Haley is smart, good looking, confident, and-my personal favourite-a gigantic geek. She has an incredible arc, both because of Haley being part of her life as well as decisions she makes for herself, and I was captivated the whole way through. As a biracial woman, she also often deals with racism, even from the patients she’s tasked with helping at the hospital, making an already difficult job even worse. She’s a woman who is used to carrying a heavy emotional load and protects herself by using those compartmentalization skills I mentioned above. Tonya is a total ice queen, for reasons that make sense (and I won’t get into because I don’t want to spoil anything). None of them are perfect or even idealized, and it’s in their flaws that we find ways to become attached to them. Whether it’s Tonya, Haley, or any of the supporting cast, it felt like I could have met any of them in real life and known who they were.

KD Williamson does amazing character work in all of her books, so that it’s like you’re reading about people and not just characters that someone made up. She’s drawn to Tonya and is willing to wait as long as it takes, but can a relationship flourish between them when real life rears its ugly head? The Characters She has good friends, a solid relationship with her mom, and she’s started a new job on the NOPD, although her partner kind of sucks. A dangerous encounter at a gas station leads her into contact with Haley Jordan, a cute butch rookie cop who quickly makes her days a little messier than she’s ready for. Her life is quiet and ordered, and her detachment and champion-level compartmentalization skills are the only way she can live with her temperamental father and the emotional burden of her work. Tonya Preston is a psychiatrist in New Orleans, still counselling people through the trauma of Hurricane Katrina seven years later. Between the Lines stands alone and has no connection to them except by theme, because it features a police officer falling in love with a doctor.

Between the Lines by KD Williamson is the third book in her Cops and Docs series, although it doesn’t matter if you’ve never read Blurred Lines or Crossing Lines.

Between the Lines by K.D. Williamson