Reviewed by Larissa

 

TITLE:   THIRDS Volume One: Books 1-3

SERIES: The THIRDS Collection Book 1

AUTHOR: Charlie Cochet

PUBLISHER:  Self-published

LENGTH:  879 pages

RELEASE DATE: January 20, 2022

BLURB:

Welcome to the THIRDS Universe! Included in THIRDS Volume One are the following three books:

Hell & High Water

When homicide detective Dexter J. Daley’s testimony helps send his partner away for murder, the consequences – and the media frenzy – aren’t far behind. He soon finds himself sans boyfriend, sans friends, and, after an unpleasant encounter in a parking garage after the trial, he’s lucky he doesn’t find himself sans teeth. Dex fears he’ll get transferred from the Human Police Force’s Sixth Precinct, or worse, get dismissed. Instead, his adoptive father – a sergeant at the Therian-Human Intelligence Recon Defense Squadron otherwise known as the THIRDS – pulls a few strings, and Dex gets recruited as a Defense Agent.

Dex is determined to get his life back on track and eager to get started in his new job. But his first meeting with Team Leader Sloane Brodie, who also happens to be his new jaguar Therian partner, turns disastrous. When the team is called to investigate the murders of three HumaniTherian activists, it soon becomes clear to Dex that getting his partner and the rest of the tightknit team to accept him will be a lot harder than catching the killer – and every bit as dangerous.

Blood & Thunder

When a series of bombs go off in a Therian youth center, injuring members of THIRDS Team Destructive Delta, and causing a rift between agents Dexter J. Daley and Sloane Brodie, peace seems unattainable. Especially when a new and frightening group, the Order of Adrasteia, appears to always be a step ahead. With panic and intolerance spreading and streets becoming littered with the Order’s propaganda, hostility between Humans and Therians grows daily. Dex and Sloane, along with the rest of the team, are determined to take down the Order and restore peace, not to mention settle a personal score. But the deeper the team investigates the bombings, the more they believe there’s a more sinister motive than a desire to shed blood and spread chaos.

Discovering the frightful truth behind the Order’s intent forces Sloane to confront secrets from a past he thought he’d left behind for good, a past that could not only destroy him and his career, but also the reputation of the organization that made him all he is today. Now more than ever, Dex and Sloane need each other, and, along with trust, the strength of their bond will mean the difference between justice and all-out war.

Rack & Ruin

New York City’s streets are more dangerous than ever with the leaderless Order of Adrasteia and the Ikelos Coalition, a newly immerged Therian group, at war. Innocent civilians are caught in the crossfire and although the THIRDS round up more and more members of the Order in the hopes of keeping the volatile group from reorganizing, the members of the Coalition continue to escape and wreak havoc in the name of vigilante justice.

Worse yet, someone inside the THIRDS has been feeding the Coalition information. It’s up to Destructive Delta to draw out the mole and put an end to the war before anyone else gets hurt. But to get the job done, the team will have to work through the aftereffects of the Therian Youth Center bombing. A skirmish with Coalition members leads Agent Dexter J. Daley to a shocking discovery and suddenly it becomes clear that the random violence isn’t so random. There’s more going on than Dex and Sloane originally believed, and their fiery partnership is put to the test. As the case takes an explosive turn, Dex and Sloane are in danger of losing more than their relationship.

 

REVIEW:

I am seriously late to the party when it comes to Charlie Cochet’s inspired, engrossing THIRDS series.  I’ve heard a lot of hype about this series, and now that I’ve read the first three books, I’m here to tell you – believe the hype!

This box set, THIRDS Volume One: Books 1-3, is the first in a series of box sets, The THIRDS Collection Book 1, and features the riveting first three books in the THIRDS series – Hell & High Water, Blood & Thunder, and Rack & Ruin.  This set is a must-have if you enjoy action/adventure M/M romance, with twisty-turny plots and super-charged alpha males getting down and dirty and falling in love.  Ms. Cochet hit it out of the park in depicting over the course of the series the lives and times of Dexter J. Daley, aka Dex, and his Therian partner, Sloane Brodie, and their THIRDS Destructive Delta teammates.

Sure, you can buy these books individually, but this box set is a veritable gift to the reader, not just because of its gripping content but because of its consumer-friendly price point.  But I think box sets are a boon for other more literary-based reasons.  It provides continuity that I find particularly helpful for a series with a continuing storyline that must be read sequentially, like THIRDS.  You don’t have to figure out the reading order or get stymied in your reading progress because you are missing the next book in the series.  It’s all right there, presented in the way it was intended to be read.  You can settle in for hours of blissful reading.  

Even better, packing the three stories into one set gives it the feel of being one story.  The fluidity of the storytelling and your investment in the events and characters increases tremendously because you never really leave them.  

In an instance of life imitating art, the premise of the series bears some eerie similarities to events concerning the COVID-19 virus and vaccines.  The first series book, Hell & High Water, was published in 2019, pre-COVID, making Ms. Cochet feel like a literary Nostradamus.  Remember, though, that this is FICTION, so the completely unanticipated loose correlation isn’t alarming, so much as stunning in how it gives weight to the backstory, allowing it to take root and strengthening the series’ events that derive from it.  For the reader, the story arc is made all that more absorbing.

