Madeleine Urban/Abigail Roux - Divide and Conquer

Baltimore, Maryland, is a city in alarming distress. Rising violence is fanning the flames of public outrage, and all law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, are catching blame. Thus the FBI’s latest ideas to improve public relations: a municipal softball league and workshops for community leaders. But the new commitments just mean more time Special Agents Ty Grady and Zane Garrett have to spend apart when they’re happily exploring how to be more than by-the-book partners.
Then the latest spate of crime explodes in their faces—literally—throwing the city, the Bureau, and Ty and Zane’s volatile partnership both in and out of the office into chaos. They’re hip-deep in trouble, trying to track down bombers and bank robbers in the dark with very few clues, and the only way to reach the light at the end of the tunnel together requires Ty and Zane to close their eyes and trust each other to the fiery end.

Comment: The 4th book in the Cut and Run series is another adventure in the lives of Ty and Zane.
In this book the boys are dealing with a group of bombers that uses the explosions as a distraction to rob banks. But the group is much more aggressive than simple explosions, their leader escalates to premeditated murder and wants to kill as many people as possible, especially those in government places.
This book starts with the news of how the police force is being accused of doing noting to stop the wave of explosions and crime in the city. Then Ty and Zane somehow get themselves into one of the attempts and save the day, making them targets. At the same time, they're still coming to terms with Ty's declaration in the previous book.
Then something happens and Zane is wounded in one of the attacks and because of that we see another side of the guys and how their relationship is much stronger than what even they think. I loved how we could see so many emotions and feelings both of them admitted to themselves and to the other.
One interesting, although strange, plot line is Ty's Recon team coming to spend some time with Ty and he had forgotten because of Zane's health problem. Among them is Nick, Ty's best friend since the military days and in this book Ty tells them he's in love with Zane and one of his friends is to shocked and doesn't speak to him again while he's there..I get the feeling he was just too surprised but might change his mind. However, Nick has an interesting reaction to this news and I wasn't expecting it exactly, and it provided a bit of angst in there...
In the end, the bad guy was taken down but Zane and Ty rick their lives - again - to protect others and while they're surrounded by the result of yet another explosion, we finally see Zane saying the words we've been expecting to and it was good.
the end of the book was a bit of a cliffhanger but I already know the guys will be in a mission together in the next book, so I'm sure everything will work out.
I'm so happy with this series, it's very coherent and well planed. The authors have created a good cast and interesting plots that allow the characters to still have center stage. It's amazing to see their story develop. I hope it keeps going for a long time.

Madeleine Urban/Abigail Roux - Sticks and Stones

Six months after nearly losing their lives to a serial killer in New York City, FBI Special Agents Ty Grady and Zane Garrett are suffering through something almost as frightening: the monotony of desk duty. When they're ordered to take a vacation for the good of everyone's sanity, Ty bites the bullet and takes Zane home with him to West Virginia, hoping the peace and quiet of the mountains will give them the chance to explore the explosive attraction they’ve so far been unable to reconcile with their professional partnership. Ty and Zane, along with Ty’s father and brother, head up into the Appalachian mountains for a nice, relaxing hike deep into the woods... where no one will hear them scream. They find themselves facing danger from all directions: unpredictable weather, the unrelenting mountains, wild animals, fellow hikers with nothing to lose, and the most terrifying challenge of all. Each other.

Comment: Since I enjoyed the first book in the series, Cut and Run, so much, I've decided to follow the rest of the series and to seize the time to read the last one to come out, something that will happen soon, and at that point I want to start it having read the 4 already out.
So, this books starts with the guys being told they need to have vacation time because Zane is failing his evaluations and if the keeps it up he will be put in desk duty again or simply will be let go, so the director tells Ty to go to his family and he decides to invite Zane so they can go to the mountains and do some trailing. Zane agrees because he feels Ty is more distanced and wants to take a chance in being close so they can work it out, maybe. In the mountains the guys meet Ty's parents, grandfather and brother and Zane is surprised on how Ty is with his family and sees a different part of hi partner. Still, both of them seem to find the time to deal more with the attraction they feel and help solve a crime at the same time because the mountains are more dangerous than what they imagined. Well, I was really hoping they would just say what they felt for each other in this story but that didn't happen with words, still there were several moments between them where it's plain to see. I just hope that it does happen sometime in the future because there's just so much tension I really wish to see some acceptance of all that's happening to them.
The plot is rather interesting because they go to have some time for healing and resting and in the end they witness a crime and some decisions have to be made, some of them much harder than they seemed because the beauty of this books is how well balanced the discussion of feelings and thoughts is at the same time the plot develops. One f the things I like about the stories is exactly this. Well done, authors.
The story also focus on Ty's family and the relationship between them. Zane is like an observer and it's fun to watch the others through his eyes. Even more interesting is Ty's brother, Deuce, in all this...he's a psychologist and his purposes are bigger than we might think.
This was a chance to see the guys interact with family around and it was fun...now I hope the next book puts them finally admitting, with those three little words, to each other, what they feel. I know this isn't exactly romance but come on, I'm a romantic, I want them happy.

