STARS & STRIPS

TITLE: STARS & STRIPES

AUTHOR: ABIGAIL ROUX

Pages: 292

Date: 10/03/2014

Grade: 4.5

Details: no. 6 Cut & Run

Own / Kindle

The blurb:

“Special Agents Ty Grady and Zane Garrett have managed the impossible: a few months of peace and quiet. After nearly a year of personal and professional turmoil, they're living together conflict-free, work is going smoothly, and they're both happy, healthy, and home every night before dark. But anyone who knows them knows that can’t possibly last.

When an emergency call from home upsets the balance of their carefully arranged world, Ty and Zane must juggle family drama with a perplexing crime to save a helpless victim before time runs out.

From the mountains of West Virginia to a remote Texas horse ranch harboring more than just livestock and childhood memories, Ty and Zane must face their fears—and their families—to overcome an unlikely enemy and bring peace back into their newly shared world.”

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My thoughts:

Before I start on my review proper I want to make something perfectly clear: I adore Ty and Zane who are fast joining that small and elite group of fictional characters who refuse to stay fictional in my mind. I love their antics, the quick fire dialogue between them, their relationship as it is steadily growing stronger and the mad adventures they find themselves caught up in. And as far as all of that goes this book was a very welcome addition to the series and a wonderful read.

And yet...While I had a wonderful time reading ‘Stars & Stripes’, this book missed the oomph factor for me. The previous books in this series somehow managed to hit me hard, made me want share my adoration for the series and the characters in it with the world in SHOUTY CAPS and refused to leave me alone.

This story on the other hand wasn’t more than a highly enjoyable read. While I loved every minute I spent with Ty and Zane, this book didn’t have the ‘can’t put it down, have to keep on reading’ urgency for me. And I think I know why that is. For me these books have always been about the relationship between these two men. I enjoyed the thriller aspect of the stories and can’t deny it added some much appreciated spice to them, but I didn’t read them because that particular kind of action.

In this book the relationship between Ty and Zane is rock solid and never in any doubt. They love each other and are so sure about their relationship that they actually find the courage to come out to those closest to them. With one exception this revelation didn’t cause the tension it might have and although that was heart-warming in a ‘if only that was true for everybody coming out’ sort of way it didn’t add a lot of emotional depth to the story.

Which leads me to a statement I didn’t think I’d ever make; I could have done with more angst in this story. Yes, you heard me right. Me, who always proclaims that she is not one for angsty reads, is bemoaning the lack of that aspect in this particular instalment. No, I don’t quite get it either and can’t begin to explain it.

Now, you may have noticed that I did give the book 4.5 stars. Everything I said above doesn’t mean that I didn’t like this book – I loved it – just that it lacked the WOW factor earlier titles had. There is a lot to love in this book; most of all the insight we get into Zane, his background and everything that made him into the person he is. My heart broke for him as his mother refused to give even an inch, knowing it would cost her the relationship with her only son. On the other hand, I adored Zane’s father.

“Had a gay bull I had to sell last year. That was a damn nuisance. Gay son? That don't cost me nothing.”

And as always there are the jibes between Ty and Zane to bring light relief even in the direst of circumstances. I also loved Ty’s relationship with the animals he encounters, unrealistic as it may be.

I would probably read these books if all Ty and Zane did in them was talk to each other and have sex. I love these characters individually but adore them as a couple which makes me very glad that I have at least two more books of their story to look forward to. This brings me to something else I rarely do; read two books in a series immediately after each other. As soon as I finish this review I’ll be starting on ‘Touch & Geaux’. I realise that book number eight in this series, ‘Ball & Chain’ is already available. The official release day was March 17^th though, and my aim was always to be ready for that story on St. Patrick’s Day. The way things are looking right now, that won’t be a problem. I’m looking forward to an Abigail Roux filled reading week and can’t think of a more enjoyable prospect right now.

“There are...there are so many paths in life. Some we choose, and some are chosen for us. We walk our paths without looking down and that’s the life we lead. The only things you’ll get from guessing where another path would have gone are questions you can’t answer and heartache you can’t ever soothe.”