Against the Grain

THIRDS Book 5

By: Charlie Cochet

Narrated by: Mark Westfield

Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

As the fiercest defense agent at the THIRDS, Destructive Delta's Ash Keeler is foul mouthed and foul tempered. But his hard-lined approach always yields results, evident by his recent infiltration of the Coalition. Thanks to Ash's skills and the help of his team, they finally put an end to the murdering extremist group for good, though not before Ash takes a bullet to save teammate Cael Maddock. As a result, Ash's secrets start to surface, and he can no longer ignore what's in his heart.

Cael Maddock is no stranger to heartache. As a recon agent for Destructive Delta, he has successfully maneuvered through the urban jungle that is New York City, picking up his own scars along the way. Yet nothing he's ever faced has been more of a challenge than the heart of Ash Keeler, his supposedly straight teammate. Being in love isn't the only danger he and Ash face as wounds reopen and new secrets emerge, forcing them to question old loyalties.

©2015 Charlie Cochet (P)2015 Dreamspinner Press

Awesome fun to watch Ash and Gabe

What made the experience of listening to Against the Grain the most enjoyable?

The deepening of the characters

What does Mark Westfield bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

the different voices are amazing and only get better

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The holidays were hilarious

Can't get enough

unbelievable Charlie has yet again outdone herself with another incredible romance about destructive Delta I enjoyed being an ashs head, I cannot get enough and cannot wait to read every other book she's published fantastic miss please keep it up!

B+ rating...

My Review:
Overall...4.0
Performance...3.25
Story...4.25

Okay, I need to get this part out here first. I've adored Mark Westfield's narration of the rest of this series, including how he inflected Cael and Ash, and his voices haven't changed for them in this book. BUT that was when they were they were side characters in the other stories. There are a LOT of male voices to this series and Mark Westfield does an AMAZING job making them all sound completely different. My issue with this book is personal. Both Cael and Ash have softer, more...not really feminine...but ultra sweet, maybe even a little more swishy voices. And before this book, they totally fit the sweet moments between these guys. Having them as the leads in their own book though, that over the top sweet pitch to their voices just got to be too much, especially since these are hard-core soldiers. There were even times that the tone of the narration made the dialogue seem WAY too sappy and I don't think I would have felt that way if I'd been reading the book myself rather than listening to it.

But this book is so much more than just its audio (and again...if you like audio, give this one a chance. The narrator is GREAT. My personal taste just didn't like his voices for these characters...but that is probably just me).

I'm so happy that Charlie Cochet chose to write Ash and Cael's story and it's an action-packed story filled with SO MANY twists and turns. I was honestly shocked at how it all worked out in the end as I did not see so much of that coming...but YIPPEE...I love what she did there at the end. This book is also fantastic for this time of the year because Ash is thrown into the whole family dynamic during the holidays. Something that kept me laughing through so much of the story because Dex and Ash in the same space, there are going to be fireworks!

It was a fun book with a great addition to the story. I love getting to see the whole team and am really hoping that someday Charlie Cochet will write a Calvin and Hobbes story. I want to know so much more about these two. The entire series is filled with an amazing cast of characters and honestly, I'd be good with reading about all of them forever. Love the Thirds and am so happy for Cael and Ash!!

Keep writting!

This is the fourth book in this series, but the MCS are ash and cael. So if u havent read the first three books u will be very confused and be missing out too. I liked this book and liked that i got to hear their story too, but i kind of missed the MCs from the first books allthough they are in this book as well. But it is a must read if u liked the other ones. Narrator does a good job. There is a lot of characters in these books so if u have trouble with a lot of different people, u might want to read them instead so that u will be able to use the list of characters in the beginning - does not make a lot of sense in an audiobook.

A winner.

Charlie Cochet and Mark Westfield are a superb combination! You can't go wrong with this book.

