Rating: 5 ‘Cade’ Stars

Publisher: Cora Rose, Lark Taylor

Genre: Gay Romance

Tags: Contemporary, Opposites Attract, Romance, Secret Society, Series

Length: 328 Pages

Reviewer: Cindi

Purchase At: Amazon

TW: Torture and on page violence, but it doesn’t drag on.

Blurb –

In my defense, this is all Brad’s fault.

I had one very important job: kidnap Brad.
I’ve never kidnapped someone before but how hard could it be? Find Brad. Snatch Brad. Deliver Brad to the very scary people who hold my fate in their hands.

So when a handsome, flirty stranger at the bar drops his name, I think my luck has finally turned. No chase. No fight. The man practically throws himself in my trunk, smiling like it’s a treat to be taken, like he wants me to have him.

The only problem? “Brad,” the charming and slightly unhinged man I’ve been keeping hostage for days, may be the most dangerous man of all.

Now I’m knee-deep in a life of crime I never signed up for. Tangled up with a man I never meant to take—and definitely never meant to fall for. And I’m staring down the barrel of a gun for mistakes I never should’ve made.

Because everyone knows The Firm never forgives a debt… and they always collect in blood.

Review –

Kidnapping is a federal crime with a minimum prison sentence of twenty years.

Fun fact – that’s only five years less than my age.

It was supposed to be a simple kidnapping. Not that kidnappings are exactly simple, but everything had easily fallen into place – too easily fallen into place. This should’ve been Ansel’s first clue that things weren’t as they appeared.

Ansel, a hacker, is caught up in something he can’t get out of. He’s being forced to kidnap a man named Brad Miller for reasons unknown to him. If he doesn’t follow through, Ansel dies. Simple as that. He’s set a trap, and he’s at the bar where Brad is supposed to be. All he has to do is find him and do what the bad guys are telling him to do. He doesn’t expect it to be easy, but ‘Brad’ practically falls into his lap. He does the ‘kidnapping’ and takes the man to a place in the middle of nowhere to wait for further instructions.

‘Brad’ isn’t normal. He willingly climbs into the trunk of Ansel’s car, and even advises him on everything he’s doing wrong as a first-time kidnapper. This includes the poor job of tying him up. He literally tries to teach Ansel how to keep him – the one kidnapped – contained.

I speak slowly and clearly. “Grab some rope. You brought some with you, right? Tie me up. That’s the first thing you should do when kidnapping someone.”

He stares at me, those pretty eyes blinking down at me. “I – what – no.”

Bless him. This must be his first time. “Yes. Go on, little butterfly. Go get the rope and come back. I’ll still be here. Waiting very patiently.”

There was a lot of funny banter between them early on that I loved.

‘Brad’ is obviously not who Ansel thinks he was. His name is Cade Buckingham, though Ansel doesn’t learn that until much later. Cade is kind of the loose cannon of the Buckingham brothers, and when he wants something, he doesn’t stop until he gets it. Right now he wants Ansel. By the time Ansel realizes he’s kidnapped the wrong man, it’s too late to stop a rescue from happening. Cade’s family is The Firm, introduced/explained in the first book, a secret society that takes care of certain types of wishes – for a price. When Cade disappears for a few days, leaving his watch that has a tracker and his wallet behind, the brothers do what they’re supposed to do. They find him and rescue him.

Only Cade doesn’t want to be rescued.

Ansel and Cade are taken to the main Buckingham home – where Wylder, the oldest brother, lives – as they attempt to figure out why Cade was kidnapped. By now, Cade has become absolutely obsessed with Ansel, and the feeling is quite mutual. There’s a little playing around before Cade’s real identity is made known, but it’s game on after.

I loved these guys together, especially Cade. Ansel bugged me a little because when he was being kept hostage safe by The Firm, a very dangerous society that fixes problems in some very violent ways, he still wouldn’t share what had him at the bar to kidnap Brad Miller. Most people in town don’t believe The Firm is real, but they fear it just the same. One quick conversation between Ansel and the Buckingham brothers and everything would have been over and done with. But then again, there wouldn’t be much of a story after.

Around the time the other Buckinghams start trusting Ansel, something major happens that changes everything. That broke my heart a little. Cade was so head over heels in love with Ansel, but they both ended up getting hurt, and not just emotionally. Thankfully, that didn’t drag on for too long.

Cade is the perfect hero, and I mean that in more ways than one. He’s dark and beyond obsessive, but he’s all in from almost the very beginning. There was never any question of how he felt. Ansel, though a little annoying a few times, is okay for the most part. Ansel is extremely intelligent, but not very smart when it came to certain things. I do love how everything played out.

“We aren’t in a relationship.”

I nuzzle his neck. “What else would you call it? A hostage-ship? Or maybe a hostage-with-benefits situationship? Neither of those really roll off the tongue. Relationship is just easier.”

The other brothers are in this in all their violent and a bit deviant glory. We’ve watched Dalton and Jackson and Jules and Harley dance around each other for two books. I’m eager to see both couples have their own stories. The guys I’m most eager to see have their story, however – and I’m SO glad it’s the next book – are Wylder and Neo. Neo is Ansel’s best friend, and he’s hilarious. Wylder is the stiff oldest Buckingham brother who also believes he’s straight. He even has a girlfriend, Candace, who everybody rightfully hates. There was one part about Candace that made me laugh out loud. I’m normally not a fan of bitchy females in books, but she was perfect. It would’ve been just as funny with any gender.

Much as we hate Candace, we can’t let our siblings murder her. If Wylder was pissed about the rug, just think how mad he’d be about his girlfriend’s blood staining the table. We’d never hear the end of it.

I’ll stop here.

I really enjoyed this, but I will say that the ‘Brad’ thing and Ansel not sharing why he’d been forced to kidnap someone both dragged on too long. Everything came together nicely in the end, but still.

I can’t wait to read the next one, Vigilant. Deviant had an epilogue that kinda/sorta gave us a glimpse of that one. It took a minute for something said in the epilogue to click, but things that were a little confusing now make sense. I may be wrong, but I doubt it.

Cora Rose has become a go-to author for me over the past year. Outside of this series, I’ve not read anything by Lark Taylor. I need to change that soon.

A really good book. I will be impatiently waiting for the next one.