Reviewed by Tammy & Caroline

TITLE: Promises Part 3

SERIES: The Bounty Hunters

AUTHOR: A.E. Via

PUBLISHER: Via Star Wings Books

LENGTH: 222 pages 

RELEASE DATE: June 23, 2017

BLURB:

A bounty hunter’s partners to lovers’ story.

The hunt is on… and he’s the prey.

Bradford (Ford) King was sure he had the rest of his life mapped out. Though he was no longer a SEAL Lieutenant, his brother was home safe and he had a job that still allowed him to satisfy his hunger for hunting bad guys. Life was simple, no distractions or complications – at age forty-six – that’s all Ford wanted. What he didn’t want was his work partner, sniper/watchman, Dana, giving him s**t all the time.

Dana Cadby had grown up labelled a roughneck from the wrong side of the tracks. He’d fought, scrounged, and survived despite a father that constantly told him he couldn’t. Dana pulled himself up by his own boot straps and made a name for himself in the marksman community. He’d been Duke’s bounty watchman for five years. It was his job to ensure their safety, watch their backs. At thirty-three, he was trusted, well-respected by his peers, his bosses, his friends… so why couldn’t he earn the same respect from his partner?

Dana knew he was bisexual before he graduated high school. He also knew he was attracted to the huge, 6’3″, SEAL from the moment he and his brother came to join their team. It wasn’t easy for him to tamp down his immediate reaction to Ford’s thick muscles, full beard, and dark eyes. Still, Dana exhibited nothing but professionalism towards him, not wanting to make his ‘straight’ partner uncomfortable. So why did Ford constantly give him hell?

After Dana took back his ex-girlfriend, he’d noticed an intensification in Ford’s bad attitude. One that turned aggressive and downright antagonistic, and Dana was damned if he’d just lay down and take it. He was gonna make that man respect him if it was the last thing he did.

When Duke sends Dana and Ford out to track down their most dangerous bounty yet, they both embrace the fact that they make one hell of a team… but they fight tooth and nail against the powerful intimacy brewing between them. Beware: When Ford and Dana connect, no fugitive can hide from the hunter and his watchman.

This story is a part of a series but can stand alone. It does not end on a cliffhanger and has a HEA.

Disclaimer: This book is about MM romance, albeit there is a very brief MF scene.

TAMMY’S REVIEW:

What can I say? It feels like I have been waiting for A.E. Via’s Promises Part 3 for forever and it was well worth the wait!! If there’s one thing I particularly like about her books is that they’re all interlinked, everyone is a part of every book so you can keep track of what everyone is doing!

Ford and Dana have been dancing around each other for the last five years. While Ford thinks Dana is straight because he’s only ever seen him dating his prissy girlfriend Jess, Dana is certain Ford’s straight because he’s never seen him date anyone! Because they’re both older, Ford’s 46 and Dana only a couple of years younger, Ford feels like Dana has pushed him too far but he will not touch Dana so long as he’s still with his girlfriend. When Ford tells Dana he’s of the games and flat-out tells Dana that Jess is no good for him and if he wants a chance with Ford Dana has to get rid of her. Dana has been struggling to find a way to dump Jess without hurting her unnecessarily when she hands him the perfect out whilst they’re on the biggest takedown of their careers.

Both Ford and Dana have managed to find the most inopportune time to start a relationship, they have been given the job of tracking down the most dangerous bounty they’ve ever received. They have to negotiate deadly criminals, cheating girlfriends and each other! We learn about Dana’s  less than stellar upbringing and we meet Dana’s best friend from his childhood, Sway. Sway and Brian are the two main secondary characters in this episode and I hope Sway is going to become a permanent member of The Bounty Hunter’s gang. I can’t wait for Brian’s story (I hope it’s next, hint, hint!!)  I can’t recommend Promises Part 3 enough. If you haven’t read any of the Bounty Hunter books, why not? Go on, your stories are waiting for you!!

RATING:

CAROLINE’S REVIEW:

It feels like forever since we spent any time with AE Via’s Bounty Hunters but the wait was more than worth it in my opinion for Ford and Dana’s story. This is a friend to lovers’ story featuring two older MC’s with a nice age gap and has a few alpha tendencies thrown in which is just what you would expect from this author. Bradford (Ford) and Dana are partners at work and that partnership is decidedly rocky and tense at the moment. Both men are rubbish at communication or with being honest with each other and there is definitely a whole heap of avoidance going on.

Ford is 46 and some days it feels like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders. His life revolves around his job and his younger brother Brian who he is extremely protective about and whose life he tries to manage and control. This micro managing is about how much he loves him and the guilt and grief he carries after Brian was tortured as a prisoner of war but it comes across as stifling and smothering.

Dana fought to make something of himself after a particularly difficult childhood but everyone who enter his life leaves him feeling “less than”. His current girlfriend is a hideous specimen of the human race and embodies the saying “It’s all about me.” He’s left her once and is trying hard to leave her again but she is oblivious and tramples all over him every chance she gets. Dana also has the problem that his feelings for Ford veer far away from just friends’ and the more time they spend together the harder it is for him to keep them to himself.

Just as they both fess up to each other about how they feel their latest bounty job takes off and things get hectic. This is a fast paced story with lots of action and it had me quickly turning pages right up until the end. I loved Ford’s dominance with Dana – it was a hard line to walk and manage the differences between work and bed, but oh boy did it work well when they got it right! Also the secondary characters – Sway is a new character and is Dana’s best friend and confidante from their childhood and his and Brian’s story (I hope!) is going to be a cracker! This was the perfect next book in the series and I can’t wait for the next one.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

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