Reviewed by Valerie and Danielle

 

TITLE:  Saxon

SERIES:  Tags of Honor #6

AUTHOR:  Annabella  Stone

PUBLISHER:  Self-Published

LENGTH:  170 pages

RELEASE DATE:  July 29, 2021

BLURB:

Is four days enough for him to convince Saxon that friends with benefits is not enough anymore?

Red Squadron’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal Specialist, Saxon Berg, hides his feelings under jokes, quick wit, and snark. The last thing he wants is to fall in love. Friends with benefits suits him just fine, thank you very much. But then fate had to throw him a curveball he never saw coming.

When he was a teenager Rick Jones caused the biggest scandal of his generation by kissing the president’s son on the White House lawn. Thrown out of the family and cut off from everything he knew. To survive, Rick took the only option open to him and joined the Navy. Now fifteen years later the battle-hardened former SEAL is tired of the friends with benefits thing he has going on with the sexy EOD from Red Squadron. He wants more. He just needs Saxon to see that they are worth taking a chance on.

Sometimes the line between right and wrong is stark and bleak, and sometimes Fate doesn’t even take it into consideration, when she sends the one made just for you. But in an uncertain world, only one thing is guaranteed—when the battle stops the warrior will fall.

 

REVIEW BY VALERIE:

It’s time for another Red Squadron coupling in what’s turning out to be an all-gay black ops task force. Saxon, the explosives specialist, and his friend-with-benefits, Rick, are the leading men in this sixth book of the Tags of Honor series. The plot involves the Taliban, the ‘Ndrangheta mafia in Naples, an abduction, infils and extractions. Amidst the action, Saxon and Rick must assess their feelings for each other and determine if they are ready to take their relationship beyond occasional hookups. There’s lots of potential with exciting action and likable characters, but I’m sorry to say this book falls short in a couple of areas. 

Punctuation and grammar are not only important, they’re essential in the written word. They have always been a problem in Annabella Stone’s books, but I just can’t anymore. The incomplete sentences, misused words, and incorrect punctuation are too annoying and distracting to stay present in the story. Extra commas are everywhere dividing sentences unnecessarily, and multiple times I’ve spotted sentences with three sets of quotation marks – one at the beginning of the quote, one at the end, and one in the middle of the sentence for some inexplicable reason. 

One aspect of this series that I like most is the tight brotherhood – a chosen family – between the teammates. Their camaraderie, teasing banter, and snark have always been fun, and their extreme care for each other is heartwarming. The dynamic feels different this time around, though. Instead of some lighthearted remarks to diffuse the tension during ops, the team interaction verges into immaturity. As they race in a truck to rescue Rick from the mafia, two characters are setting up a Grindr profile for Saxon. As they infiltrate a compound, they’re cracking jokes about who has the prettiest ass. At one point, Saxon pouts when he can’t stand with his friends because he feels left out. Maybe this is how special forces behave, I don’t know, but I would expect demeanor more in keeping with the life-or-death nature of the situations. It doesn’t feel realistic. 

I’m saddened that I didn’t enjoy Saxon more. My favorite in the series was the first book, Zenko. Unfortunately, the series has declined since then. The task force missions are not as complex and tense as they were and the antics overpower the love story. The blurb on Goodreads, by the way, is completely wrong. Saxon’s love interest is a different person and the plot is totally different. I have to wonder if it was written for a different book. This novel just wasn’t for me, but if you’ve loved this series and can look past the things I’ve mentioned, you might enjoy Saxon more than I did. 

RATING: 

 

REVIEW BY DANIELLE

Let me start to say that I have been following this author since the Panther series and have been hooked ever since 🙂

When I saw Saxon being released, I realised I missed Roman’s book and I got to spend a spend a wonderful afternoon/ evening/night reading his book and after that, Saxon’s.

Back to Saxon, this book had me laughing out loud because of the antics of the Red Squadron team including their significant others.

While we as readers are experiencing the awakening of Saxon, his realisation on feelings, and what a relationship could be like, we also see that Rick is already a bit further.

These men are together already when the story starts just not in an official relationship and then disaster strikes, so to speak.

I love the tentative steps they take which is completely opposite of how they act in their jobs and with their friends and was very entertaining to see (read).

Saxon’s protectiveness of Rick, despite constantly claiming he isn’t his man, is funny yet very touching, and I have to say, I dare you to not fall in love with either or both these man.

For me personally, the best part is the interaction with the team all together; the parts we get in how they are a choosen family and how they integrate with each other.

If you are familiar with Annabella Stone’s work you will have a blast connecting the little dots and hints appearing in this story.

For me, when I noticed I didn’t want to stop reading even though it was in the middle of the night, it was for me a sign that I really liked this book.

A slight thing I do want to mention is the tagline in the blurb, to me it doesn’t fit into the story so it made me confused on why it is there, there is no talk about 4 days or anything.

There are quite some big gaps between the releases in the different series and I really would like to read Dalton’s story after reading Roman, and now I want to read Joe McCarthey’s story also 🙂

So to Annabella Stone I can only say, keep them coming please.

 

RATING:

BUY LINKS:  

Amazon