An Unseen Attraction by KJ Charles

The blurb describes this as a slow-burning romance and it is certainly is. There's a bit more emphasis on the mystery in this book and I was a bit disappointed by that as KJ Charles is more of a romance writer usually. I also didn't get a real feel for the men's romance but hope that it's going to be a larger part of the continuing series.
Clem Talleyfer is a half-Indian man running a lodging house. For the most part, it is a fine life, except that he is forced by the house's owner to keep one particular lodger, Lugtrout, who is a drunken lout and makes all of the other lodger's lives uncomfortable. Luckily, there is one particular lodger who brightens Clem's days (and eventually nights), Rowley Green.
Rowley is a taxidermist, quiet and fastidious. He is attracted to Clem but feels like a moth attracted to a very handsome butterfly. When they get wrapped up in the mystery of Lugtrout's death, Rowley is happy that he is able to spend more time with Clem.
Both men are careful about starting a romance, understandable given the time, but this is a slow-burn that never really fired for me but may work for other readers, especially Charles fans. The setting was incredibly vivid though and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.

Three and a half stars
This book comes out February 21
Followed by An Unnatural Vice