Rating: 4 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | All Romance | Amazon UK
Length: Novel
Living in Las Vegas and being on the SWAT team keeps Cole in constant danger. His love life is on a time table and there will be no serious relationships until he retires…oh in about ten years or so. Cole has no problem finding a man for fun whenever he feels the urge, but his job is the main focus. Called in on a hostage situation has the closed off alpha of a man saving and then falling for one beautiful man named Brett.
Brett is relocating to Las Vegas. Even if it means taking a step down in his career, his new position will at least keep him stable and alleviate the work travel. His last relationship with a Las Vegas policeman ended in heartbreak and he didn’t think he had a thing for men in uniform. It’s only his first week on the new job and a crazed customer holds everyone in the store hostage. He certainly doesn’t expect to fall for the man that saves his life, but the attraction cannot be denied.
One night together brings the men together in ways they never expected. Brett doesn’t want to settle again and Cole has already told Brett that he doesn’t do relationships, or does he?
Held Hostage brings us to the fourth book in the Sin City Uniforms series. Brett was introduced in the second book, but just introduced, and this book would work as a standalone. However if you are following the series, there are a few brief glimpses of the former couples from earlier on.
I enjoyed both of the characters that Knight has created here. There is Brett, relocating and feeling at loose ends with so many things in his life. He really wants a relationship and random hookups don’t fill the empty spaces inside of him. Calm, cool, and collected, Cole, at first glance, is his opposite. Cole is ready to take on all of the bad guys on the Vegas strip and feels he can’t have a relationship and make a partner worry about him constantly. Both men carry pain revolving around family issues. We are given more on Brett, but Cole goes to therapy, yet we don’t ever get to the bottom of all of his issues, which are portrayed as great in number with a true hold on him.
Cole says he doesn’t do relationships. Hell, he doesn’t even bring guys to his home. So when all of the sweet thoughts keep popping into his head and out of his mouth regarding Brett, it was well played and fun to watch. I really liked the dynamic between the men, for as confident and in charge as Cole likes to be, he encourages Brett to speak up for what he really wants.
The story has a familiar feel overall with the alpha man not wanting a relationship and the push and pull of getting it to work. The series as a whole has a formulaic feel and there is a definitive pattern to the entire series. And, perhaps the aftermath of the hostage situations shown were not fully dealt with and the relationship with Cole’s friend, Steve, felt unfinished. But, Knight still writes the heck out of a heated scene and the passion and desire between these men remains evident.
I will keep coming back to this series and will look forward to what comes next on the Las Vegas strip. The series is sexy, fun, and easy to read, with an added touch of danger.
