That's the question at the heart of this story...it's what Jude has to ask himself when his family needs him. It's what Snow has to ask himself when the man he loves makes a choice that most would not have expected him to. It's what Lucas and Rowe have to ask themselves when Snow, a man that they call brother is put in danger and again when Ian is willing to put himself in harms way to help get him back. They thought they were settled into their domestic lives with weddings and babies to plan and care for but when one of them is suddenly at risk, all of them will come to his aide.
My buddy read friends will tell you I was salivating when we heard this was coming... more Snow and Jude!!! could things possibly, conceivably be better? No, not really...Snow and Jude are the icing on my cake...the cherry on my Sunday...the peaches in my cream...you've get it right? And just like the men of 'Unbreakable Bonds' when I said 'Please, we need to do this thing?' they all said ok and we did it and it was awesome.
So here we are back with two of the hottest men to grace the pages of a book, what else do we need. Maybe not much but what do we have? Of course we have all there hot friends...Lucas, Rowe and Ian as well as their partners and there's more but I need to leave something for the book, right?
Jude and Snow have been together for 3 years and they're finally going to get a vacation just the two of them...home...alone...for a week. Hell they don't even have to go out for groceries...they're in heaven...or at least they were until the phone rings. It's Jude's mom and she needs them her baby, Jude's youngest brother is in the hospital fighting for his life. There's not a moments hesitation both men get dressed and head for the hospital.
Jude doesn't understand what's happened...Jordan's a good boy why would anyone do this to him? Jude's also angry, whoever did this needs to answer for it and he's determined to find out who and why and see that they pay and Snow...well, he's got Jude's back of course and when the going gets tough you can bet the rest of their family is there for them.
There was so much that I loved about this story and really only one thing that niggled at me and that was the fact that while it was understandable there was a point at which it felt like Snow and Jude were doing a bit of a personality switch...think borg collective.
Jude's always been the level one the steady compassionate one and Snow...well Snow's the one who wants to kick ass and take names later and maybe it was me or maybe it wasn't but for whatever reason. Eventually I saw why Jude and Snow's behavior went the way it did...Jude was acting out of an emotional response to what happened to his brother, while Snow was reacting to Jude's behavior by stepping back and taking a calmer more logical approach. Jude's motivation was finding out who hurt his brother and getting revenge...Snow's motivation was keeping Jude safe.
Ok, so that was my little niggle and in a lot of ways I do think it was mine because really, who doesn't change to some degree when faced with an extremely stressful and emotional event? For whatever reason I didn't feel like the characters flowed into this as organically as I would have like but eventually I caught up with them and it worked better for me after that not perfect but definitely better.
As for the rest of this story...there was so much that made me happy. We got a bit of Lucas and Andrei, a touch of Rowe and Noah, a bit of Ian and Hollis and many of the members of Ward Security. I loved this part I'm a huge fan of ensemble cast like this. With all the peeks into their lives and where they're at now. As always Lucas and his direct but very witty commentary were a perfect balance in this story to lighten the darker moments with his humor and there were some darker moments...please pay heed to the the 'trigger warnings'.
For me even though the ending was a bit more condensed...yeah, let's go with condensed because in hindsight it didn't really feel so much like it was rushed as it was condensed. There was still so much about the ending and the epilogue that I loved. Jude and Snow are in a good place...really, I couldn't be more over the moon with where these two men are at in their relationship if the authors had let me write the ending. There were decisions that Snow hadn't been ready or willing to make and as events in this story transpired Snow found himself examining the life he has against the life he's beginning to realize he wants...I maybe had a happy tear for Snow and Jude at the end of the day.
Snow and Jude are still my favorite pairing in this series, Noah and Rowe's story 'Torch' is still my favorite book but then it's not a surprise given that if there was no Jude and Snow I would totally be #teamRowe&Noah all the way, but even for me no one can make me laugh quicker or more than Lucas, Ian brings out the momma bear in me and I want to hurt those who hurt him. But, we all know that Lucas, Snow and Rowe took care of that.
So, at the end of it all what it comes down to is even though Snow and Jude are my favorite couple each of these men fill a place in my heart and I couldn't imagine loving this series as much as I do without each and every one of them and I can't wait to see what comes next.
Last but not least, what was possibly the absolute best part of all this was sharing the experience with my amazing buddy read group and we were all on board for this one...Anne, Christelle, Josy, Shile and Simone. it was amazing and keeping up with all of you while reading this book was a challenge to say the least, but one that was totally worth doing and one that I will happily and willingly repeat when the next book in this series is released. This was without a doubt one of the best buddy reads ever! Thank you all so much!
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A copy of 'Fracture' was graciously provided by the authors in exchange for an honest review.