Whether intended or not, the premise also provides an allegory for the divisiveness surrounding race relations, immigration, LGBTQ+ discrimination (although the latter is addressed in the stories as an issue not prevalent in society due to the greater Therian/human divide that eclipses it).  Basically, any group of people ostracized and dehumanized for their differences or because they are not deemed worthy or entitled to the same rights and freedoms as the rest. Ms. Cochet depicts how humans are their own worst enemies, allowing narrow-mindedness and fear to sow divisiveness and violence. 

At heart, THIRDS is all about fighting against the darkness and embracing what’s right and beautiful, whether it’s battling to unify humans and Therians or to trust a partner or friend to keep us safe despite past pain or trauma.  As Ms. Cochet states in her author’s note: “standing up for what you believe in and protecting the people you love is never optional”.  Dex is the perfect embodiment of that principle.

You know I’m all about thematic messages if you follow my reviews.  But you don’t have to dig into any of what I just parsed out to enjoy THIRDS.  You can immensely enjoy it just for the thrilling action/romance roller coaster ride that it is.  Indeed, THIRDS is a fantabulous, riveting, rocking and rolling read.  It combines everything you could want in a story – action, absorbing storylines, witty banter, humor, sexy men, steamy times, some swoony moments, and most of all, highly endearing, relatable, multi-dimensional characters that you will fall in love with.   

I give this box set my highest recommendation.  These are books I intended to read over and over again.  I just can’t get enough of Dex and Sloane.  Read these books, and you’ll understand why.  

Here are some additional notes and ratings on the three books in this box set:

Book One – Hell & High Water    (5 hearts)

Book one is the high point in the series and where it all starts.  

This book has an exciting story arc with threats coming at Sloane and Dex from all sides.  Watching their dynamic start to take shape is fascinating, but this book, in my view, is all about Dex.  

Dex testifies against his partner on the Human Police Force (HPF) after he murders a Therian suspect without provocation during an arrest.  Dex’s unshakeable moral fiber drives him to do what’s right; however, his fellow cops see him as a traitor. As a result, he’s being stalked and beaten up both in and out of work.  His career is basically over despite ten years of dedicated, hard work that cost him his relationship with his then-boyfriend, Lou.

The hostility between Therians – genetically altered humans who can shift into a feline form – and humans is running high, and THIRDS – the Therian-Human Intelligence Recon Defense Squadron – is there to try to bridge the divide.  Broken down into teams and then partners, always paring a human with a Therian, it’s intended as a unifying force.  But not everyone sees it that way, and they often find themselves reviled by both factions.

Dex’s adoptive father, a sergeant with THIRDS, gets Dex transferred to a role on THIRDS where he’s paired up with Sloane, the broody, bitter, berating Destructive Delta team leader who’s run off a succession of partners before Dex.  Let’s just say that their relationship gets off to a bit of a rough start.  Sloane and the rest of his Destructive Delta team are still reeling from the death of Sloane’s former partner, Gabe, and the team is barely holding it together, especially Sloane.

If you are a fan of the rebooted Star Trek movies, you are familiar with actor Chris Pine’s portrayal of a young Captain Kirk.  Ms. Cochet shows Chris Pine on her Pinterest page as her inspiration in appearance for Dex.  In actuality, Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk is Dexter J. Daley in looks and personality.  He has the same irreverent antics, insane energy, crazy, kooky behavior.  He makes a joke out of everything and drives people up the wall.  But he’s also exceptionally loyal, dedicated, and very good at his job. 

In book two, Ash Keeler, Sloane’s BFF and Destructive Delta team member who hates Dex (or at least pretends to), describes Dex as “that gummy-bear-eating, Cheesy-Doodle-crunching, eighties-music-singing a@#hole”, and that’s a pretty apt description, sans the a@#hole part. So jump into Hell & High Water and join the raucously fun world of Dexter J. Daley.

Book Two – Blood & Thunder    (4.75 hearts)

Book two starts with slower pacing than book one as Ms. Cochet lays the groundwork concerning the new Order of Adrasteia threat.  Since the storyline is continuing, I’m not going to comment much on the plot here to avoid spoilers.  Just know that it follows in a similar vein to book one and is just as absorbing, exciting, and fun.  The information we get, while taking us out of action and sexy swoony times for a bit, is necessary as we learn more about Sloane and his ghosts and how those threaten his burgeoning relationship with Dex, as well as the fate of his team and THIRDS itself.

Book Three – Rack & Ruin  (5 hearts)

Book three presents the most plot twists, turns, and mysteries of the series books so far.  While there’s plenty of action and even some low-level suspense, it has a greater focus on the relationship between Sloane and Dex, as well as Sloane and his BFF Ash, which pulls the threads on Ash’s backstory a bit more.  Ash is a contrary, grumpy, a@#hole, especially to Dex, but like an onion, his layers start to get peeled back, and we start to see who Ash is.  He’s quickly becoming one of my favorite characters in the series.  I’m excited to see where Ms. Cochet takes the storyline next and how she expands upon the hints she’s given so far about other relationships developing for Destructive Delta team members. But brace yourself for a cliffhanger.  It’s not painful, but it will have you running for book four as soon as possible.

 

BOX SET RATING:

 

BUY LINKS: 

Amazon