TANGLED WITH YOU (Stark Security 7.6/ 1001 Dark Nights) by J. Kenner -review & excerpt tour
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date June 13, 2023
He never expected to feel this kind of heat again…
FBI agent Ollie McKee is burned out on relationships. After a head-spinningly on-again/off-again relationship with his former fiancée, he’s been out of the dating pool for years. Now he’s focused on his career—and it’s getting more intense. Because Ollie’s ex was just kidnapped, and despite the rules, he’s resolved to work the case and find her.
Stark Security agent Trevor Barone knows better than to fall for a friend, especially one who’s straight. But there’s no denying the way his heart and body react around Ollie, especially after the last quick mission they worked together. He swore to himself to keep his distance. But now Ollie’s begging for his help. The woman he once loved—maybe still loves—has been kidnapped, and Ollie’s determined to bring her home alive. Trevor’s not about to let his friend down, but as they work the case together, the attraction and connection between them can’t be denied.
When the kidnappers turn deadly, Ollie and Trevor put their lives in each other’s hands. But can they trust the passion that threatens to consume them both?
••••••
REVIEW: TANGLED WITH YOU is instalment 7.6 in J. Kenner’s contemporary, adult STARK SECURITY erotic, romance series, a part of the 1001 Dark Nights multi-authored series. This is attorney turned FBI agent Ollie McKee, and Stark Security agent Trevor Barone’s story line. TANGLED WITH YOU can be read as a stand alone but for back story regarding Trevor and Ollie’s relationship, I recommend reading HIDDEN WITH YOU and CHARMED BY YOU. Ollie McKee has been apart of the Stark World Series since the beginning.
NOTE: TANGLED WITH YOU is an LGBTQ+ story line focusing on a same $ex couple.
Told from dual omniscient third person perspectives (Ollie and Trevor) TANGLED WITH YOU follows the building relationship between attorney turned FBI agent Ollie McKee, and Stark Security agent Trevor Barone. Ollie McKee and Nikki Stark have been best friends for years. Ollie has been a part of Nikki’s life for as long as he can remember, having fallen in love with his best friend years before but Ollie is restless, unable to settle down, finding himself attracted to Stark Security Agent Trevor Barone. Ollie has always considered himself heterosexual but something about Trevor calls to Ollie’s McKee but all does not go according to plan when Ollie’s ex girlfriend is kidnapped, and a three million dollar ransom demand addressed to Ollie pulls our story line couple into a case of life and death. What ensues is the building relationship between Ollie and Trevor, and the potential fall-out as the intended victim may be someone else.
The relationship between Ollie and Trevor has been building for several months but Ollie had always thought of himself as ‘straight’, and Trevor was burned by a previous love. As Ollie and Trevor begin to act on their attraction, the kidnapping of Ollie’s ex-girlfriend is about to bring everything into perspective. The $ex scenes are intimate and erotic.
The secondary and supporting characters have all been introduced in previous story lines with the welcome return of Damien and Nikki Stark, and Nikki’s bestie Jamie Hunter.
TANGLED WITH YOU is a fast paced story of vengeance and betrayal, jealousy and obsession, acceptance and love. The premise is captivating; the romance is seductive; the characters are energetic and determined.
Reading Order and Previous Reviews
Shadows of You (1.5)
Shattered with You
Broken with You
Ruined With You
Wrecked with You
Destroyed with You
Memories of You (5.5)
Ravaged with You
Hidden With You
Charmed with You
Copy supplied for review
Reviewed by Sandy
He had a solid friendship going with Ollie, and he didn’t want to ruin it because he was acting like a schoolboy who didn’t know how to handle a crush.
But he did have a crush. And if he didn’t dial it back, he was going to ruin a friendship he truly valued.
Ollie was straight. Or if he wasn’t, he wanted to be. He’d had a lifelong crush on Nikki Stark, which everyone knew. Trevor was pretty sure he’d slept with Jamie at some point. And he knew that Ollie had been engaged to a woman named Courtney.
Straight. The guy was straight.
Even if there was a thread of queer in Ollie’s blood, he’d spent a lifetime either ignoring or suppressing it. The man was a good friend. That was all.
Trevor needed to get that through his thick head. And the sooner he did, the better.
Too bad his libido kept ignoring that very sound advice. Ollie had rung all his bells since the first time he’d met the attorney-turned-FBI-agent when their paths crossed back when poor Anne had been kidnapped. But their friendship had truly solidified not long ago at a party they’d both attended in honor of Jamie’s first starring role in Intercontinental.
By then, he’d been crushing hard, and it had only gotten more intense when Ollie had pulled him in to help on an FBI money laundering sting at the Mercury Club, a gay strip bar in LA. Trevor had wormed his way in as an actual stripper, and Ollie had posed as a customer. The operation had lasted a couple of weeks, and Trevor’d had plenty of time to watch Ollie in the audience. To see what he thought was a spark of interest in his friend’s eyes.
Maybe he’d been imagining it, but he didn’t think so. And that spark had lit a fire under his own desires, raising the heat from slow burn to full-on boil.
But real or not, Trevor knew damn well that Ollie was fighting it.
Honestly, crushing on a straight guy was a pain in the ass.
He could tell himself that forever, but it didn’t stop the tightening in his chest or the sparks of awareness that shot through him when Ollie returned carrying the folding chair. He was wearing paint-splattered jeans and a similarly stained white tee that did nothing to hide the fact that the guy was in great shape. He’d heard Jamie tease him for being skinny, but Trevor didn’t see it. Maybe before Trevor knew him, but if so, the guy had filled out. Ollie had always looked pretty damn delicious to him, with solid pecs, strong arms, and a tight ass that he really wanted to grab.
And so much for that whole dialing it back thing.
J. Kenner (aka Julie Kenner) is the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal and #1 International bestselling author of over seventy novels, novellas and short stories in a variety of genres.
Though known primarily for her award-winning and international bestselling erotic romances (including the Stark and Most Wanted series) that have reached as high as #2 on the New York Times bestseller list, JK has been writing full time for over a decade in a variety of genres including paranormal and contemporary romance, “chicklit” suspense, urban fantasy, and paranormal mommy lit.
JK has been praised by Publishers Weekly as an author with a “flair for dialogue and eccentric characterizations” and by RT Bookclub for having “cornered the market on sinfully attractive, dominant antiheroes and the women who swoon for them.” A five time finalist for Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA award, JK took home the first RITA trophy awarded in the category of erotic romance in 2014 for her novel, Claim Me (book 2 of her Stark Trilogy). Her Demon Hunting Soccer Mom series (as Julie Kenner) is currently in development with AwesomenessTV/Awestruck.
Her books have sold over three million copies and are published in over twenty languages.
In her previous career as an attorney, JK worked as a clerk on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and practiced primarily civil, entertainment and First Amendment litigation in Los Angeles and Irvine, California, as well as in Austin, Texas. She currently lives in Central Texas, with her husband, two daughters, and two rather spastic cats.
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