Two of Noah’s Army buddies are dead.
Someone has taken shots at Noah.
And now Noah’s former lover, JB, is a target.
Noah, Rowe, and JB team up to track down a killer trying to take out all of Noah’s old Army team in hopes of covering up a dark secret.
But this trip to Washington, D.C. threatens to unravel the perfect life that Rowe and Noah have built over the past three years. JB’s arrival in their lives have Rowe and Noah wondering if they want the same thing for their happily ever after.
Rowe is sure of one thing—nobody threatens his man. And he sets out to show anyone with a hidden agenda what a bad decision that was.
Title: Ignite
Series: Unbreakable Bonds #7
Author: Jocelynn Drake & Rinda Elliott
Publisher: Drake & Elliott Publishing LLC
Release Date: July 26, 2019
Heat Level: 4 – Lots of Sex
Pairing: Male/Male
Length: 73,000
Genre: Romance, Thriller/Suspense
Amazon – Kindle Unlimited
Noah smiled to himself as he watched Rowe drive them home. His hands slid easily along the leather wheel. Soon those strong hands would be stroking down his body. The way the man kept looking at him during the wedding had him half-hard all evening. He knew it was the wedding—all the romance in the air.
A lingering worry had nipped at him earlier in the day that Ian’s wedding would bring back painful memories of Rowe’s own wedding, but he seemed fine and Noah couldn’t be more thankful.
So, he watched those hands. Being touched by Rowe was like nothing else in this world. The man worshiped his body with an all-in intensity that frankly awed Noah. And he knew that wouldn’t change, no matter how long they were together. He took in his dark-red hair, lit by moonlight, disheveled as usual, and his ripped shoulders and arms. The man filled out a suit well, but he couldn’t wait to peel him out of it.
“Keep staring at me like that, and I’ll be finding a secluded spot to pull over,” Rowe murmured, giving him a steamy look.
“That’d be fine with me. Did I tell you how hot you are today? You should wear suits more often.”
“Soon as we get home, I’ll show you my birthday suit.”
“That’s my favorite suit of all.” Noah grinned.
Rowe pulled to a stop at a red light and turned toward him, his green-eyed gaze hotter than the sun. “You clean up nice yourself. Come here.”
Noah leaned over to kiss him. Brakes squealed sharply. Noah jerked his lips away from Rowe’s before they could touch. A car had pulled up, perpendicular to theirs, in the middle of the intersection. A loud bang quickly followed and the ping of glass breaking. Startled, he looked at the windshield to find a small hole in it.
“Shit, get down!” Rowe grabbed him and shoved him into the seat, covering him with his body just as another shot broke through the windshield.
“Someone is fucking shooting at us!” Rowe stretched over him to reach the glove box where he kept his gun. He yanked it out but stayed down. “Are you hurt?”
Noah couldn’t believe the man covered him, but that was Rowe. “No, I’m fine. You?”
“I’m good.”
Tires squealed again and the roar of the car engine grew softer. A knock on the driver’s window had them both jerking upright. Rowe aimed the gun in that direction, ready to put two in whoever was stupid enough to be standing there. Noah rose, ready to jump out of their truck and attack.
The woman outside screamed and ducked away from the window. “I was just making sure you were all right!” she yelled, and Rowe immediately lowered his gun. “The person shooting drove off, but I got a good look at the car. I’m beside you at the stoplight. The driver just pulled right into the intersection and someone shot out of the front passenger window. Is everyone okay? I called 9-1-1.”
Noah looked out the windshield to find the first hole directly in front of him. He turned and found a matching bullet hole in the seat. It would have pierced his heart. Whoever shot at them had one hell of an aim. Or at least, they would have if Noah hadn’t leaned over to kiss Rowe at that moment. <em>Holy fuck</em>, <em>that was close!</em>
His stomach was in knots as he met his boyfriend’s gaze. “What the hell?”
Rowe rolled down his window, apologizing to the woman for scaring her. “What kind of car was it?”
“A black Volkswagen hatchback.”
“Did you see anyone in the car? Could you tell if either person was a man or woman?”
“The passenger looked like a man. I’m sorry, I didn’t get a good look at the person’s face.”
Sirens sounded in the distance, getting steadily closer. Rowe put his gun back into the glovebox and they both got out of the truck to look at the damage. Two police cars arrived with a roar of engines. The first cop opened his door and stood with his gun at the ready.
“The shooter drove away,” the woman yelled. She was certainly helpful and brave to have gotten out of her car at all. Her red Honda was still parked at the light beside them with several more cars stalled there as well. None of those people had gotten out of their vehicles, but now they did as the police gathered.
Rowe and Noah answered questions but because they’d ducked, they had less to offer by way of explanation than the woman who’d witnessed the whole thing.
