Review: Touch & Geaux

Reviewed by Jen
 

If you have ever taken my advice about anything, trust me when I tell you this is one of the very best romance series out there.  Not just the best m/m.  The best. Period.  If you are not reading this series, you are missing out on what romance is all about.  Two people who are taking a journey together; people who you have invested in.  They change; they grow; they screw up; they regress; they love each other in epic fashion. And as a reader, you leave the books with a piece of them still in your heart.  Or in the case of this installment... with a piece of your heart missing.

If Stars & Stripes was the book that made you see how far Ty and Zane have come, Touch & Geaux is the one that shows you have far they still have to go.  As the story begins, the guys are so happy --things are so good-- there's only one way they can possibly go: down.  The fuse is lit when Ty's Marine buddies trick our heroes into a trip to New Orleans.

New Orleans holds memories for both men: Zane for his anniversary trip there with his wife; Ty, for his time there undercover.  It takes only hours for their past to jump up and bite them and it come from all sides: Ty's former almost-father-in-law, dirty New Orleans cops, an ex-boyfriend with a questionable agenda; and even killers from the drug cartel where Zane was once undercover.  We're talking Danger (with a capital D.)

Yet as powerful as the external conflict is, the real draw here is the internal one. The events of the book prompt the revelation of some very serious secrets.  The kind that destroy a relationship. The kind that eradicate months and years of growth.

I remember reading the original Cut & Run and being struck by how damaged the Ty and Zane of that book were.   Touch & Geaux shows us that those men we first met are still within our heroes.   Take away the foundation of their evolution and you're back to a big fat mess.  Only now, it breaks your heart.  Now you know Ty and Zane (or at least you think you do.)  You love them.  So their self-destruction isn't only devastating to them, it's devastating to... me.  The lies --the betrayal-- feels so personal. Yet all this love is still there, so then what?

I'll tell you.  Then, after all emotional upheaval and story development, Abigail Roux leaves you with one last parting shot, a kick to the gut that left me with tears in my eyes and pain in my chest.

Maybe all this downer talk makes you question whether you want to read the book.  But that would be the wrong question. What you need to ask yourself is, why I haven't I read this already?  

Abigail Roux should be the benchmark by which all books are measured.

Rating: A

P.S. All that and I didn't even talk about the sex! (*fans self*) It really says something that as hot as the sex was, it was almost an afterthought.

*ARC Provided by Riptide

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Touch & Geaux

by Abigail Roux

Release Date: April 1, 2013

Publisher: Riptide