS:
- The sex scenes between Billy and Gareth (two of which are described in a fair amount of detail) are unpleasant because they're essentially rape. Billy isn't EXACTLY forced against his will--he lets Gareth take him, but it's painful and Billy allows it only because the alternative is even worse.
- Rick and Billy don't use condoms, nor do they even discuss using them. I'll say that again just in case you missed it the first time: the two main characters, one of whom is a supposedly streetwise cop and the other of whom is a rent boy/plaything for the villain and several of his goons (as well as a former hustler who has slept with easily 100 different men) DON'T EVEN CONSIDER USING CONDOMS. I mean, seriously--and I don't use this expression lightly--W...T...F?
- Characters are referred to often by descriptors--"the undercover cop," "the younger man," etc.--when their names would be more succinct and less confusing.
- The depth of Rick and Billy's feelings for each other is a little hard to believe. They haven't known each other for more than about 2 weeks or had more than a handful of conversations when Billy tells Rick, "My life is over anyway if you're not going to be in it." Then later, Rick's transition from stalwart, moralistic police officer to the-devil-take-it man-in-love-with-a-criminal is abrupt. As in, two pages. If that.

Overall comments: There's an interesting premise here, but the story is full of holes. It's not horrible; I'm not sorry I wasted those few hours of my life or anything. But there are other m/m action stories out there that are much better: for example, The Assignment by Evangeline Anderson or any of the PsyCop stories by Jordan Castillo Price.