Dimitri is an alien working as an investigator for crimes regarding other extraterrestrial beings. When a case comes across his desk about corpses being found with burn marks over their hearts, he must put aside his feelings for his newly reconnected friend Devin; who is in the hospital after being shot trying to assassinate the president.

I enjoyed this but this is another mystery with romance that left me wanting to know more about the mystery because it was wrapped up too fast and with too much simplicity. They don't so much work out and chase down the serial killer as the killer (er... spoilers, I guess?) just shows up ready to be captured. It ruins any tension on the mystery side of a romance/mystery. The character of Devin is compelling enough on his own where he may have made a better antihero or redeemed villain. Feels like a missed opportunity. I'd give it a 3... Maybe closer to a 4 but not quite.

It’s like I stumbled into an episode of a crime investigation drama mid-season, something like CSI: Extraterrestrials, episode 6. It started with a recap of the previous episode’s cliffhanger where Devin threatened to kill the POTUS and Demitri tried to stop him. The writing assumes you are already familiar with the characters and how the world is set-up. Putting together everything is no hardship and things do come together okay, although a bit of world-building would do a lot of good. I find the world of multi-specie entities interesting and I hope Alli Reshi might add more details to what is potentially a rich universe to mine with stories.

Demitri and Devin are childhood friends from a faraway planet who were exiled because Devin was deemed insane and Demitri was involved in illegal research in an effort to help his friend. They are also both sitting on a love confession to each other for centuries. Out with it, boys! I am a sucker for a friends-to-lovers trope done well so I was rooting for Demitri and Devin (said rooting involves sitting them together and smacking their heads). Devin is still tagged as a criminal and I am curious about his fate so next book, please.

There were hardly any details about them but the rest of the team, Benn, Isaac, Gabrielle, Amy, and Sally were likable people. I want to get to know them so some background info would be nice. They all knew Demitri was in love with Devin, heck, maybe assume they were boyfriends already. They were all egging on the Demitri to just get it on already but the poor man had to keep it all bottled up inside.

The case was a minor subplot, minor as in easy to solve. It was simply a matter of identifying the right specie then wait for it to appear. On the upside, it was another way to introduce an interesting new alien to the story. I’m hoping the next case would be more challenging and the investigation be more rigorous. It’s partly what I signed up for after all.

So, major points on the interesting premise, the characters and the romance, hopefully better world building and harder cases to solve next time. This series shows good promise so I want to see where the author takes it.

P.S.

I received a copy of Matters of the Heart from Less Than Three Press via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating:
3 Stars - not exactly setting my world on fire but I liked it

Soundtrack: My Best Friend
Artist: Weezer
Album: Make Believe