Reviewed by Heather C

TITLE: Shock & Awe
SERIES: Sidewinder #1
AUTHOR: Abigail Roux
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
LENGTH: 25,300 words
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:

I’ve been waiting for Nick and Kelly’s story since before I knew it would ever exist!

If you don’t already know what this book is about, then you probably shouldn’t be reading it. But for those of you who are curious, well, its about Nick O’Flaherty and Kelly Abbott, two of the guys from Ty’s Marine Force Recon Team Sidewinder. Who is Ty? Yeah, you probably shouldn’t read this book if you are asking that question. This story follows Touch & Geaux, book 7 of the Cut & Run series. And if you haven’t read T&G, then be prepared for a shit load of spoilers if you read this.

This book is actually comprised of two stories: Shock & Awe covers a period of days after Kelly leaves the hospital in New Orleans and Nick follows him home to help him heal and recover; Bait & Switch lasts one evening approximately 3 months after the end of T&G where Nick pays a surprise visit to Zane…and Kelly.

♥ What made me squirm:
Kinky, toppy, dirty talking Nick!! Wait, I have a quote!!

“No, you don’t say his name when I fuck you. You say mine.”

Take my advice and don’t read this at work…or in public…or around people who you don’t want to rip your clothes off in front of.

♥ What surprised me?
• It was SO kinky!!!! Like waaaaaay more dirty and raunchy than Ty and Zane ever tried to be.
• Nick had a secret. It’s not too bad, but its still packs a punch.
• The bittersweet ending of S&A…but then there’s more kinkiness than I ever imagined in B&S!!! I’m still speechless!!!

♥ What made me cry?
Seeing Ty and Zane at the end of S&A turned me into a nasty, snotty mess! Sadly, no tears were shed by me for Nick and Kelly.

♥ What bothered me?
• This should have been a full length novel. I feel like Nick and Kelly got short changed…or shall I say “we the readers” were short changed. Instead of getting a story of two really, really close friends falling in love with each other, we got them moving from one sex scene to the next with the occasional, yet very brief, bonding/reminiscing moments in between.
• There was very little sexual tension, unless you count the delayed gratification of Kelly getting his cherry popped.
• This was more smut than romance, and if the characters were not who they are, then it probably wouldn’t have worked for me and I wouldn’t have been connected to the characters at all.
• One minute Kelly was in severe pain from his injuries, and then the next minute he’s getting hot and heavy with Nick. That just didn’t jive with realism for me…good thing this is fiction.
• Nick had too many nicknames…no pun intended.
• The ending of S&A was way too rushed. We should have been able to read the last 48 hours between Nick and Kelly before Nick had to leave. But nope, I have no idea what happened in that 48 hours that could have progressed their relationship…obviously, nothing happened and that makes me wonder why…

♥ What confused me?
• Why is S&A and B&S separated into 2 different stories? Yeah, I’m still stumped on that one…
• The beginning of B&S read like a narrative and I found myself flipping forward trying to figure out if it was really a story about Nick and Kelly. And then it turned into Zane’s POV and I found myself trying to figure out where the hell on the space-time continuum I was! Eventually, it made sense, but I’m still scratching my head over the two story layout.

♥ What made me give this 4 stars when probably deserves less?
The writing was good and the dialog was awesome; and even though this was in no way a fully developed or well executed story, it still managed to hit ALL my sweet spots.

Hopefully, this is only the beginning…

Heather rates it – 

BUY LINKS: Riptide Publishing :: Amazon

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Heather C. is one of the official reviewers on The Blog of Sid Love.

To read all her reviews, click the link: HEATHER’S REVIEWS
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