Rating: 3 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel
Joel and Kieran have been work partners at FireWorks Security for the past four years. They have also become the best of friends. They are in tune with how the other works and they are a well run team, but neither one of them would ever think of crossing the friendship line.
Joel’s father owns the security company and Kieran came to them by way of the DEA. He carries all his battle scars close to the surface and it’s only Joel that can chase his nightmares away. The men jump from one dangerous assignment to the next and while they’re still recovering from an assignment that went off track, Joel is on a boat that explodes. Kieran’s only thought is to jump into the marina to save him. But the trouble doesn’t end there and the men are being targeted from an unknown predator. Their chemistry is always there simmering and the men will have to realize they would be so much better together. If only they could find the time.
The books brings us up close and personal with FireWorks Security as that is the main focus. Joel and Kieran are a great team, but they are constantly in dangerous situations where one of them is inevitably getting hurt. This last injury almost took Joel’s life and Kieran wouldn’t stand for that.
Kieran’s last partner was killed when he was on assignment with the DEA and the nightmares are never far away. He has come to like the small town he currently lives in and his friendship with Joel is everything. The story is told more from Kieran’s POV, with some overlap from Joel, and we are shown glimpses of how he longs for Joel but would never do anything to hinder their friendship.
The majority of the book is the set up of the business and the cases they are working on, but it’s not all that clear what kind of clients hire them. The boat explosion wasn’t their specific case, but something they stumbled upon and now they have assassins after them. Their work was interesting, but at the 60% mark of the book, which is a shorter novel, the men are not together yet and don’t even know they both harbor feelings for the other. The style made the guys seem removed as a romantic pair. We are not given much on their personal lives either from early on or even the past few years when they have been partners. We are only told that they both are aware that the other “prefers” men.
When the men do get together, we are shown the abridged version. I kept waiting for the dangerous situation they were in to start wrapping up and the relationship to move forward, but that’s not what this book is. The storyline will continue into the next book and it all became unnecessarily complicated. There were also several characters that we meet along the way and their purpose or how they would fit in wasn’t all that clear.
The writing itself worked at times for me and an action storyline can be intriguing, but this plot wasn’t compelling for me, it went on too long, and then wasn’t complete. Both Joel and Kieran were interesting characters as well, but their relationship seemed an afterthought for the limited amount of time there was of them together. Overall, the plot read as scattered to me and didn’t hold my interest enough to want to continue on with this series.
A review copy of this book was provided by Dreamspinner Press.