Madeleine Urban/Abigail Roux - Cut and Run

A series of murders in New York City has stymied the police and FBI alike, and they suspect the culprit is a single killer sending an indecipherable message. But when the two federal agents assigned to the investigation are taken out, the FBI takes a more personal interest in the case.
Special Agent Ty Grady is pulled out of undercover work after his case blows up in his face. He's cocky, abrasive, and indisputably the best at what he does. But when he's paired with Special Agent Zane Garrett, it's hate at first sight.
Garrett is the perfect image of an agent: serious, sober, and focused, which makes their partnership a classic cliché: total opposites, good cop-bad cop, the odd couple. They both know immediately that their partnership will pose more of an obstacle than the lack of evidence left by the murderer.
Practically before their special assignment starts, the murderer strikes again – this time at them. Now on the run, trying to track down a man who has focused on killing his pursuers, Grady and Garrett will have to figure out how to work together before they become two more notches in the murderer's knife.

Comment: I've had read many good opinions about this series by these two authors. People say there's a very good balance between the storyline and the romance time. I have to agree because neither became too excessive like the focus would be higher in some parts and not in others. The story brings us FBI agents and it's always interesting to see how authors portray them into books, and I like to see how it works because there are no FBI in my country and the closest to them we have it's really not the same. Then each main character had his own traits and I was very curious how at first they seemed to antagonize the other so much but were going to be involved and how could that happen. I enjoyed their developing partnership in work interesting and even more the personal one. The storyline is them trying to solve a crime and they look forward a killer that taunts them all the time and in the end turns out to be someone unexpected...well, to be honest there some parts in the story the reader surely can't help but doubt, because it's just too obvious to ignore but of course no certainty until the end. Still, an interesting game in trying to guess. Like I said once before, I like the author's work, they write very well together. There's never a dull moment and if they both write different parts I have no clue which ones because the text is smooth and easy to read. The books is quite big and there's a lot to think about, from the assassin's personality, to the pressure of a job and the start of a relationship. All in all a great read. I'm going to read the rest of the series in the following months.

Madeleine Urban, Abigail Roux - Warrior's Cross

Cameron Jacobs is an open book. He considers himself a common waiter with normal friends, boring hobbies, harmless dogs, and nothing even resembling a secret... except a crush on a tall, dark, devastatingly handsome man who dines alone at his restaurant on Tuesday nights. All it takes is one passionate night with Julian Cross to turn Cameron’s world on its head.
Julian's love and devotion are all Cameron could have hoped for and more. But when his ordinary life meets and clashes with Julian's extraordinary lifestyle, Cameron discovers that trust and fear can go hand in hand, and love is just a step away from danger.

Comment: these two authors have written one of my favourite gay stories, Caught Running, something I re-read often. Therefore I was expecting more brilliance from them.
And I understand the beauty of this novel, the two layers of darkness and joy advancing and retreating while the story develops. I do.
But I was always expecting some more on the lines of the other book, where things just sizzled. In this book there wasn't any sizzle, I wasn't eager to see the romance happen or to find out about Julien's personal life.
Yes I wanted to know what he did for a living for sure, and how would he react to the fact they were in love, but things happened so smoothly I think I didn't even have te chance to feel surprised.
It's a gorgeous story but the romance is too silky, I think it needed some more struggle from them before they accepted what was happening...It does have some kind of angst in there, a very small dose of it, but still...
Julien is mysterious character and the reader feels impressed to know what is really going on, but I much preferred the apparently common Cameron. He was a nice person, he had a simple life...I liked him a lot and then he had a crush on Julien and wanted him in his life..totally understandable...but I wished there had been more salt in there.
I'll keep reading the things these authors wrote because that one novel still blazes in my head since the day I read it, but this one although a good read, wasn't memorable to me.