THIRDS Spotlight!

When homicide detective Dexter J. Daley’s testimony helps send his partner away for murder, the consequences—and the media frenzy—aren’t far behind. He soon finds himself sans boyfriend, sans friends, and, after an unpleasant encounter in a parking garage after the trial, he’s lucky he doesn’t find himself sans teeth. Dex fears he’ll get transferred from the Human Police Force’s Sixth Precinct, or worse, get dismissed. Instead, his adoptive father—a sergeant at the Therian-Human Intelligence Recon Defense Squadron otherwise known as the THIRDS—pulls a few strings, and Dex gets recruited as a Defense Agent.

Dex is determined to get his life back on track and eager to get started in his new job. But his first meeting with Team Leader Sloane Brodie, who also happens to be his new jaguar Therian partner, turns disastrous. When the team is called to investigate the murders of three HumaniTherian activists, it soon becomes clear to Dex that getting his partner and the rest of the tightknit team to accept him will be a lot harder than catching the killer—and every bit as dangerous.

This is one book I’ve been waiting to read pretty much since its release. But something kept stopping me and now I’m glad I waited. I had no idea there was a cliffy ending. Aargh, I really do not like cliffy books. AT ALL! Luckily, I had books two and three waiting to be read back to back. Not sure how the rest of you people managed to wait for each book to be published.

This story is based on an alternate universe but not in the future, it starts by giving us a history.  Bio warfare in the 1960’s spread a virus, that virus infected millions, killed hundreds of thousands. A vaccine was found, work great on animals but humans not so much.  Reacted w/human DNA given us Therians, this is a human/animal hybrid.   In the ‘70/80/90’s The mutation correct itself, Therians started living and the government decided we, the people, needed have regulations and laws governing this new species. THIRDS was created.

Even though this story has a ton of characters, we focus on two MC Dex and Sloane. Dex, a Human cop, is having a really bad few days, week. And his Captain has decided to give him a promotion of sorts and he becomes a THIRDS officer, his brother and father are already THIRDS officers so he’s okay w/this. Sloane, Dexs’ new boss and partner is not so thrilled. Dex is taking the place of a beloved team member that was killed. The rest of team is wary but soon warm up to Dex. Who is the fun, loving, cheeky, sarcastic character who you can’t help but love? In fact I really enjoyed all these characters.  Sloane has a lot of emotional issue’s going on, that we get a glimpse of throughout the story but he’s a very closed off person and won’t share. The only person that knows is Ash, another team member and his best friend, who hates Dex.

This is an action packed story from beginning to end. The ‘who done it’ is pretty obvious from the get go, but that doesn’t take away from storyline. The one liner, quick bards and general camaraderie between all the team members is fabulous and had me smiling pretty much through the whole story.

Even though I really enjoyed this story and will be diving into the next two books asap. I can only give it 4 ½ rainbows and not 5 for three main reasons.  1 – As stated above, it’s a cliffy. There is nothing worse to me than being forced into reading the next book in a series because the author choose not to wrap it up in the first. Yes, that my personal opinion. But this is my review after all. 2- More importantly, you really want us to believe that two MC (one past, one present) had a loving relationship for 4+ yrs and NO ONE knew about it, really? Really? These are best of the best, elite and they didn’t guess? Yes, I got they are Destructive and not recon but seriously… 3 – How did they just assume Pearce was dead at the end? No one looked for the body? Really? Again best of the best? 

 

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When a series of bombs go off in a Therian youth center, injuring members of THIRDS Team Destructive Delta, and causing a rift between agents Dexter J. Daley and Sloane Brodie, peace seems unattainable. Especially when a new and frightening group, the Order of Adrasteia, appears to always be a step ahead. With panic and intolerance spreading and streets becoming littered with the Order’s propaganda, hostility between Humans and Therians grows daily. Dex and Sloane, along with the rest of the team, are determined to take down the Order and restore peace, not to mention settle a personal score. But the deeper the team investigates the bombings, the more they believe there’s a more sinister motive than a desire to shed blood and spread chaos.

Discovering the frightful truth behind the Order’s intent forces Sloane to confront secrets from a past he thought he’d left behind for good, a past that could not only destroy him and his career, but also the reputation of the organization that made him all he is today. Now more than ever, Dex and Sloane need each other, and, along with trust, the strength of their bond will mean the difference between justice and all-out war.

 

Just like book one, I really enjoyed it. But wasn’t WOWED by it that I was hoping to be, another 4 ½ rainbows.

Book two starts off months after book one finishes.  In the ‘missing months’ the THIRDS are getting closer to finding Pearce and his followers and things are moving slowly but smoothly with Dex and Sloane’s secrete relationship.

