Reviewed by Cindy
TITLE: When We Collide
AUTHOR: Avril Ashton
PUBLISHER: Sinner’s Haven Publishing
LENGTH: 311 Pages
RELEASE DATE: April 19th, 2024
BLURB:
A desperate gunman and a Federal Marshal walk into a mechanic’s garage. Unfortunately for them, an assassin is waiting.
He might answer to a new name, but Zander remains a killer on the hunt. He moonlights as a mechanic, his nights spent plotting against the man who wiped out his family. He’ll wait however long he has to for revenge…until an armed stranger breaks into his garage one dark night.
U.S. Federal Marshal Vince Hardin is driving cross country, a futile effort to outrun heartbreak and the gunmen intent on ending him. Car trouble takes him to Zander’s place in time to meet the bullet of a desperate man’s gun.
All Scotty Fallon wanted was a reprieve from the memories haunting him since childhood. Breaking into Zander’s garage was a last resort. Finding himself trapped between a menacing assassin and a Federal Marshal? He doesn’t expect to see the sunrise.
As blood and secrets get spilled, danger turns to connection. Then passion. But soon, a new day arrives, bringing with it new enemies and tough choices that will leave hearts broken and the future of the most unlikely trio hanging in the balance.
When We Collide is a Forced Proximity M/M/M Romance between a bored assassin with a hidden agenda, a Federal Marshal trying to outrun bullets, and an innocent looking for an escape (no matter how brief). It features morally gray MCs, and mental health rep.
Please Note: Vince was first introduced in The Brooklyn Sinners series and while you don’t need to read those books first, the author strongly encourages it.
REVIEW:
Zander, Vince and Scotty are very different men, from very different backgrounds. Or are they? Maybe they are three parts of a whole relationship?
Zander is violent and cold…at first. But something about Vince and Scotty bring out a part of him that he thought was long dead. He’s not sure what it is about the two lost men who stumble into his garage that changes the way he sees the world.
Vince is a jaded cop who’s running for his life. Lost and alone, he finds two men who just might be the answer to what’s been missing in his life. He’s not surprised by the protective feelings he has for Scotty, but Zander? Zander makes him feel like he’s both found someone and been discovered and he’s not sure how he feels about that.
Scotty has been abused his whole life. He fell into drugs when his world collapsed around him and he’s trying to escape from the demons chasing him. When he broke into Zander’s garage he felt like maybe he’d fallen right out of the frying pan and into an inferno, but maybe things aren’t quite what they seem.
I’ll be honest and say that I almost didn’t finish this book. I found the beginning very rushed and choppy but something about the characters made me persevere.
I still believe that the beginning could have been done a little better. A little more anticipation. A little more getting to know these three men before they are thrown together. Everything went from zero to 300 in a flash of light!
But once it settled down, it got better. These guys had very little time to get to know each other and so I understand the hurry in someways, but I think a little more time would have turned this pretty good book into something great!
Falling for Scotty wasn’t hard. I have never seen a character more in need of someone to take care of him…while letting him take care of others in return. Vince’s hard exterior broke quite easily as well because he couldn’t help falling for Scotty either. Zander? He was determined to not give a shit about either of them, but Vince’s unreasonable belief that he could be better and Scotty’s determination to give Zander some kind of kindness or comfort wore him down rather quickly.
There’s lot of bloody violence, although it’s not out of place considering all the players in this story. It’s also so screaming hot I was concerned that my phone was going to go up in flames!
There were also some very emotional scenes that were unexpected and broke my heart just a little.
The writing is technically pretty good and the premise very interesting. I hadn’t read the series where Vince makes his first appearance and I had no trouble following along with the story.
But I am going to double down on the rushing issue. I don’t want to give too much away but the timeframe from meeting to falling in love was far too short for me to accept it completely. Usually it’s the endings that get pushed through far to fast but in this case it was definately the start.
I struggled to rate this one but ultimately went with a solid 4 out of 5 for this sweet but scary book!
RATING: 
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