BABY (Linear Tactical #9) by Janie Crouch-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK : Release Date July 1, 2020

Baby. Don’t let the name fool you.

Being Linear Tactical’s easiest-going younger brother has never been a problem for Baby Bollinger. He likes people. He likes laughing. He likes life.

But he has secrets buried deep under his charming smile that would change everything.

Quinn Harrison-Pritchard doesn’t have secrets. What she does have is a big mess of a life that’s painfully public.

Jobless. Blacklisted. Broke. Alone. Exactly where nobody wants to be as they hit their 39th birthday.

Oak Creek is supposed to be a fresh start. A chance to lick her wounds and figure out a plan. One that doesn’t include Baby Bollinger. But the vigorous, mouth-watering mechanic—anything but a baby—is pursuing her with a single-minded focus.

And doesn’t seem to care that she’s twelve years his senior.

But danger has followed Quinn to Oak Creek, someone from her past who is convinced she’s wronged him. And that she needs to pay with her life.

Only Baby can save her. But to do so, he’ll have to face the secrets he’s let define him for way too long. And resurrect the warrior buried inside.

•••••••••

REVIEW: BABY is the ninth instalment in Janie Crouch’s contemporary, adult LINEAR TACTICAL erotic, romantic suspense series focusing on the men and women who work for Linear Tactical. This is twenty-seven year old, auto mechanic / part time Linear Tactical specialist Blake ‘Baby’ Bollinger, and thirty-nine year old, professor /waitress Dr. Quinn Harrison-Pritchard’s story line. BABY can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary. Some of the events of BABY cross-over with the events of book eight PHOENIX.

Told from dual third person perspectives (Quinn and Baby) BABY follows the building relationship between twenty-seven year old, auto mechanic / part time Linear Tactical specialist Blake ‘Baby’ Bollinger, and thirty-nine year old, professor /waitress Dr. Quinn Harrison-Pritchard. Quinn Harrison’s arrival in Oak Creek brings with it all sorts of problems. Divorced, broke and blacklisted by the university for which she used to work, Quinn struggles daily to survive. Meeting Blake ‘Baby’ Bollinger is all kinds of wrong when our heroine discovers that the man who is about to steal her heart is a student at the local college, a college for which she is currently teaching. For the past two years everything that could have happened, happened to Quinn Harrison, and the accidents and questionable events continue with her arrival in Oak Creek, the town in which her brother, Linear Tactical owner Riley ‘Phoenix’ Harrison currently resides. Trying to keep her whereabouts secret is increasingly difficult as not only do the police want to question Quinn about a series of events, but her arrival continues to draw red flags wherever she goes. When the ‘accidents’ begin to take on a familiar pattern, Baby calls in the Linear Tactical team in an effort to uncover the truth about what is happening and why. What ensues is the building romance and relationship between Baby and Quinn, and the potential fall-out as Quinn’s past is determined to take down our story line heroine.

Quinn Harrison-Pritchard is Riley Boy’s sister but our heroine keeps secrets everything that happened including her arrival in the town of Oak Creek but the town gossips spread rumors faster than an out of control fire, gossip that increases with the number of questionable incidences pointed at our story line heroine. Blake ‘Baby’ Bollinger is a high-school drop out but is focusing on making his place in the world. Baby Bollinger is also keeping secrets, a secret that is about to upend his well-ordered world.

The relationship between Baby and Quinn is one of immediate attraction but Quinn struggles with their age difference, and the tainted past that continues to threaten her sanity and peace. Baby knows Quinn is the woman he loves but as Quinn’s life continues to spiral out of control Baby must uncover the truth before Quinn is lost to our hero, forever. The $ex scenes are erotic and intense, without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

Most of the previous story line couples and characters play secondary and supporting roles including Zac and Annie (Cyclone #1), Finn and Charlotte (Eagle #2), Shamrock (Aiden & Violet #), Angel (Gabriel & Jordan 4), Ghost (Dorian), Echo (Cade & Peyton), officer Gavin Zimmerman, as well as café owner Lexi Johnson. Baby’s nieces and nephews are good for a couple of chuckles and ‘poo’. Gavin and Lexi’s storyline is next in Redwood.

BABY is a startling story of vengeance and retaliation, relationships, family, secrets and love. The character driven premise is suspense filled and edgy; the characters are energetic and edgy; the romance is tender and seductive. BABY is a passionate and fated story of second chances and happily ever after.

Reading Order and Previous Reviews
Cyclone
Eagle
Shamrock
Angel
Ghost
Shadow
Echo
Phoenix

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy