Title: Rank and File
Series: Anchor Point: Book Four
Author: L.A. Witt
Narrator: Nick J. Russo
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Run Time: 7 hours
Category: Contemporary
At a Glance: This return to NAS Anchor Point is a fine addition to the series. The fact that Nick J. Russo returns with it is also a very good thing.
Reviewed By: Mike
Blurb: Senior Chief Will Curtis is as straitlaced as they come. While his fellow Sailors have partied their way through their enlistments, he’s had his eye on the prize – making master chief and retiring after 30 years of service.
Lieutenant Brent Jameson is a Navy brat turned Annapolis grad. He’s lived and breathed the military his whole life, and he knows he’s destined for great things – once he’s done paying his dues at the bottom of the ladder.
When their paths cross, both men know better than to give in to temptation, but that doesn’t stop them. It also doesn’t keep them from coming back for more, even though being discovered would sink their careers. Something has to give – Will can retire, Brent can resign, or they’ll both face court-martial.
But there’s also the option neither wants to acknowledge: jump ship and walk away from each other instead of ending their careers over a fledgling relationship. And they should probably decide before they fall in love.
Except – too late.
Review: Senior Chief Will Curtis has been very careful with his career and job in the navy as a military police officer. He wants to put in his thirty years and then retire to something good.
Lt. Brent Jamieson has been on the admiral track since Annapolis and his father having told him that is what he wants. But does he? Brent meets Will under dicey circumstances. Will is older but enlisted and totally out of bounds for a relationship with a commissioned officer. Though that does not stop the attraction or the illicit affair they start.
This return to NAS Anchor Point is a fine addition to the series. The fact that Nick J. Russo returns with it is also a very good thing. Russo has performed this entire series and has taken LA Witt’s Anchor Point -verse and made it a world that is new and wonderful each time through. The series is not a continuing saga, but each book focuses on a single couple who have ties to characters in previous books. When they return for visits in successive books, you hear their old voices, and it is like friends dropping by for a catch-up. Each voice is given full treatment and care, even when it’s just a fleeting character involved in a domestic dispute. The care Russo gives to his narrations is a complement to both the author and the listener. He does not skimp on the lovemaking, the action, or the mundane things that make a plot and story arc believable.
When Will and Brent have their discussion about why the relationship cannot happen, you hurt for them because of Russo’s ability to put the angst of the situation into it. When the final resolution comes, it is that much more believable because of his ability to convey the raw emotion that Witt put down in words. There is not one flimsy scene or thrown away dialogue. It’s a rare quality in audiobooks that the listener is intrigued the whole way through. That’s what makes this narrator so good; all of the words are important enough to him to deliver the plot fully.
Buy this book. It is a great addition to this world. Buy it because Nick Russo is a talent not to be missed. Buy it because good narration and author parings are rare and should be heard.
You can buy Rank & File here:
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