Darkest Hour Before Dawn

THIRDS

By: Charlie Cochet

Narrated by: Mark Westfield

Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's Summary

THIRDS Team Leader Sebastian Hobbs and Chief Medical Examiner Hudson Colbourn are as much in love now as they were nearly seven years ago when a tragic event on the job destroyed their relationship. The two drift together only to be pulled apart time and time again. When Hudson draws the interest of dangerous enemies, both within and outside the organization, Seb wants nothing more than to protect the man who still means everything to him.

As life-and-death events, an uncertain future, and startling truths draw Hudson and Seb to each other yet again, they must make a choice: trust their love and take strength from what they share, or lose what matters most...for good this time.

©2017 Charlie Cochet (P)2017 Dreamspinner Press

Loveable Hudson

I just love Hudson so much, he is one of my favorite characters in the series. And with my afore mentioned sentence if you haven't guessed, this book focus is on Hudson and Seb (YaY). Their love story is bitter sweet, so have tissues nearby, there are some rollercoaster moments.
And I got to say I'm loving the bad guy Wolf too, I don't know what it is but since he was first introduced he was such a gentleman, and yeah he did terrible things to our lovable Dex, I'll just blame it on Charlie Cochet she made such a lovable bad guy... Plus the narrator gives him such a sweet alluring accent.
And you find out a little secret about Wolf too..... Psssst... Tony Montana's Bad Guy speech comes to mind when I think about Wolf.....

5 star narration

Time after time Charlie Cochet creates such amazing stories filled with non-stop action, intrigue and romance, while narrator Mark Westfield makes that world all the more richer; Darkest Hour Before Dawn, the ninth book in the THIRDS series is no exception. You definitely do not want to read this without having read all the other books in this awesome series.

Mark Westfield delivers us back into the world of the THIRDS agents, namely Sebastian Hobbs and Dr. Hudson Colburn.

While the story is filled with tons of action and suspense the author really gives readers a more intimate view of one of my favorite couples, Seb and Hudson.

These two men belong to each other. Hudson is marked and truly mated to Seb. A tragedy in their past breaks them apart and throughout the series we see them dance around each other. In this installment we get an inside view into the how’s and why’s of their relationship.

I really enjoy Seb and Hudson interacting. Seeing the push and pull between the two and how these guys truly ‘pine’ for each other. I love seeing how close Hudson still is with the Hobbs family, especially his relationship with Seb’s Mom and Dad. With Westfield’s narration I could feel how important and emotional being connected to them is for Hudson. Hudson also frustrates me with his back and forth because it’s so plain to see how much Seb really cares for him. But it’s nice to see them circle around each other and slowly realize the depth of their love for one another.

Darkest Hour Before Dawn is not all romance, there is definitely plenty of action and intrigue going on throughout the story. The timing is perfect and the action scenes fleshed out.

Mark Westfield is definitely at his best when narrating fight scenes and confrontations and with the many revelations in this installment his narration kept me listening and wanting more.

I can’t wait to see what’s next for our favorite fellow agents.

Great for the series fans

Charlie is a great writer and – as always – really has a way with combining action, romance and humor.

I’m not a big fan of “reunion” romances – I like that initial spark too much – but I did love that after all this time our guys finally get their chance to be together.

Of course, there is other drama going on – and more danger - as well as some more Dex/Sloane interactions – and a furthering of the overall mystery/arc.

For fans of the series, this is a must, and while I bet you could read this as a standalone, I think you’d miss a lot.

I'm glad the series is wrapping up, however, because we are starting to ease into the land of soap opera (i.e. people coming back from the "dead) and I think we've just about done all there needs to be done with this.


Audio


Mark Westfield is the voice for this series, so I can’t really add much to this review that hasn’t already been said.

I thought his English accent was fine and I enjoy his little “extras” that he throws in to keep the narration fresh and engaging.

I still sometimes struggle to appreciate his intonation, as he does seem to end each sentence in the same way, regardless of the emotion being portrayed – but after awhile I don’t notice it.

Overall, I’d give this 4 of 5 stars.

I’m not crying, you’re crying!

Seb’s and Hudson’s love story was a cautionary tale that circulated throughout THIRDS HQ and I’m glad to finally dive deep into their story.

We have glimpses of their story from the previous books in the series.. but this time, it’s from both their POVs.

Hudson’s self flagellation was hard to read. He was punishing himself and punishing Seb. On one point, it’s understandable as to how it became that way, but it’s heartbreaking whenever he gives himself and Seb hope, only to snatch it away again.

These two fought for their HEAs that when they finally, FINALLY, got their HEA, I got severely misty eyed. 🥺

Thrown in some plot twists and one plot line that I knew was gonna happen, this story makes for another great one in this series.

Five stars and more for Seb and Hudson.

Dankest Hour Before Dawn

Omg this audio book was absolutely positively amazing. i would highly recommend this audiobook.

