police-detectives, mystery, sapphic-romance, fiction, LGBTQIA, triggers, psychologist, law-enforcement, Oregon, brutalized, assault, drama, crime, survivors, grief, guilt, investigation, suspense, banter, friendship, friends, courtroom-drama, intense, relationships, relationship-issues, queer*****

It begins with the main characters meeting at a law enforcement conference but quickly shifts to the effects of a random sexual assault upon the psychologist and how the police detective becomes involved both professionally and personally. It is sensitive to the victim, the attraction/romantic issues, and the agonizing aftermath. Well done and worth the reading time.
I had to stop reading fairly early in this rather long book because it triggered for me from the time years ago when I worked as a nurse with rape victims in the inner city.
I requested and received a free temporary e-book from Ylva Publishing via NetGalley. Thank you.
I did find an audio on sale and got it to read in segments at another time. ( )

Anyone else really annoyed by the court arguments that not a single person asked the rapist how he got into the apartment and how breaking in doesnt count as consent? >.>

That aside this was an interesting story. I like that there was more space between the actual hook up, but overall if felt very slow? The court proceedings were definitely WAY too fast to be the American judicial system. ( )

I enjoyed this book just as much as, if not more than, I did the first time. The characters are strong yet vulnerable and Jae takes her time to develop the trust between them. Very well written. After reading her newest books right before my re-read of this one though, I think she's come a long way with more casual, natural English dialogue. Some of Conflict of Interest reads a little more formal than what one would expect. But it didn't take away from the story; just something I noticed. ( )

Yep, still very much enjoy this book. ( )

iiiiii did not realize how heavily this book deals with rape when I started it. Part of that is on me, I think. I just saw that it was an author I had liked before, and a narrator I am really loving lately, and just downloaded it from scribid and started it on my walk. But, heads up, this is… VERY heavy on details about rape. Dealing with a rape kit, a prolonged investigation, a trial, and (spoilers, but I think worth knowing what you’re getting into, honestly, a homophobic hate crime). ALL that said, this is also… kinda positive on cops, like, a lot. And it’s… eye rolling at times, but was also written years ago and I’ve seen the author make posts feeling uncomfortable with trying to re-engage with that at all despite loving this characters and this universe and I get why. Because I really enjoyed this book, all thing considered. It handled a lot of the contents with great care, and really did its level best to lovingly honor the character of Dawn, (who is raped very early on in the book). I fell in love with Dawn instantly and she was absolutely my favorite thing about this book, but I did also really enjoy the (very slowburn) romance with her and Aiden as it developed. As I’ve said, I listened to the audiobook and LOVE this narrator. I’ll definitely be checking out the sequel. ( )