Romancing Riley

2.5 stars. This book ended far better than it started, but considering the amount of whining I did at the beginning - that isn't really high praise. Honestly, for about the first 30-40%, I kinda hated it. The instalove concept annoys the hell out of me and this was instalove to the extreme. They only knew each other for literally five minutes after one conversation before they decided they were head over heels. Coming into this book felt like I missed the first half. There were all these intense emotions between them when they didn't even know who they really were beyond known reputations. Additionally, one of them is straight without ever having questioned his sexuality before falling for the other. Not that that isn't possible I guess, I just thought there should be more of an initial internal struggle. It didn't seem very realistic.Pretty much everything I hated stemmed from those things, but there was so much wrong with this book I can't even list it all. Coming from a family of law enforcement, it was difficult to see a good cop barely struggle with the idea of falling in love with a known gang leader and all that would be associated, without a second glance. He just sticks his head in the sand and pretends it doesn't exist until the 75% or so mark and then he suddenly grows a conscience.And then there was the sex. Don't get me wrong, parts of it were scorching, but then in the middle I'd hit a sentence referring to the prostate as a fluffy knot or some really bad porn dialogue that just ruined it and made me facepalm. I've been reading m/m for seven years, and I've never seen a fluffy knot anywhere. I literally started laughing. Not the reaction you're going for in your readers at that specific time.However, having said all that, after about the 50% the author seemed to find her stride and I stopped actively mocking the story and began to actually enjoy it a little more. The plot picks up, the characters develop a bit more and the relationship between the two deepens. It's not a bad story really, but it could really use a few more passes through an editor or three. I don't think I could read it again, but I didn't hate it by the end anymore. I don't feel as if it ever reached it's full potential as there is so much more that could've been done in this setting, but it was more character driven than a plot driven book. I'm still undecided on the sequels. They're far too expensive for the writing quality at $7-8 as of this review.