Ball & Chain by Abigail Roux

4.5 STARS

Cut & Run - Book 8

Ty and Zane are back and this time they've brought along Nick and Kelly as they head off to a secluded Scottish island in the Hebrides for Ty's brother, Deuce's wedding.

I love the whole Cut & Run series. I love Ty & Zane and I love their families, the whole Sidewinder crew and the folks they work with. Abi has done a masterful job of bringing the secondary characters to vivid life and we revisit many of them in these pages, much to my delight.

The mystery works. It's a circuitous puzzle indeed, with more winding tracks and side trips than the tunnels that play such a big part in the story. And the series continuity is excellently done, something that isn't so easy to get right. I love how Abi is able to weave in the information we need reminding of without having to do a whole info dump. It's a gift. *g*

The sex is hot and the romance is even hotter. All these big guys with their gooshy mischievous guy hearts and flowers just make me happy. I loved the running theme of the proposals and I swear to God, Kelly Abbott was created to make me laugh. And Abi certainly knows how to bring in the surprises and make them work.

The ONE thing I had issue with was a scene that I kinda think was probably put in just for the myriads of Abi's 'minions' as her big fans call themselves. :) A scene with the four, Ty, Zane, Nick and Kelly just shooting the shit and being all glib and clever with their banter. I don't know that it served the story in any other way, nor did it contribute to any character growth, per se. It just felt out of place... extraneous to me. It was a hefty scene in length and I think it's the main reason I didn't give Ball & Chain that last half star.

But really, there is so much good and fun and heart-tugging in this book, I honestly think it's one of the better ones in the series. I haven't been able to put it down, that's for sure, so, I can highly, highly recommend it.

Now as I understand things, this is the second to last of the Cut & Run series and it does indeed feel as if we're getting there with Ty and Zane's story. There will be plenty more Team Sidewinder stories though, never fear. The one BAD thing about all this is that I don't know if we'll ever see a sequel to my very favourite Abigail Roux - According to Hoyle.