Tom Boudreaux, ex-FBI, is sent a non-traceable video of a man being interrogated and beaten. We find out later that the video (from 10 years prior) is of Tom’s soon to be new partner, Prophet Drews.
Prophet Drews, ex-military and ex-CIA, current pain-in-the-ass. Fights hard, gets the job done. Works for Extreme Escapes, Ltd, a quasi-governmental black-ops type private organization. Prophet has a long history of running through and breaking partners. Now his boss is forcing yet another newbie partner, Tommy.
I've read Ms. Jake's black-ops romances penned under Stephanie Tyler before, and I've always enjoyed her gritty, action-oriented bad boy heroes. In Catch a Ghost, we have not one, but two such men storming through the pages. And what sexy, raw heroes they are! Both men are equally haunted, equally damaged, and equally sensitive. Proph and Tommy together are a well-balanced, messed-up duo. At times Proph takes care of Tom, keeping him safe and alive, at other times, Tom returns the favor, helping Proph with the ghosts that haunt him. And sexually, the pair are explosive - with out-of-your-mind intensity. This story is definitely NOT for the faint of heart, as the men share graphic, yet extremely intimate scenes.
Yet things are not easy for this pair, nor will it be for a while (WARNING - Proph and Tommy's story is going to be told over the course of four books). The pair fight inner-demons and refuse to open up completely to the other. The back and forth nature of their blossoming love pulls at the heart-strings, and creates a powerful connection to the characters.
At the center of the book is a mystery. A childhood friend of Prophet turns up dead, so the newly-made partners are sent to investigate. Going back to a place from Proph's past brings forward all sorts of ghosts, literally, as Proph continually hallucinates flashbacks from his painful past. The reader is fed clues a little at a time, and trying to figure out what was going on kept me up late into the night. The action is equal in intensity to the love-making for this pair.
In addition to the main characters, there are minor figures that pop in from time to time, and I have a feeling at least one will play a significant roll in books to come. Cillian is Prophet's unseen neighbor. The pair sext and flirt almost all the time, and to Proph, it's the easy way out. I want to know more about this mysterious CIA agent who may be competition for Tom.
Overall, Catch a Ghost is an riveting story full of passion, excitement, and even a bit of well-timed humor. I like that there isn’t a long sharing of backstories from either man, because it’s not in the character’s nature, but rather the author chose to write the characters and share their stories in little bits and pieces here and there. However, in the end, I feel like there is just so much still out there to learn about each man, and it did leave me “hanging” at the end of the story. I’m anxious to start up the second book, Long Time Gone, with the hope that I’ll be able to fill in some of the missing information. I will be okay if some of it goes unsaid, but the pair need to work through these demons, and I need to understand what they are!
My Rating: B+ Liked It A Lot
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