This one has us right back in the thick of the battle, with the team chasing down The Order of Adrasteia, this is the radical group Pearce has founded to try and stop the THIRDS. Dex is as crazy, sarcastic and lovable as ever, but I didn’t find myself smiling at his shenanigans quite so much. Although I did wish the author had given us the actual scene with the squirrel in the cafeteria. Instead, they just reminisced about it. However, I did very much enjoy the speech Dex gave and the chase around the training room when Sloane was a black jaguar. And that he keeps grooming Dex. But, as we learn what that means the Therian side accepts him, possessive of him. What had me wondering is if the black jaguar/Therian side can remember when they are in that form, then how does Sloane not accept this when he’s human?  We did find out all about Sloane, his past and were and how he grew up. Why he was recruited at such a young age. We also find out that Cael really does love Ash, but duh, we knew that.  Calvin and Hobbs kiss after Hobbs was hurt. So maybe something more is going there that we get to see in book 3? We are also introduced to a few new characters. But once again, the author does an amazing job with keeping them all straight and not mucking up the storyline with too many people. As the story unfolds and the team gets closer to finding Pearce, Dex and Sloane are at odds with each other over a mission that didn’t go according to plan and Dex got hurt. Lou, Dex ex-boyfriend shows back up, which doesn’t help matters.

We find we have lots of drama between all of the team members Destructive Delta, Unit Alpha. And even though the author does a pretty good job doing flash back, so if anyone hasn’t read book 1 they won’t be that lost. But you really do need to read in order. But once again, I was left scratching my head with the too many inconsistencies.  The whole grooming thing for one, if one side is possessive than why not the other, as we find out more about Gabe and that relationship. How does the team not suspect? Especially when Cael tells Sloane he knows about him and Gabe. And then ending, really again?!

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New York City’s streets are more dangerous than ever with the leaderless Order of Adrasteia and the Ikelos Coalition, a newly immerged Therian group, at war. Innocent civilians are caught in the crossfire and although the THIRDS round up more and more members of the Order in the hopes of keeping the volatile group from reorganizing, the members of the Coalition continue to escape and wreak havoc in the name of vigilante justice.

Worse yet, someone inside the THIRDS has been feeding the Coalition information. It’s up to Destructive Delta to draw out the mole and put an end to the war before anyone else gets hurt. But to get the job done, the team will have to work through the aftereffects of the Therian Youth Center bombing. A skirmish with Coalition members leads Agent Dexter J. Daley to a shocking discovery and suddenly it becomes clear that the random violence isn’t so random. There’s more going on than Dex and Sloane originally believed, and their fiery partnership is put to the test. As the case takes an explosive turn, Dex and Sloane are in danger of losing more than their relationship.

Book 3 starts a little while after book 2 ends, again a great story but still I felt like it was missing something? 4 ½ rainbows.  

This one we find that The Order of the Coalition (human extremists) and Ikelos Coalition (unregistered Therian) are at war. And team is doing everything in the power to stop it, only to find they have a mole there mist. Dex and Sloane are still feeling their way in the relationship. And Ash has gotten even moodier and now has alienated everyone, including Cael.  The rest of the team is limping along, trying to recover from the last mission. We are introduced to more characters but this time the author gives us a glossary to help.

So this one starts off with the team casing down an informant, I do enjoy the way all three books start off with a bang. But then you get almost 60 pages of relationship issues mainly between Dex and Slone. Yes, this book is all about them, again. Sure there is some other stuff thrown in but the over lined story is how rocky the secret relationship is. Then we get into the action and find out The Order of the Coalition (human extremists) and Ikelos Coalition (unregistered Therian) are taking justice into their own hands and killing people, who the team agree needs to be gotten rid of but in a lawful manner, at least most of the team but maybe not the rest of THIRDS agents. Although, both Coalitions seem to be one step ahead of the THIRDS each time they are called to a scene. I love then action/drama; the fight scene will keep you on the edge of your seat.   And this time the ‘who done it’ actually threw me! We find out more about Ash this time, his past and his true feeling concerning Cael. What a powerful ending. Yes another cliffy.

Overall I did enjoy this book, found it had fewer inconsistencies than the first two, but spent too much time on Dex and Sloane’s relationship. Almost felt like filler, to give us more pages. Even though this one still has a less page count then the first two; first one having the most. Dex was less cheeky in this one, but, that’s probably because it was set up to be more serious. I’m guessing the way we got another cliffy we will get more from the series. And I will continue to read. Even though by now, they are developing the same pattern. Also found that we didn’t get as much back story as we did w/book 3. But this is one series you would have to read in order to totally appreciate it. Dynamics between everyone; why we are at war etc. I’m hoping we are done with Dex and Sloane and maybe can pick another secret couple? Love triangle Seb, Cael and Ash?  The author is an excellent word smith, and I look forward book 4.

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