Sometimes, No Matter How Much We Fight It, Strings Attach

We don’t get to pick who we fall in love with, and it doesn’t happen like it should. – “No Strings Attached”

I have to say when I first met Detective Jeff Woods and Detective Parker Trenkens I wasn’t very fond of either one of them. They were both fairly jaded and had some unpleasant opinions. We meet the two men at a crime scene of a physically disabled man. It seems neither one of the men have a very high opinion of anyone that has physical disabilities. Even while Woods tries to keep Trenkens under control verbally, he is having his own inner dialogues that are pretty harsh.

Needing to blow off some steam, Woods heads to the local meat market for a night out. Once in the bar he has found a few good candidates for his tension release, but instead he ends up getting picked up by someone that is the total opposite of his “type”. Alex is very direct, pushy even. Wood calls him “an arrogant prick,” but he seems to like him. They end up at a pay-by-the-hour motel and when they are spent, lying on the bed Woods finds himself doing something he normally doesn’t do….cuddling! How does that happen? Woods is the king of “no strings attached”, he had made that clear to Alex. Feeling angry and confused, he hugs Alex tightly and kisses him hard, right before walking away.

Two weeks later, the two detectives are assigned a case by request of the mayor to investigate threats made against his granddaughter, who happens to be physically disabled. They find out that it is not only the mayor’s granddaughter, but more than a few children at her school have also been threatened and had some scary accidents. The thought of someone taking out kids because of their disabilities seems to affect Woods. He has been in a surly mood since his night with Alex, ofcourse that has nothing to do with it. Woods does end up seeing Alex again but once he overhears a conversation with someone named Sean, that ends with an I love you and a see you in 20 minutes, Woods is gone without letting Alex explain.

Throwing themselves into the investigation, Woods and Trenkens start interviewing staff, teachers and parents of children from the school. This throws them into the path of Alex. It turns out that Sean is Alex’s younger brother and Alex is his legal guardian. Woods and Alex end up in a contentious relationship that runs hot and cold while Woods is protecting Sean from threats made against him. Maybe by the same person threatening the mayor’s granddaughter. Alex is hesitant to listen to Woods’ orders and while Woods and Trenkens are out investigating more leads Alex decides to take Sean to the pier even though they are being threatened.

An awful accident lands Sean, Alex, and Woods in the hospital, and during the rescue Woods manages to out himself to the entire city due to a news helicopter. While visiting Alex and Sean, they are confronted by the murderer in a hair raising scene where all is almost lost. Alex and Woods decide to give it a go, to see if they can make things work between the two of them with Sean in the mix.

The book has a pretty abrupt ending, but I asked the author and it turns out this will be a series, most likely 3 books. Personally I can’t wait for the next one. The two Mc’s Woods and Trenkens are very flawed individuals. There are times where you won’t like either of them. Then, there are times you can’t help but be smitten with them, because they shock you with the sweetness. This is a great story. I didn’t figure it out til the very end, when the bad guy reveals himself, and I love that in a mystery.

The connection between Alex and Woods starts to bind them as soon as they meet, but they do have to work out a lot of misunderstandings. The one thing they don’t have to work out is the sex. These two men are H.O.T. Chris T Kat wrote some amazing sex scenes in this book; not only were they well, sexy, but they were sweet. It was amusing to see Woods fight himself the whole way on having any sort of relationship with Alex. Trenkens has his own relationship start in this novel, but we only get a glimpse into that. I hope we will see more and more of them in the following books.

I would highly recommend this novel to anyone who doesn’t need roses in their romance. There aren’t many tender moments in this book, but there are a few. I will definitely be reading any other books in the series and truthfully I am ready for them now!!!

Reviewed by: Jackie

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