WHISKEY AND WRY is the sequel to Sinner's Gin. In the last book, Rhys Ford reveals a secret that sets up this book perfectly. As a result, I think it's imperative that the series be read in order. Ford enjoys mentioning other characters and those names will only fly by your head if you're not familiar with them from the first book. Because there is not a lot of recap of previous events, it's possible that a new reader stepping into this place will feel confusion.

That being said, WHISKEY AND WRY is Damien Mitchell's book. After a car accident that kills his band mates, Damien wakes up in a mental institution with no memory of who he is. He is called by another name, yet Damien knows within himself that he has another identity. When the mental facility he is in becomes engulfed in flames, he runs for his life, unknowingly putting himself into more danger.

In order to survive, Damien plays music at Finnegan's, a pub in San Francisco that Sionn Murphy works at. This is where a romance slowly blooms between the two. While I enjoyed the romance quite a bit and felt the chemistry between the two characters, the problems really lie in the plausibility of some avenues that Ford chose to endeavor.

I realized I much preferred Sionn's POV than Damien's. Whenever I was in Damien's mind, it always felt a little off, a little more "watery" and more liberal with unnecessary words and descriptions. As a result, I think the writing was what slowed down the pacing of this book. There is a handful amount of suspense and even some insight into the villain's head, but it really felt stalled with all the extra words that I think could have been cut out to make the story tighter.

All in all, WHISKEY AND WRY has a great romance. Ford is always capable of injecting her stories with intimacy, passion and suspense. With the little teasing hint at the end of this book, I am eager to see what she has planned next for the series!

Book Summary

He was dead. And it was murder most foul. If erasing a man’s existence could even be called murder.

When Damien Mitchell wakes, he finds himself without a life or a name. The Montana asylum’s doctors tell him he’s delusional and his memories are all lies: he’s really Stephen Thompson, and he’d gone over the edge, obsessing about a rock star who died in a fiery crash. His chance to escape back to his own life comes when his prison burns, but a gunman is waiting for him, determined that neither Stephen Thompson nor Damien Mitchell will escape.

With the assassin on his tail, Damien flees to the City by the Bay, but keeping a low profile is the only way he’ll survive as he searches San Francisco for his best friend, Miki St. John. Falling back on what kept him fed before he made it big, Damien sings for his supper outside Finnegan’s, an Irish pub on the pier, and he soon falls in with the owner, Sionn Murphy. Damien doesn’t need a complication like Sionn, and to make matters worse, the gunman—who doesn’t mind going through Sionn or anyone else if that’s what it takes to kill Damien—shows up to finish what he started.

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