Shock & Awe by Abigail Roux

Quick Rating: B

Purchase: Amazon

Blurb: After barely surviving a shootout in New Orleans, Sidewinder medic Kelly Abbott has to suffer through a month of recovery before he can return home to Colorado. He’s not surprised when fellow Sidewinder Nick O’Flaherty stays with him in New Orleans. Nor is he surprised when Nick travels home with him to help him get back on his feet—after all, years on the same Marine Force Recon team bonded the men in ways that only bleeding for a brother can. He’s very surprised, though, when Nick humors his moment of curiosity and kisses him.

Nick knows all of Kelly’s quirks and caprices, so the kiss was a low-risk move on his part . . . or so he thought. But what should’ve been a simple moment unleashes a flood of confusing emotions and urges that neither man is prepared to address.

Now, Kelly and Nick must figure out what they mean to each other—friends and brothers in arms, or something even deeper?—before the past can come back to ruin their tenuous future.

Review: This little Sidewinder story. There's plenty 'will they, won't they' tension following an incendiary first kiss between Kelly and Nick. But things go downhill swiftly. There's a lot of implied background we readers aren't privy to, and without that context to understand their actions, motivations, reactions, I found myself disengaged. It was sorely lacking in the um, for lack of better description, sparkly shit that makes the Cut & Run series so great to me. Without that connection- understanding, passion, what have you- it read cheesy. Like a bow chika wow wow porno.

Disclaimer: none