Keaton Bridge is one hundred percent bad boy.
Cassie doesn’t need a boy and certainly not a bad one. Nope. She fights crime for a living, and everything about this guy screams trouble, from his charming British accent to his mysterious past.
And Cassie doesn’t do trouble.
Keaton’s got his own trouble. He’s trying to go legit, and an FBI agent hanging around is the last thing that will help his credibility.
All it took was one night of passion to sear her into his skin. Now he can’t imagine living happily ever after without her.
All they have to do is walk away.
But neither of them ever walks away from a challenge.
*ARC received as a part of a blog tour. The thoughts are entirely my own and in no way biased.*
This is my first CD Reiss novel and let me tell you, it was good. I’ve heard so many nice things about the author, especially from romance author extraordinaire, Penny Reid, who I absolutely adore. So, when she said that CD Reiss was a great author, I knew that I had to read her work and experience it for myself. And, boy! Is she a good writer! I loved this story!
Cassandra Grinstead, an FBI agent, is looking for a change of pace because she hates her inconsequential field office and wants to do some better work. She figures one sure shot way to snag a promotion is to catch a white supremacist Nazi cell working in the dark web. To find more, she meets Keaton Bridge who is supposed to be Alpha Wolf, a wanted cyber criminal. But, the catch is that the FBI has nothing on him and he isn’t willing to talk. He’s trying to go legit with a QI4 business with his best friend and refuses to share anything.
Cassie & Keaton are attracted to each other from the get go. They both know that it’s not a good idea to get involved, but they bump into one another a couple times and Keaton agrees to help her crack her case. As they work together, the attraction gets too much and they give in, entering into a sort of casual relationship (aka feelings are heavily involved but they both know that they can’t make it work). Question is, to they make it work or not.
What I loved about the story best was Cassie. She’s awesome. She hasn’t had the best childhood and was raised by her grandmother from when she was 14. She’s had to work hard to get where she is and she values her job. She doesn’t want to lose it because her grandma and her job are the only things she has in the world. She is no nonsense and doesn’t take shit from anybody, not even her boss. She’s strong and can easily take on Keaton in a fight. I loved how badass she is. It was awesome!
Keaton, on the other hand, is the mysterious broody bad boy. He never makes apologies for who is and is straight from the beginning, saying that though he cares very deeply for Cassie, he was sure he’d disappoint her because of who he is. I love how he comes off as ruthless and uncaring, but he treats Cassie with such gentleness, it’s so good. He always makes sure to look after her the best he can. He wants to earn her trust and tries to anyway he can. He is so sweet with her, it’s endearing.
Though it’s an action packed read and I loved everything that was happening, there was stuff that I didn’t like. For example, it felt very insta – lovey. Sure, the attraction was always there, but it seemed as if the feelings developed in a week. I mean, I think majority of the week is covered within 3 – 4 weeks at max (I could be wrong on that front, it might be even less, but there’s no way it’s more than that) and they seemed to have developed intense feelings. Yes, all their conversations were heavily loaded and they rarely held anything back, but it seemed that it was still a little too soon.
Also, for someone who worked so hard towards her promotion, it seemed that the promotion was all but handed to her. I wanted it to be a little more difficult for her to get it. I’m glad she did and she did risk her life in a way, but I felt that she didn’t do enough (kind of like the end of DH when Harry killed Voldemort, but it felt unfulfilling because it wasn’t actually his prowess).
I loved all the interaction between Keaton and Cassie’s grandma. Those were funny as hell and so, so entertaining. Keaton really is a charming man. I also loved the camaraderie between Cassie and her friend, Freida. Those two ladies are awesome and Freida was a riot. All the secondary relationships in this book are so good, I adored them. It was so good to read about all of them.
