REVIEWED BY ALEXANDER

TITLE: Shock & Awe

SERIES:  Sidewinder series book #1

AUTHOR:  Abigail Roux

PUBLISHER:  Riptide Publishing

LENGTH: 3 hours, 59 minutes

NARRATOR: Brock Thompson

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:

Anyone who has followed the Cut & Run books will have been introduced to Ty’s best friend, Nick, and Kelly, Sidewinder’s corpsman. The plot is relatively simple, focussed on a favorite trope, friends to lovers. The plot is squarely on Nick and Kelly as Kelly recuperates from the events in New Orleans in the Cut & Run book, Touch & Geaux. Kelly’s curiosity, questions, coupled with Nick’s caution and kindness, made for a very sweet and satisfying read.

As a long-time (rabid) fan of the Cut & Run series, I was thrilled when Shock and Awe first came out and promptly bought the (very small) paperback.  Back then, I enjoyed the book, but add in the narration, and the dynamic of the story changes.

There are times when a narrator detracts from the story, times when the narration did a story justice, and then there are times like this, where the narrator brings out the very best in a story.  Thompson’s performance was almost perfect, I say almost, only because Nick’s accent came and went at random during the story, but other than that, I was impressed with all of the other elements of his performance.

Bonus:

Bait & Switch by Abigail Roux

Bait & Switch is a short story included with Shock & Awe that takes place months after Ty, Nick, Owen, and Digger are deployed, leaving Kelly and Zane behind.  It features a visit by Nick who is on a 48 hour special leave, presumably due to a “cold”.  Nick stops in to see Zane, giving him a letter from Ty, and meets up with Kelly before returning to his deployment.

STORY RATING: 4.5

AUDIO RATINGE: 4.5

BUY LINKS: 

Audible

Amazon