“Was more than likely a drive-by,” one of the cops said as he made a few notes in his little notepad. “We’ve had a few of them recently. I’m glad nobody was hurt this time. The others weren’t so lucky.”
But Noah had a feeling it wasn’t some random drive-by.
Fun, sexy, exciting. Yes, yes, yes. Definitely those things. Explosions, gun fights, chases. Those as well. What else would you expect of these guys? The couple of focus in this book are Rowe and Noah. We also meet JB, Noah’s former teammate and lover from when they were in the Rangers. Seems someone is taking out ex military who might have witnessed an ambush years ago in Afghanistan. Two are already dead, Noah and JB are next.
Underlying all of this excitement are Noah and Rowe contemplating their future together. Most importantly, marriage and children.
There isn’t a lot of the original guys in this story, but several do make appearances- the core four and their significant others. But they don’t take a big part of the story at all- definitely supporting players.
Ok, here is my wet blanket. A couple of things really took me out of the story. The first is that Noah and Rowe are the victims of a drive by shooting on the way home from Ian’s wedding. Not only is everything seemingly just taken care of at the scene by the cops, there is no further questioning, no ballistics done on the bullet in their car and they were free to go home, in bullet riddled car, very quickly. Like, meh, no big deal.
Even though these guys are trying to figure out who and why people are trying to kill them, they make time for sex. Lengthy sex. Ok, that’s fine. But you really have sex toys packed?
I won’t tell you the third thing because while it isn’t really a spoiler, it does happen at the end. But it is a minor part of the story that is never finished.
So I am so used to looking over explosions, tons of dead people, destroyed property, because fiction. Because it’s fun. And exciting. And good reading. But yea, those couple things bugged me. I’M SORRY!
It is still a good book. Like I said, fun, exciting, sexy, explosions, etc. Definitely read it if you have been reading all of these books. Because it is worth it. It’s like an action blockbuster where the female hero wears heels all of the time. Like, who cares? but it bugs me.
3.5 pieces of eye candy
I was so excited to see this one pop up because Rowe and Noah have been my favorite! (Don’t tell the others, I think I’m attracted to their crazy!)
So, in the beginning, we see Ian and Hollis getting married through the eyes of Rowe. I loved seeing everyone there for them, seeing as Hollis had to battle the brood for a while before they saw how much he loved Ian, and how Ian needed someone exactly like Hollis to claim him. And if anyone deserved a HEA, it was Ian….loved it….
As we know though, weddings does things to folks and it had both men thinking about where they saw their relationship going. They know they love each other… they know it’s forever and I was a little bummed to know how they felt about marriage and kids and stuff, but only because I’m a sap and I want the whole hog for all of them. There is no denying their love for each other though. On the way home from the wedding, they run into some trouble that the police try and brush off, but both men with their skillset feel that it’s way more than local law enforcement is treating it as.
When an old friend/brother-in-arms/past lover calls and confirms that not only are a couple of teammates dead, but he’s being targeted and fears that Noah will be too… binging him back home with them, they want to get to the bottom of whoever is out to hurt them before they have a chance to come back and finish the job!
JB, I thought was going to be trouble (he’s the old friend/brother-in-arms/ex-
However, Rowe got his possessive and crazy jealous self and Noah assured him that he had nothing to worry about and JB was actually really charming, incredibly likable and fit in great with the guys and their craziness. I do hope he pops back up in future books because it was obvious that he still had feelings for Noah and unrequited love sucks! I want him to find his happy, he deserves it too.
Now, I won’t get into the who’s and the why’s of who and why Noah and his ex-team is being targeted because it kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time I was flipping through electronic pages and I don’t want to ruin that for y’all. I do feel like I need a mood stabilizer after it though… and it’s crazy how this duo can paint such vivid pictures of all the hilarity and chaos and have me gripping my kindle with clammy nervous hands until all is right in the world again. This one was no different.
If you’ve read any of the others in this series or the ones they’ve spun off from, you should be no stranger to the heart palpitations, the love, the broody, charming, gorgeous, possessive, hilarious family they write about. What starts out sweet, soon turns to hellfire and explosions and kidnappings and violence and murder and bad guys… but then gives us the sweetest weddings, babies, puppys, family and so so so much love that it makes every second of it worth it.
Awesome addition and I can’t wait to see who’s next!
This one gets all the stars!
5 pieces of eye candy
Jocelynn Drake and Rinda Elliott have teamed up to combine their evil genius to create intense gay romantic suspense stories that have car chases, shoot outs, explosions, scorching hot love scenes, and tender, tear-jerking moments. Their first joint books are in the Unbreakable Bonds series.
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Thank you for the review!