Title: All Kinds of Tied Down
Series: A story in the Matter of Time universe
Author: Mary Calmes
Narrator: Tristan James
Genre: Contemporary
Length: 9 hours and 1 minute
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (09-24-14)
Heat Level: Moderate to Explicit
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥5Hearts
Blurb: Deputy US Marshal Miro Jones has a reputation for being calm and collected under fire. These traits serve him well with his hotshot partner, Ian Doyle, the kind of guy who can start a fight in an empty room. In the past three years of their life-and-death job, they’ve gone from strangers to professional coworkers to devoted teammates and best friends. Miro’s cultivated blind faith in the man who has his back… faith and something more.
As a marshal and a soldier, Ian’s expected to lead. But the power and control that brings Ian success and fulfillment in the field isn’t working anywhere else. Ian’s always resisted all kinds of tied down, but having no home—and no one to come home to—is slowly eating him up inside. Over time, Ian has grudgingly accepted that going anywhere without his partner simply doesn’t work. Now Miro just has to convince him that getting tangled up in heartstrings isn’t being tied down at all.
Product Link: http://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/All-Kinds-of-Tied-Down-Audiobook/B00NU6UDGW
Reviewer: Tams
Review: Miro Jones and Ian Doyle are just two of the men that work on an elite team of US Marshalls led by Sam Kage. Miro was in and out of foster homes as a child, got into a little trouble but he always looked up to the men in uniform. He could have gone in a completely different direction with his life, but instead of lashing out at the lot life dealt him, he wanted to be like the men that protected him.
Ian is a seasoned soldier first, and a US Marshall second.
He spends almost as much time away and on top-secret missions as he does at home. Over the past few years as partners, they’ve built a unique partnership based on friendship, mutual admiration and the ability to trust each other with their lives. While Miro fell for Ian a long time ago, he knows that Ian is straight, so he locks away those feelings behind a door so thick that when Ian starts acting different toward him, Miro doesn’t even notice.
While Ian is away on a mission, Miro is injured while transporting a witness and Ian is less than pleased when he finally finds out about it. You see, while Ian could test the patience of a saint, Miro should buy stock in an insurance company, he gets injured on the job THAT much! When Miro heads out to transport their next witness, he’s a little surprised to find Ian waiting at the airport for him. What is completely unexpected is the way Ian looks at him and visibly shudders when Miro touches him.
From here these two pretty much hit the ground running, going from partners and best friends to lovers in the blink of an eye. The pompous ass with more money than common sense that also happens to be the homophobic father of their current witness’s lover threatens to get them both killed before the sweat that drenched them just a few hours ago even dries.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story from start to finish. Very nice to catch up with where Sam Kage is after the series of events in the Matter of Times books, but the main focus of this story is Miro and Ian. Miro has spent three years learning how to navigate his intense feelings for his partner. Convinced that Ian is straight and will never be his, he gets so good at ignoring his reaction to Ian that he misses Ian’s change in feelings toward him. Ian, lovingly referred to by their fellow Marshall’s as Captain America, doesn’t even try to avoid his feelings for Miro. What Ian struggles with is the urge to stake his claim on Miro, and how to express those feelings and that need out loud.
Narrated by Tristan James, his voice was the perfect complement to the characters Calmes created for this story. There was a push and pull between them as partners that bleed over into their sexual relationship, but in a role reversal of sorts. While Ian is very protective and demanding at work, Miro takes the lead in the bedroom. Ian has to be on his game 24/7 at work and when he is on a mission, what he wants, no needs in his personal life is for someone else to take that control. And Miro gladly accepts the challenge.
This was a very sexy and steamy read, full of action and suspense and James did a splendid job of conveying all those emotions and circumstances, and then some. From the camaraderie between Miro and Ian in the beginning to the foreplay in the middle, and then finally the passion in the end. I highly recommend this audible to fans of Calmes writing and/or James narration. I am crossing my fingers that there will be another book for these guys, Calmes wrote in enough scenarios to comfortably give them a sequel, if not their own series.
* I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review through http://mmgoodbookreviews.wordpress.com *