Title: Catch and Release
Series: The Release 03
Author: B.A. Tortuga
Narrator: Lou Lambert
Genre: Contemporary
Length: 7 hrs, 16 mins
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press LLC (4th April 2017)
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: 💖💖💖💖💖 5 Hearts
Reviewer: Prime
Blurb: Dakota Landry just got out of prison after 12 years. If anyone can understand how that feels, it’s his new friend, Sage, who is determined to help him get used to life on the outside – and be-lieves Dakota didn’t commit the crime he was in for.
Jayden Wilson is a former prosecutor who agrees to look into the case at the request of Sage’s lover, Adam. He sets out to prove Dakota is just another “innocent” ex-con, but once they meet, Jayden is more and more convinced Dakota just didn’t do what everyone thinks he did.
Trouble follows Dakota, and nothing is easy as he struggles to figure out how to live, now that he has choices. And Jayden isn’t sure how Dakota, or any lover for that matter, fits into his life. Their path from friendship to romance is a slow one, but Dakota begins to believe he deserves a chance at life, and Jayden falls a little more for Dakota every day. Now they just need to tell each other how they feel.
Purchase Link: Audible US | Audible UK | Amazon US | Amazon UK
Review: Catch and Release is the third book in BA Tortuga’s The Release series. This book can work as a standalone book, but since the main characters of the two previous books feature so heavily, I would recommend avoiding this.
I really enjoy Tortuga’s writing and always look forward to a wonderfully sexy cowboy romance, some books are sweet, some are angsty, some have a touch of mystery. There’s always something to enjoy as long as you love a cowboy! Overall, The Release has also been a fantastic series which has the overarching theme of emotional and physical healing and making a family with the friends you find who support you unconditionally.
The narration for this book was done by Lou Lambert. After the unfounded trepidation I felt when I realised that the same narrator was not performing the whole series, I was ok to find that the third and final book had a different narrator again. I figure that these men were chosen because they suit the main characters of each book. After all, this isn’t exactly a cookie cutter group of people who happen to become friends, they are all different in personality and intensity, which is what makes me love the series. I hadn’t heart anything by Lou Lambert before listening to Catch and Release, but as I just said, his voice suited both main characters. He nailed the tone that conveyed their hope and their hopelessness, sometimes all within the same scene.
Catch and Release is the story of Dakota Landry and Jayden Wilson. Dakota has just served 12 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, too bad his own family did nothing to help him, like providing a lawyer. At the time he had been a lonely, gay, chubby college student who was found guilty of raping a girl at a party he had made a brief appearance at after she named him as her rapist. Getting out of jail, Dakota doesn’t have much hope. In many ways he is a lot like Sage from book 1, although Sage was guilty of being a druggie, both men went into jail as boys and went through their twenties in jail, often used by more tougher, violent men in the jail. And it is Sage that took it upon himself to take Dakota under his wing, with a lot of reservations from his husband. Dakota finds it difficult to realise that there is someone in his corner. It is through Sage that he meets lawyer Jayden Wilson.
Jayden used to be a prosecuting attorney, but the stress and danger of dealing with such horrible cases led Jayden to have a go a property law. However, his past caught up with him and he currently has a guy acting as security – Adam (Sage’s husband) who was in the army, was a cop and now a security specialist. Adam explains about his concerns of Sage befriending a convicted rapist who, on the surface had an open and shut case. With the danger over, Jayden feels the itch to have a look into things and quite suddenly things aren’t as clear as it had been assumed.
Dakota is so beaten down, he finds it nearly impossible to believe in the hope that Jayden is offering. However, as the men get to know each other more the connection between them grows into something more.
I’m finding it difficult to find a book in this series that I liked more than the others. It is impossible. Unlike many series that have a lot of similarities between characters and storylines, this series gives readers three very different stories with six very different characters, all of whom have been deeply affecting by an event in their lives before we meet them.
Catch and Release is an excellent story for those that like a little bit of crime, Law and Order style, with their romance.