Elin Gregory

As seems to be becoming a habit, I’d left this post as a draft instead of scheduling it, so please forgive me if my saturday recommendation comes out on the Sunday. But whichever day it is, it’s the weekend and that’s a good thing. There’s something about weekends! A bit of a lie-in in the morning, a liesurely breakfast, a good book to read throughout.

I’ve read a lot of books this week, probably because I have a story to write and am scared of it, and most of these books are worthy of being mentioned here. Some were re-reads [for the comfort of it], some were for beta [and those are always so exciting], some were new to me authors [also exciting] but my choice for this week is the third book in a series because I know how much you all like series.

So – THIRDS by Charlie Cochet combines action adventure, police procedural and para-military muscle with shifters, which seem to be EVERYWHERE, and M/M romance in an entertaining melange that adds up to hours of romping reading.

So far there are three titles, starting with Hell & High Water, going on to Blood & Thunder, and continuing in the latest release Rack & Ruin. Exercise some caution in reading them and be sure to start at the beginning because they aren’t like some of the other series, where each book has it’s distinct story arc and resolution. No these are more like th way Dickens released his novels a long chapter at a time, each one ending with a considerable note of uncertainty. One assumes the characters we care about will be ok but there are, as they say, no guarantees.

The main character is Dex, an ex-cop who blotted his copy book by testifying against another cop who murdered an unarmed shifter child. He is inducted into THIRDS – the Therian-Human Intelligence Recon Defense Squadron where humans are paired with shifters, who seem to be mostly of the cat variety in this universe – to provide the muscle during investigations. Therians – the shifters – are faster, stronger, more aggressive, more robust, than humans and while in their shifted state enjoy the benefits of the instincts of their animals. Humans provide a steadying force and also support for when the Therians shift back and enter a very much weakened state. I really enjoy the world building in the books and the variety of characters. It’s very much an ensemble cast with a lot of people to keep track of, rather than a simple boy meets boy and shag a lot romance and there’s PLOT, my dears, oozing out of every pore. Also Charlie’s trademark humour. Highly recommended as a series and there’s more to come – soon I hope because that last chapter almost made me infarct.