Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Dash
SERIES: Hart Consulting
AUTHOR: Rae Marks
PUBLISHER: Pride Publishing
LENGTH: 346 pages
RELEASE DATE: January 11, 2022
BLURB:
FROM EXCITING AUTHOR OF LGBTQIA ROMANCE RAE MARKS
Book two in the Hart Consulting series
Working with the guy who turns him on and pisses him off has Nick in a tailspin.
Nick’s trying to get everything together—his life, his job, his family. After leaving the military, he joined both his brothers at Hart Consulting, but he can’t seem to get his shit organized. His brother still won’t speak to his father, his dad is willing to go to crazy lengths to see his brother and Nick has to train for his new job.
Just when he thinks he might have everything under a bit of control, he’s assigned to work with Ax, the only operator who’s able to get under his skin. Nick needs to put his head down and make a good impression on his first assignment with HC. Too bad Ax is determined not to make it easy…
REVIEW:
Note: This is the second in this series and it’s recommended to be read in order. There are major spoilers for the first book as well as a lot of foundational information for the organization, teams and missions. There is also discussion of human trafficking of underage children so if that is triggering for you, I would suggest skipping this one.
Nick Hart has joined both his twin brother Bray as well as Mason at Hart Consulting. All of the Hart brothers are former military who have not landed with Mason’s company that is involved in high level and top secret operations – primarily for the USG, but also for some others. They are largely undercover and are infiltrating an international web of shady organizations. Many of the cases involve human trafficking. Nick sees Ax with Bray and assumes there is something between them – even though he knows Bray is with Sam. His assumption is that Ax is kind of a manwhore and he’s not impressed. After some pretty hot hate sex in the gym very late one night, Nick thinks about maybe giving him the benefit of the doubt. But when he sees Ax talking to tech guru Max, aka Sin, he totally misconstrues their conversation as well and totally assumes the he wants to date Ax as well.
Despite their animosity, Nick and Ax along with Jett are sent to California on a mission. While Nick isn’t thrilled about it, it puts him closer to his dad who has health issues that he’s worried about. He’s on a mission to get his family back in contact and despite Mason’s absolute refusal to see their father, Nick keeps trying. Ax has his own personal reasons for wanting to be on the west coast. His family is there as well – but there are some pretty devastating reasons why he can’t easily see them. He’s struggling with guilt and also he’s struggling with his attraction to Nick and how he wants to play that too.
The mission they are on is dangerous. It could have far reaching consequence, not just for the victims that they know about, but for those that they don’t. And Nick isn’t aware of Ax’s personal stake in this work until they are already under cover. During the course of the mission, Ax and Nick get closer and Ax sees Nick for the really good guy that he is. He also realizes that he’s not nearly good enough for Nick. He’s got baggage and he’s got a bit of a self-destructive and loner streak too. Needless to say, this doesn’t sit well with Nick. But Nick forces the issue and takes things into his own hands which Ax doesn’t exactly appreciate.
As they get closer to solving the personal issues, things go a bit sideways on the mission. Ax has a tough time with the pressure and emotions. Nick takes care of him though and Ax realizes that he does have real feelings for Nick. But he’s also got a lot of other stuff on his plate that he has to deal with first. If he pushes Nick too far though, he just might not be there when Ax is finally is ready to deal with things.
This one started off a bit slow for me. I was confused as to who everyone was – between their nicknames/names and their handles it got a bit overwhelming trying to keep all the players straight. There are a lot of guys on the team and I didn’t remember a lot of them frankly from the first book. I felt like I needed a program to keep the players straight 😉 It took a while for the story to hit its stride when Nick and Ax are in California dealing with things. At that point, I started to get interested in the story and where it was going. While there is a lot of discussion of the nasty business of human trafficking, most of that takes place off page and there is no dub/non-con on page. There is discussion of the aftermath and consequences of trauma – although not in depth. I ended up liking Nick in the end even though I didn’t like how he behaved with his brothers at the beginning. He did exhibit growth in his understanding of the underlying issues with his family and was able to better empathize with Bray and Mase. Ax was the one who really let down his defenses and had to do the real work though to get past his overriding guilt and decide that he could be worthy of Nick. He had a lot of family stuff to work through also. Thankfully they had a good support system and showed some maturity after what they had been through together even after some missteps. I’m curious as to what the next book will bring, because there is no shortage of potential stories here – whether it’s Sin and Wade, Mase and Jazz or Peter and somebody?? There are also no shortage of villains to bring down here and we really haven’t seen that happen yet. Hopefully in the next book we’ll see somebody start to pay 😀 Recommended particularly if you like action, suspense, ex-military and a lot of smexy times.
RATING: 
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