Rating: 3.5 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel
Kyle loves his life; running motocross on the back of a fast bike that allows him to fly over dangerous courses and bring home sweet victories is the best. While he’s on his European circuit, Kyle has a chance to get together with his cousin, Warren. Warren is an Army ranger who is assigned to a joint counterterrorist task force currently located in Germany. When Warren comes to the track to see Kyle race, he brings along two teammates, one of whom is Steve Dixon, part of the CIA arm of the operation. Steve is single, good looking, and definitely attracted to Kyle. The only problem is both guys know that Kyle’s current run will take him off to other countries and, while he and Steve may be able to find more time to explore their mutual attraction, once the tour is finished, Kyle goes stateside and Steve remains behind.
For Steve, there’s also the problem of his job and the danger it can involve. He really can’t see himself tied down to any kind of lasting relationship, despite the fact that the pull to be with Kyle grows stronger each passing day. However, when Kyle mysteriously disappears on their date, it will take the entire task force, plus a few friends, to figure what has happened to the young man.
Lynn Michaels has written a fun sports/spy romance set in a foreign locale that is full of action and intrigue. While it took me some time to wrap my brain around the idea of Steve and Kyle as a potential couple, mainly due to the fact that they were such different personalities, once I did, the story moved swiftly and I found some of the parts were very well done. For instance, what actually happens to Kyle was well-crafted and had me on the edge of my seat. That particular plot point was fairly well developed and had a good arc and resolution. I appreciated that Kyle had residual effects to deal with afterwards, but I wasn’t so happy with how they pretty much disappeared once Kyle returned home. I felt that perhaps a bit of therapy may have been in order considering how often his reactions to certain things were alluded to in the story.
Also, part of the reason I had difficulty seeing Kyle and Steve together was Steve’s rather adamant determination not to get involved with anyone while on his current assignment. Even though there were periods of no real action on the job, when this task force was called to duty, the jobs weren’t a cake walk. It made sense that Steve didn’t want to draw a lover into that world, yet even before he and Kyle had spent a full night together, they were both thinking about a future together. It was instant attraction bordering on insta-love and not very believable considering how the author set up each guy immediately as a lone wolf type of person in the opening pages of the novel.
I liked many parts of Rescuing Kyle. However, I found I needed a bit more meat on the story—everything moved so quickly that many little things were either left dangling or touched upon then dropped completely. Once Kyle and Steve were an established couple I found myself drawn to them and the fun way they interacted. I loved that it was often Kyle, the younger man, who put the brakes on Steve’s more impetuous decisions. However, while I understand that love can make us do crazy things, some of the things Steve did smacked of real immaturity and that seemed so out of character for how we were initially led to view him. Again, with a bit more in depth exploration of what made Steve really tick, I think that could have been avoided. The author has a solid bare bones story that needed a good deal more to make it seem complete. I will definitely read more work by Lynn Michaels to watch how she evolves as a storyteller and writer.
