When I finished this book, my heart was full of emotion! I wrote on my kindle: "I'm going to sleep and have dreams about peace and love, about children and happy homes." 
 In Life Lessons, Detective Mac met teacher Tony when Tony discovers the body of a murdered colleague. They get together but Mac insists on staying in the closet. Tony is too smitten to say no. He probably did not think the closet would last. But it does. 
 When Breaking Cover starts, they have been together for a year, I think, and Mac is still deep in the closet. He is still wearing his deceased wife's wedding ring. They don't go out together like any couple, no dinning out, no drink out, not even driving out. They are only seen in public if they are bringing the children with them, covering up as two dads whose children are friends. The children are delightful. There is Mac's daughter Anna who is living with his ultra-religious aunt and Ben, Tony's kind of surrogate son who live with his drunkard mum. (hum, now that I'm writing this review I realise that the mothers in this book are all extreme in a bad way). 
 Tony is starting to resent Mac for hiding him, making him lie to his friends (since he must keep Mac's real role in his life a secret). He also resent Mac for not wanting to have anything to do with anything gay in public, for fear of being found out. I was pissed off myself. 
 Then a serial killer case Mac is working on touches close to home. When Ben and Tony become involved, it starts a chain of events that will push Mac to come out in order to be the rock he has always been for Tony. 
 You have to feel a bit sorry for Mac, because the coming out process at 34 yr old, when you have an established career in a macho environment, and personal hang ups because of your education and your past experience, IS painful. 
 The thing that surprised me the most was to learn that Mac still thought being gay was being "less than". I think it was the biggest hurdle he had to pass. 
 The end of the book is just brilliant. The way the case is solved, the way Tony and Mac's problems are solved, the way an adorable family just emerges from all that mess, is beautiful. 
 I have to say, I did not like the first book much because I couldn't feel the connection between Tony and Mac. But in this book, I get it plenty. It bursts out of everything they do, they say etc. And what is amazing is that most of the time it is done in an understated way, a "manly" way. Brilliant! 
 Last thing I want to add is that this book is long and never dull, not even for a second. The mystery and the romance are both great, though the emphasis is on the romance. The plot is really well thought, no information is gratuitous, everything has a purpose and as the story goes, you get why this was said, why that was done etc. I liked that a lot. 
 This is money well spent. 
 PS: My fav word in the book was the word "Forminator". LMHO