Mixed feelings, but overall really good

First the negatives:

The secondary title for this book could’ve been “___ Swallowed Hard.” I’d bet that sentence appeared every fifteen minutes of this ten-hour book. It got to be a running joke in my head.

The sticky-sweet romantic dialog and declarations were a little over the top.

This narrator has grown on me with all the previous books and I’ve gotten used to his characteristic phrasing and tone. I really like his voice. But, the English accents were truly terrible. That wouldn’t ordinarily be a big deal for me, but one of the two main characters in this book is English and has a LOT of dialog. What’s even worse is that Hudson’s voice sounded more like a woman than either Nina or Sparks did. It was really off-putting. Not one of Westfield’s beat efforts.

Now the positives:

The story is excellent. I’m really impressed with the world-building and the complexity of the plot and the characters. Also, the author seems to finally feel more comfortable writing the sex scenes. I really love this series and I’m sorry to know it’s almost over, this being the ninth in a ten-volume series. I’ve binge-listened to the whole series to the point where II’ve dreamt about Destructive Delta a couple of times. I love all these guys, especially Dex and Ash.

The heat scale for this one is 3.75 of 5 chili peppers. Fairly explicit, but still feels like the author is a tad uncomfortable with too much detail. I like it dirty. And, no man I know, straight or gay, reaches for wet-wipes right after they come. :)

Emasculated military Therians

I love the overall story. I know this is romantic series, but it is a very frustrating series. For a bunch of military men, they sound like a bunch of whiney pussies. No one gets over betrayal or torture as quickly as these characters do. It is not realistic & is quite the turnoff. Just because they are gay, they should not be emasculated.

Third’s Hurrah!

The one problem I had with this is the narrator’s performance of Hudson, the take on his speech accent was annoying. I still loved he story but winced every time Hudson was talking! The rest was fine.

Love Overcomes All

This was a little harder for me to get into compared to the other THIRDS books. Hudson was just a bundle of silly angst and put Sebastian Hobbs through hell. But the other characters and the humor of the series helped keep me entertained and I just exercised my suspension of disbelief. I ended up enjoying the book.

Was ok

Her four kings series is better... the twist is pretty predictable. Still enjoyed listening and will finish the series

Enjoyable Story

A well written story with and interesting  concept.  The characters are likeable and the narration is very good.

Amazing

5 stars for book 9 in the THIRDS audio series. This is Seb and Hudson's story. Mark Westfield is yet again an exceptional narrator and really gave this story another dimension. I just love the way he speaks and could listen to him all day.

7 years a go Seb and Hudson were in a happy relationship. Seb had marked Hudson as his mate and was planning to ask Hudson to marry him. On the day he planned to ask him a rogue shooter aimed fire at Hudson and Seb jumped in to save him which resulted in the tragic death of a young boy. This brought in to question their ability to work together within THIRDS as bonded mates and it cost Seb his position in Destructive Delta which led to his subsequent transfer to another team and also cost them their relationship.

7 years later and these two are still separated due to the grief from that day but also Hudson's insane stubborn-ness. Through the first 50% of this story I just wanted to shake them both particularly Hudson but they do eventually find their way back to each other and then things move quite quickly from there!

As with all the THIRDS books there is plenty of action and drama and plenty of love! Seb is so sweet and I loved how he unconditionally looks out for and loves Hudson even when they're not together. I loved catching up with all the characters from the other books in this story. You really shouldn't listen to these books on their own, they need to be read in order to make the most of this brilliant world and all the characters that have been created.

Cannot wait for the next audio book instalment in this fabulous series!

Certainly not the best in the series....

There were numerous errors in the story...not sure whether they were down to Charlie or Dreamspinner [but I suspect the latter], the most annoying of which was using the word 'ay' instead of 'eh'. And of course, we have the perennial American habit of assuming all of us 'Brits' come from London [clue...most of us don't], and have a cut glass upper class English accent instead of a regional one [which Hudson would probably have had coming from Kent]...you know cos all Americans come from New York don't they?? 😏 Unfortunately, some errors also crept into this recording and despite Mark Westfield's best efforts, I could only give his attempt at an English accent 6 or 7 out of 10 I'm sorry to say.

This series just gets better & better

Where does Darkest Hour Before Dawn rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Easily in the top 3, the series as a whole is probably number one for me.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I love all the characters, i think in this book it has to be Hobbs, especially when he is cussing & spitting out things like "you bloody wanker" i spent a lot of my commute chuckling & getting strange looks from fellow commuters.

I also really loved the scene with Hobbs and Maddox, that was a LOL moment for me even though i was walking down the road on my own!

Have you listened to any of Mark Westfield’s other performances? How does this one compare?

The other 8 books in this series, i can't imagine anyone else narrating this series now and i must look out for other books he has narrated, i really love his voice and they way he tells a story.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Unfortunately no, i listened to it when i was commuting.

Any additional comments?

Hurry up with book 10 please!