** Tams and Cats top picks for 2016 ** Rack & Ruin (THIRDS book 3) by @charliecochet | Cat & Tams Reviews & #giveaway @Dreamspinners

Hello everyone, and Happy New Year! 

Cat and I decided to do just one book/audiobook that we enjoyed in 2016 instead of a top 10 or anything along those lines. When it came down to it, we both said THIRDS. Cat has listened to all the Audio's pretty much in the past month, said she couldn't make herself stop and set the iPod down, because the stories were so juicy and enthralling. Myself, I've read all the books in the series at least twice, but my personal favorite that has received much more of my time than any others in the series is book 6, Against the Grain. 

So, we decided to make the THIRDS series our top series for 2016. Just in time for the long awaited release of book 8, Thick & Thin, on February 1st. For the month of January we'll be sharing our reviews for the audios and e-books in this series as well as some fun sneak peaks at book 8, ending with the release review of Thick & Thin on release day. So stay tuned and check back daily for updates and more! 

Rack & Ruin
THIRDS book 3

New York City’s streets are more dangerous than ever with the leaderless Order of Adrasteia and the Ikelos Coalition, a newly emerged Therian group, at war. Innocent civilians are caught in the crossfire and although the THIRDS round up more and more members of the Order in the hopes of keeping the volatile group from reorganizing, the members of the Coalition continue to escape and wreak havoc in the name of vigilante justice. 

Worse yet, someone inside the THIRDS has been feeding the Coalition information. It’s up to Destructive Delta to draw out the mole and put an end to the war before anyone else gets hurt. But to get the job done, the team will have to work through the aftereffects of the Therian Youth Center bombing. A skirmish with Coalition members leads Agent Dexter J. Daley to a shocking discovery and suddenly it becomes clear that the random violence isn’t so random. There’s more going on than Dex and Sloane originally believed, and their fiery partnership is put to the test. As the case takes an explosive turn, Dex and Sloane are in danger of losing more than their relationship.

Buy links: Dreamspinner | Amazon | Amazon Audio | Audible | iTunes

Cat's Audiobook Review...

"The mystery deepens as does feelings"

Overall

Performance

Story

Would you listen to Rack & Ruin again? Why?

Absolutely. The story kept me engrossed. The suspense was nail-biting and the romance hot.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Oh yes! There were some shocking twists, some surprise revelations, and the ending was really a shock!

What about Mark Westfield’s performance did you like?

I think my favorite thing is when they talk on coms or radios or there is a broadcast how his voice sounds like it's actually coming through one. It's pretty cool.

If you could rename Rack & Ruin, what would you call it?

Traitor In The Midst

Any additional comments?

I loved this story. I like the mystery, suspense and how it shows a few other men's relationships as Sloane and Dex explore theirs. It picks up after the surprising end of the last book with the Order still out there yet without a leader and now a Therian Coalition is fighting the Order too. There is a mole in the Thirds, a few surprises in store and another explosive ending.

Sloane and Dex's relationship deepen and we find out there is a couple others developing too.
Dex lends a touch of humor to the deeply suspenseful story and there is enough hot sex that there is a good balance of it all.

If you like Mystery, Suspense, Science Fiction, Werecats, Shapeshifters, and some amazing twists and turns... Romance and some hot man-sex... you will love this book/series!

Tams E-book Review...

Dex, Sloane and their team, Destructive Delta, are still feeling aftershocks from the bombing at the youth center only to learn that Isaac Pierce wasn’t the only person crazy enough to try and kill off the Therian race. This new threat seems to be one step ahead of the group though, making it painfully obvious that someone on the team is feeding the rogue group of killers that have turned bomb making into a sport, key information.

Dex is trying way too hard not to say those three little words out loud, afraid he will scare Sloane off if he admits he has feelings. Sloane is a strong man but losing his lover, being kidnapped by said dead lover’s crazy brother and having to face the demons of a past he thought he put behind him, might prove to be more than even this bad ass shifter can deal with.

The strain on the team as a whole is strengthened by Ash’s current mood. Usually brash, rude and downright obnoxious, Ash has become somewhat withdrawn and isolated. Worse still, he’s pushing Cael away and Cael’s performance at work is suffering because of it. Alas, there isn’t much time for lover’s quarrels or nursing broken hearts when there is a rogue group of humans and shifters running around, wreaking havoc and blowing things up, killing innocent bystanders in the process. 

Of course, there is a very thin line between love and hate, and as usual Cochet interjects just the right amount of passion, humour and light hearted 80’s music into the storyline to turn those gasps into guffaws! Running parallel to all the crazy is Dexter C Daley and his ability to make anyone smile. Dex is the class clown, always smiling and happy, but he is very emotional as well, he wears his heart on his sleeve. Now he has gone and fallen in love with his big, brooding, moody and commanding team leader, Sloane Brodie. It is impossible for either of them to ignore the outside world, or let their guard down, but somewhere in the middle of all the insanity that surrounds them, they found each other. If they aren’t careful though, they will lose each other.