Nothing Against This Book

I've got nothing to say against this book. Cochet has created a unique and dangerously sexy world with men who protect and serve, and love with ferocity. This book moves some story lines forward that I'd hoped to see evolve. These books are like a TV show you want to binge! Believe me, once you start the series, you won't want to stop. But definitely start with book one

I can't believe I stumbled upon this series

Omg can't wait for the next one great job Charlie. Awesome work Mike
I'm completely hooked

Love Ash and Cael

Taking a slightly different turn, this book is about Ash and Cael (yay!) centrally and Dex and Sloane only peripherally. We get to learn a lot more of the back story about Ash and why he acts like he does as well as some of Cael’s (sad) romantic history.
Though the two have already admitted they love one another, Ash continues to balk at the intimacy he so clearly craves. Poor (sappy) Cael puts up with it over and over because he just loves Ash so much.

There is a little drama with Austen and the team’s boss and some strange Therian drug making the rounds and somehow Shultzon is involved (of course!).

Most of this was fairly low angst and low drama, relationship building and watching Ash work through his personal demons.

**

I love this series and find it hilarious! Charlie has a gift of creating this alternate world you totally want to live in and then giving us fully formed three dimensional characters with flaws and eccentricities who are lovable at the same time you want to strangle them!

I don’t think this was the strongest book in the series – possibly because both Ash and Cael made me crazy. I never quite understood Ash’s motivation for avoiding intimacy. He seemed to flip flop from admitting his interest in men from an early age – then having that bad experience – then finding Cael – so the “gay” part shouldn’t have been the issue – but allowing himself to act on it should have been. But he seemed relatively fine acting on it in private just not public and since when does Ash care what the public thinks of him? I didn’t get it… I might have missed a nuance, but it bugged me that I couldn’t figure it out.

Cael – who I love – I definitely wanted to strangle and then tell him to get a back bone. I would have at least shoved Ash out the door once if not a hundred times until he could prove that he wasn’t a dick! But Cael just kept accepting it and it made me frustrated!

I loved the back stories – especially the baby stories! I also can’t wait until we get to see more about Calvin and Hobbs’ love affair – Woot!

The other great part of this book was seeing the fully developed relationship between Sloane and Dex. It’s so NICE to see them happy for a change.

Overall I still loved this book very, very much and was psyched to read it but I didn’t love Cael and Ash as much as I love Dex and Sloane.

Audio

Mark Westfield has done all the narrations for this series. What I love about his narrations is his ability to modulate his voice to demonstrate different settings – ie a phone, the hallway, muffled, etc. He also handles female voices really well. His voice is easy to listen to and he absolutely adds to the overall enjoyment of the book/audio.

I highly recommend this book, author, and narration!

Loving this series!

We really loved getting to know Ash a little better! Can't wait for the next books!

I didn't enjoy the narration

Where does Against the Grain rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It has strong pacing, and there are artistic elements that set it above its peers--especially the sound effects for voices at a distance and over the phone. That said, I found the voice for Ash off-putting. His voice is higher than the narrator's natural tones and I found that inconsistent with Ash's physical description. I expected a baritone, not a tenor.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Against the Grain?

Well, that's one of my problems with this one. I admit I felt like this one could be skimmed (in text form) and you'd have enough information about Cael and Ash's backstory, as well as the development in the overall series arch about the....well, I try to avoid spoilers.

Which character – as performed by Mark Westfield – was your favorite?

Maddock, honestly.

If you could take any character from Against the Grain out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Maddock, if I can only have one. He's closer to my age and we can exchange stories about raising boys.

Any additional comments?

I love this series and I *liked* the character of Ash before this book. For anyone reading the series at this point (when this book is the middle child), the fact that this book focuses more on character development than plot development is not a problem. I might have preferred it as a novella, but again, the book worked for me. I didn't enjoy it as an audio book because Ash's voice did not ring true for me. He came across as an extraordinarily sensitive and sweet guy--more so than Sloane or Dex. It just wasn't consistent with his character up to that point in the series. Had he always been softer around Cael? Yes, absolutely. But as presented in the audio book, this is practically disassociate personality disorder! His lines could have been delivered in a lower register and more roughened manner, and it would have bridged the distance between the jerk he was supposed to be with the rest of the world and the softie he is for Cael.