Touch & Geaux

Cut & Run Series, Book 7

By: Abigail Roux

Narrated by: J. F. Harding

Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's Summary

After having their faces plastered across the news during a high-profile case, FBI special agents Ty Grady and Zane Garrett have become more useful to the bureau posing for photo ops than working undercover. Just as Zane is beginning to consider retirement a viable option, Ty receives a distress call from a friend, leading them to a city rife with echoes from the past.

New Orleans wears its history on its streets, and it's the one place Ty's face could get him killed. Surrounded by trouble as soon as they land, Ty and Zane are swiftly confronted with a past from which Ty can't hide - one with a surprising connection to Zane's. As threats close in from all directions, both men must come to terms with the lives they've led and the lies they've told. They soon discover that not all their secrets are out yet, and nothing lasts forever.

©2013 Abigail Roux (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

SERIOUSLY?

I Have followed these characters faithfully; have enjoyed The series until now. It was just too ridiculous. Zane would have never ... my gosh I can't even… The author maybe thought there needed to be some conflict. The conflict she created was, in my opinion, utter nonsense.

Did Not See This One Coming

Oh boy! What a rollercoaster ride, this one! Our favorite couple took a trip to New Orleans, once there, they're with Ty's friends from his Force Recon Team. Sounded like a great time, right? What could go wrong? Plenty!!!

I'm still not sure how I felt about this when I heard about it... how Ty and Zane had crossed paths before.. albeit unknowingly. I mean, it was completely plausible.

But there's more.. a big issue/fight/bridge of conflict that Ty and Zane had to cross. While I don't blame Zane, I can't condone the whole physical confrontation part. I'm glad it all worked out in the end though.

Towards the end of the story, it just became more and more improbable.. granted, it still could happen.. but there were a lot of things thrown in the mix that was completely new.

Still a great book! Loved Ty and Zane.

Emotional and heavy, yet passionate and real.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Hell yes! I would recommend the entire series, one of the best MM series I've listened too.

What did you like best about this story?

The make up sex :)

Which scene was your favorite?

Three words... chair, motorcycle, knife. You'll see what I mean.

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

Yes, it's a bit long though, so it took two sittings.

Any additional comments?

Special agents Ty Grady and Zane Garrett have been through a lot over the last decade, walked different paths until they eventually crossed. But Zane is about to find out that their paths actually crossed years before they became partners in the FBI, as well as some closely guarded secrets his lover would rather he not know.

Ty Grady may be a certifiable son of a bitch, but is loyal to a fault. So when his best friend and former team member, Nick O’Flaherty, calls that he and Doc are in trouble, of course Ty drops everything and rushes to the last place on earth he ever wanted to be again… New Orleans. Years ago when Ty was still on the force, he did an undercover stint in NOLA and didn’t leave on the best of terms. The city is all around a bad omen for Ty and his Sidewinder team mates, and several bad decisions are about to come back to try and kill them.

Zane is completely, totally, one hundred and ten percent in love with his partner. Of course the feelings are reciprocated, but Ty is a master manipulator that has redefined the definition of the words truth and lies. Both men are about to learn exactly how far they can be pushed before they break, how far they are willing to go for one another, and all I can tell you is… it is not pretty. Roux could have easily titled this series Murphy’s Law, because whatever can go wrong most definitely will if it involves Ty and Zane.

Lord but this book almost gave me a damn heartattack! There was a little bit of grown man angst that had me wanting to pull Zane through my iPod and smack him around a little, but thankfully, he pulled his head out of the nether regions eventually. That being said, I could completely understand why he was livid with Ty. It is a thin line between a moral obligation to the man you profess to love, the man you want to spend the rest of your life with, and being sworn to secrecy by your boss. And even though at the end of the day Ty and Zane are smart enough to figure out what is important and fight for it, I don’t think all the secrets have truly been shared.

Narrated by JF Harding and I love that I am already associating his voice to these characters after just one book. It read more like a continuation for me between Harding’s attention to details with the tones and nuances he has given the guys, and bringing them smoothly over to this story, and the story picking back up right where Stars & Stripes left off. Harding captured every emotion that poured of Roux’s words in this story. There were some seriously emotional and devastating aspects to this book and I could almost feel Ty and Zane’s pain when they spoke.

This book will put you through the ringer. It’s emotional and heavy, but it’s passionate and real as well. I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat at work while listening. There were a couple of times I was so engrossed that I sat with my fingers perched over the keyboard, staring blindly at the monitor because all I could concentrate on was Ty and Zane. I highly recommend this book/series if you enjoy highly detailed stories where the world and the characters are so real while you listen, that you not only become invested, you are embedded in their fictional lives, anxiously awaiting the next installment.

excellent series.

So good to read a series with two men in love who have balls and are bad asses. this is what Gay heroes in the world are really like.

great narration

I've read this book before but this was my first time doing the audio. This narrator is excellent and listening to it enhanced the story.

Loved this take on favorite in the series!

Would you listen to Touch & Geaux again? Why?

Absolutely it was my favorite book in the series and this audiobook has held true to the story!

Who was your favorite character and why?

Ty and Zane are always my favorite but I enjoyed Liam Bell very much in this book

Which character – as performed by J. F. Harding – was your favorite?

I enjoyed his take on Zane and Ty. A little different than what we got with Sean Crisden but I like that he kept to the basics of their personalities

Absolutely worth the credit!

