Author: Abigail Roux
Narrator: J.F. Harding
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Run Time: 10 hours
Category: Contemporary Romance, Mystery/Suspense
At a Glance: J.F. Harding gave an outstanding performance.
Reviewed By: Kim
Blurb: Home from their unexpected deployment, the former members of Marine Force Recon team Sidewinder rejoin their loved ones and try to pick up the pieces of the lives they were forced to leave behind. Ty Grady comes home to Zane Garrett, only to find that everything around him has changed—even the men he went to war with. He barely has time to adjust before his brother, Deuce, asks Ty to be his best man. But that isn’t all Deuce asks Ty to do, and Ty must call for backup to deal with the business issues of Deuce’s future father-in-law.
Nick O’Flaherty and Kelly Abbott join Ty and Zane at the wedding on an island in Scotland, thinking they’re there to assuage Deuce’s paranoia. But when bodies start dropping and boats start sinking, the four men get more involved with the festivities than they’d ever planned to.
With the clock ticking and the killer just as stuck on the isolated island as they are, Ty and Zane must navigate a veritable minefield of family, friends, and foes to stop the whole island from being destroyed.
Review: I’ve been so reluctant to read Ball & Chain that it took it coming out in audio before I was tempted to continue with the Cut & Run series. I was afraid I would be disappointed.
Not so! I mean… it wasn’t quite what I expected, but it did hold a surprise or two.
What I liked about Ball & Chain was that it just wasn’t about Ty and Zane, but I got the added bonus of Nick and Kelly from the Sidewinder series, which made the book more interesting. Oh, there was cloak and dagger in this story, but there was also more relationship building between the characters. I learned how Ty and Nick first became friends and why, at some point in their lives, they almost lost that friendship—Ty was at fault for that one. Surprise! I also learned a little bit about Nick, and about his family history and what makes him tick.
It was also nice to see some more growth between Ty and Zane, that they’ve move from enemies to lovers during the series and to a more established relationship, and that they show more tenderness towards each other.
I also love the part when Nick finally told Ty that maybe drinking in front of Zane was a bad idea. Go Nick! There were a lot of reveals in this story that were kind of touching. But… The one that blew me away was who was murdered. Oh, there were a lot of murder victims, but this particular victim kind of choked me up.
In a sense, I’m glad that I waited for the audio version of Ball & Chain, mainly because I don’t think I would have been moved emotionally if I’d read it. J.F. Harding gave an outstanding performance. He brings these characters to life and conveys the emotion that needs to be expressed during certain scenes. So with this in mind, Ball & Chain gets a 4.5 star rating from me, and yes! I would listen to this one again.
You can buy Ball & Chain here:
[zilla_button url=”http://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/Ball-Chain-Audiobook/B017IZ5ZZO/ref=a_search_c4_1_1_srTtl?qid=1465909223&sr=1-1″ style=”blue” size=”medium” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Audible [/zilla_button][zilla_button url=”http://amzn.to/1UaKxvW” style=”blue” size=”medium” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Amazon US [/zilla_button][zilla_button url=”http://authl.it/B017IZ5XWE?d” style=”blue” size=”medium” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Amazon Int’l [/zilla_button][zilla_button url=”https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/ball-chain/id960814899?mt=11″ style=”blue” size=”medium” type=”round” target=”_blank”] iTunes [/zilla_button]
The Novel Approach Reviews 
Leave a Reply