What an intense read with just the right balance of emotions, danger and campy one liners that I have come to love from this insane team of humans and shifters. While I am certain that Cochet was on a mission to make me hate Ash with a blind, raging passion; I’m going to chalk up everything that sexy SOB has done to date as foreplay. My heart broke just a little for Cael when Ash continually pushed him away, but I am so anxious to see that macho, superior, holier than though attitude gradually broken down by one chirping cheetah shifter. So, for the promise of what is to come, I’m going to forgive Ash for now.

It’s hard for me to point out what I love best about this series, the world Cochet has meticulously created, the spot on storylines and character development, I don’t think there is anything that I don’t like about this team. Well, actually, I don’t trust their red headed boss, I think that bitch is hiding something, but every story has to have an evil mastermind villain, right? But if Cochet is funneling through reviews looking for some type of negative feedback, she won’t find it here. This has to be one of the best series in the genre right now. Three dimensional characters and strong storylines with such an acute attention to details, pretty much flawless.

Definitely a must read, especially for PNR and Shifter book lovers, just start at the beginning if you are new to the world of THIRDS. The stories are on a continual loop that will run you over if you try to jump in after the merry go round has started. 

SERIES READING ORDER

Hell & High Water (THIRDS, Book 1)
Blood & Thunder (THIRDS Book 2)
Rack & Ruin (THIRDS, Book 3)
Rise & Fall (THIRDS, Book 4)
Against the Grain (THIRDS, Book 5)
Catch a Tiger by the Tail (THIRDS, Book 6)
Smoke & Mirrors (THIRDS, Book 7)
Thick & Thin (THIRDS Book 8)

An Excerpt from Rack & Ruin...

“HE’S GONNA run.”

Dex took his partner’s tech vest from him and handed it to his brother in the BearCat. “You think?” He peered out one of the BearCat’s ballistic windows but couldn’t see jack this time of night, especially since their little friend was well camouflaged among the Central Park greenery. It didn’t help that Hobbs had somehow managed to park their black tactical vehicle in a thicket of trees shrouded in enough darkness to make Dex feel as if a black hole had sucked him up. He had to give his Therian teammate credit. Hobbs could park the BearCat up a freakin’ flagpole if he had to. Maybe being a huge-ass Therian made it easy for him to maneuver huge-ass vehicles. Parks and Recreation was going to be so pissed if they found out they’d been driving off the roads.

“He always runs.” Sloane removed his thigh rig next and handed it over. Dex promptly passed it off to Cael. His brother huffed but took it without question, undoubtedly knowing Dex was doing it to annoy him. Ah, the perks of working with family. Rosa sat on the bench, looking on in amusement and checking her Postshift Trauma Care (PSTC) kit, while Hobbs sat in the driver’s seat inside the front cabin bugging his spiky blond-haired partner. Calvin was in the passenger seat, being a grump as he cleaned the scope of his sniper tranq rifle.

Dex had no idea what had Calvin sporting the pouty face. He wouldn’t be surprised if it had something to do with his best bud sitting across from him. Either Hobbs was oblivious to Calvin’s mood, or he was purposefully ignoring it. Considering he was sitting inches away from the nozzle of his partner’s tranq gun, it would probably be in Hobbs’s best interest to play nice. Dex had walked in on the pair sucking face back at the hospital after Hobbs had been hurt in the Therian Youth Center bombing. It had been one hell of a surprise and explained the pair’s off behavior leading up to the incident. Things quickly returned to normal between the two afterward. Somewhat. If Dex were a betting man, he’d say that was the problem. Hobbs was carrying on as if nothing had happened, and Calvin had been hoping something had changed. He’d confided as much to Dex back at the hospital. Whatever was going on, Dex hoped the two managed to work it out soon.

Letty was checking the magazines of her various guns. And Ash… Dex didn’t know where the hell Ash was. Just another shift for Destructive Delta.

Sloane pulled off his boots, and when he stood to remove his uniform shirt, Dex couldn’t help but try again. “As much as we all love seeing you get nekkid, partner, I wish you’d at least reconsider—”

“Nope.”

“Dude, the rest of your shit is heavy enough,” Dex whined, lifting his arms to show the various pieces of tactical equipment hanging off them, the heaviest being the PSTC kit he carried to aid his partner postshift.

“I’m not getting rid of my sneakers.”

Dex let his arms fall back to his sides. “They’re not even government issued!”

Sloane shrugged. “Don’t care.”

“You’ve had to replace two pairs in the last four months.”

Sloane paused in the middle of unbuttoning his shirt to arch an eyebrow at him. “And whose fault is that?”

Want to read the excerpt in it's entirety? Or learn more about this series, the characters, the world and the Author? Visit THIRDS HQ!

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Charlie Cochet is an author by day and artist by night. Always quick to succumb to the whispers of her wayward muse, no star is out of reach when following her passion. From adventurous agents and sexy shifters, to society gentlemen and hardboiled detectives, there’s bound to be plenty of mischief for her heroes to find themselves in, and plenty of romance, too!

Currently residing in Central Florida, Charlie is at the beck and call of a rascally Doxiepoo bent on world domination. When she isn’t writing, she can usually be found reading, drawing, or watching movies. She runs on coffee, thrives on music, and loves to hear from readers.

Website: http://www.charliecochet.com

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Email: charlie@charliecochet.com

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