J.F. Harding is now officially on my 'Fav Narrator' list! He definitely did not disappoint in bringing this book to life. You know you have a worthy narrator when you don't even realize someone is reading to you because of his flawless performance ...you are just there in the moment, visualizing the scene and walking the walk.
Now about the story...I was dreading the upcoming fight between Ty and Zane, but I survived and I can rest easy knowing it would never be that bad again. I so loved the team closeness and ribbing and fighting capabilities. And that scene with Zane on the hog riding to the rescue...just damn! So worth the credit!

Ok so probably

not my favorite of the series and I am not sure where this all fit it but I still enjoyed it and I enjoyed Hardings performance of it.

It's Ty Grady's world, you just live in it

My god. Where to start.

This series has gone so far off the wall that all the King's horses and all the King's men...well...you know. At this point, Ty is really just a superhero. He's not even human anymore. If it's something that's been done, he's done it. If it's a person to bed, he's bedded them. If there's a special skill to be had, he has it. Zane is really just a secondary character now, since for some godless reason we have to give Nick (you know, the guy who Ty totally made no bones about finding a hella good kisser right to his own boyfriend), and all of his Sidewinder nonsense chapters of dialogue. We are seven books in and we still don't know nearly as much about Zane as we do about Ty.

The book left me scratching my head fairly early on when Roux completely torpedoed the first six books in terms of why and how these two became a couple in the first place. It was all downhill from there.

Ty an Zane head to New Orleans to help out Nick, despite Zane's trust issues with him. We get more character development for Ty - he's a pretty, charismatic assassin with a big case of the feels, but Zane's story continues to be largely unexplored - we never run into anyone from Zane's past, for example, while Ty's past drips from the woodwork.

We learn Zane visited a club in NOLA with Becky a few years ago where Ty was a performer while undercover. He invites Zane and Becky for a tryst after the show. The couple politely declined, but after Becky's death, Ty – who was just a mysterious stranger to Zane at the time - had such an influence on him that he jumped the fence and started banging guys who reminded him of this enigmatic stranger, sometimes for cash.

What.

Zane eventually figures this out, and then we go off in a tangent about fate and how it brings lovers together. Whatever.

Ty also has a lot of secrets. And in Touch & Geaux, he's keeping a big one that causes Zane to question their entire relationship. Justifiably angry, Zane has a meltdown, heading back to the bottle after months of sobriety, and letting loose his unchecked rage, beating Ty, both physically and sexually, in a couple of fantastic scenes where Ty really comes to terms with just what he did to Zane. Ty pleads with Zane not to leave him, eventually melting the tension with a sweet, and sincere, “I would die for you Zane.” The friction between the two is emotional, well written, and just as heated as anything else Roux had put the boys through in previous books. The resolution to the betrayal is resolved to satisfaction, and with some exciting action toward the end, the story is elevated from guilty pleasure trash, to simply tolerable.

But the problems that drag it down far outweigh the stories positives.

Roux has a problem of introducing characters who turn out to be one of Ty’s former sex partners - here, we get FOUR, cold blooded killer Liam, and two unseen characters told in flashback – in addition to Ava, who he had a relationship with while undercover (it wafts back and forth as to whether it was a real relationship, or just someone Ty used to further his mission). The problem with this is his past sexual history adds NOTHING to the story. No conflict between Ty, Zane, Liam, Preston, Ava etc, that the detail really just sits there like a dusty ficus tree in a Dentist office. Had we at least gotten some salacious details about their trysts (this is an M/M book with copious amounts of sex, after all), it may have been justified. If she intended to show how much Ty relies on sex to get by – maybe to combat loneliness – she failed.

Other than this, T&G ends up with half ideas, plots that go nowhere, and a missed opportunity to truly give some insight and depth into Zane’s past. It's trite, foolish, and ridiculous. Roux is an exceptionally good writer when it comes to lighter and comedic moments, sex scenes, and action sequences. But she goes off the rails with Ty and Zane’s first meeting (seriously, it really is stupid), and Ty’s pointless history with characters in play, that I was actually surprised when a character was introduced who HADN’T banged Ty.

This is the first book where it seemed that Roux preferred to write about Nick over Zane. Previously, her POV was focused solidly on Ty and Zane, but Nick’s increasing influence on the story was becoming apparent. Touch & Geaux shifted the series from a rocky love story between two vastly different men, to an ensemble piece that treated Zane as a satellite presence revolving around Ty’s circle of friends and family. Every part of Zane’s life is centered around Ty – Roux never gave him his own life (he’s got an addiction to hookers, alcohol and drugs, but that’s never explored as deeply as Ty’s life as a Marine). I didn't dislike the sidewinders, I just thought they were overused.

Roux is walking on mighty thin ice here, and it’s with Touch & Geaux that it becomes clear that the loss of Madeleine Urban was a significant one. Read it for Zane's emotional breakdown,. but you're better off skipping it, and going for the superior first six books, and then jumping into to the first few chapters and last few chapters of Crash & Burn for a rich, satisfying, and delicious story.

A solid performance.

Nick finally has a solid voice, but it appears Owen has been given the previous very-un-Nick like voice.

Audio is decent. Story has a couple of moments that feel a little out there.

do it for liam

oh man, so i haven't reviewed the last few books but i loved this one. Liam was my fave by far! how has this not been green lit for a netflix show? haha

Amazing Series

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

J.F. Harding...you are a star!!

Another magnificent narration from J.F. Harding, including a really good British accent for Liam Bell [boo, hiss], Spanish for the drug cartel guys from Miami, and Creole for the Louisiana mob. I wasn't going to bother downloading the final 2 books from Audible, but as he's narrating it was a complete no-brainer. When Zane and Ty were angry at each other, they were REALLY angry with each other 😢, but of course the make-up sex was terrific!! 😁 👬