Rack & Ruin by Charlie Cochet - Blog Tour with Review and Giveaway

Hi! I’m Agent Cael Maddock. I hope you’re enjoying your tour of the place with my teammates. Why don’t you have a seat? Yep, I share this office with Rosa. What’s it like having her for a partner? It’s awesome! She totally kicks ass, and her cooking is the best! Not even Sloane can resist. She makes these amazing empanadas. Oh my god. They’re his favorite, so it’s the only thing we can eat that doesn’t result in an excruciating training session afterward to work it off. Seriously, he’s a bit of a health nut which I find funny considering he’s partnered with a guy who lives off caffeine and sugar. I’m pretty sure Sloane has nightmares about Dex’s fridge.

What’s behind the metal doors? That’s my equipment locker and substation. That’s why it stretches across the room. Here, I’ll show you. Just don’t touch anything. It’s a thing of beauty, isn’t it? I’ve been building this baby up since I joined. Am I allowed to do this? You need high level clearance to construct your own security console or put together your own equipment, which I have thanks to saving the THIRDS servers from meltdown three summers ago.

I can access any THIRDS network from here. I call him Hal 9000. Hal for short. Yes, I realize Hal tried to kill everyone. Thanks. It’s still an awesome movie. Moving on. From here I can even connect with the Chief of Therian Defense. Doesn’t mean I would. Any activity connected to the network leaves a trail of metadata behind, even the vending machines. With the swipe of this screen here, I can check what you ordered for lunch from the THIRDS canteen. It is scary. Dex isn’t happy the THIRDS monitors his snack intake. Though I’m pretty sure that has more to do with the fact Sloane will find out and put him on a diet or something.

What are you doing? Don’t touch that! Oh crap! I told you not to touch that. It’s an emergency signal. Um, well, because it’s sort of private. Oh god, he’s coming. Just be quiet. Don’t say a word.

Hi, Ash. It’s fine. I’m okay. Calm down. False alarm. What happened? Um, I hit the button by accident. I’m fine. I promise. Am I coming down with something? No. Why? My face is red? Uh, it’s nothing. Hot. I mean me, not you. Not that you’re not—Or that I am, or that I'm thinking about you being hot, I mean, uh, oh God. I mean temperature-wise it’s hot in here. Pissbunnies. I’m fine. I don’t know why they’re laughing. I hate you so bad right now. NO! Not you, Ash! You know what? They’re all yours. We’ll see who's laughing by the end of the tour. >:)

 

About the Book

Rack & Ruin, THIRDS Book 3 
Genre: M/M Romance, Shifter, Paranormal, Mystery/Suspense, Science Fiction, Humor 
Length: Novel 
Published: Nov 7th, 2014 
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press 
Cover Artist: LC Chase 
Ebook ISBN-13: 9781632164209 Paperback ISBN-13: 9781632164193

New York City’s streets are more dangerous than ever with the leaderless Order of Adrasteia and the Ikelos Coalition, a newly immerged Therian group, at war. Innocent civilians are caught in the crossfire and although the THIRDS round up more and more members of the Order in the hopes of keeping the volatile group from reorganizing, the members of the Coalition continue to escape and wreak havoc in the name of vigilante justice.

Worse yet, someone inside the THIRDS has been feeding the Coalition information. It’s up to Destructive Delta to draw out the mole and put an end to the war before anyone else gets hurt. But to get the job done, the team will have to work through the aftereffects of the Therian Youth Center bombing. A skirmish with Coalition members leads Agent Dexter J. Daley to a shocking discovery and suddenly it becomes clear that the random violence isn’t so random. There’s more going on than Dex and Sloane originally believed, and their fiery partnership is put to the test. As the case takes an explosive turn, Dex and Sloane are in danger of losing more than their relationship.

Out now from:

Dreamspinner Press eBook | Dreamspinner Press paperback

Amazon | All Romance eBooks | Barnes & Noble

Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About the Author

Charlie Cochet is an author by day and artist by night. Always quick to succumb to the whispers of her wayward muse, no star is out of reach when following her passion. From Historical to Fantasy, Contemporary to Science Fiction, there’s bound to be plenty of mischief for her heroes to find themselves in, and plenty of romance, too!

Currently residing in South Florida, Charlie looks forward to migrating to a land where the weather includes seasons other than hot, hotter, and boy, it’s hot! When she isn’t writing, she can usually be found reading, drawing, or watching movies. She runs on coffee, thrives on music, and loves to hear from readers.

Website | THIRDS HQ | Facebook | Facebook Author Page | Twitter | Pinterest | Tumblr | Instagram

Itinerary (Tour Stops)

4th Nov – Hearts on Fire Reviews (Invitation from Lieutenant Sparks) 
5th Nov – Carly’s Book Reviews (Sergeant Maddock) 
6th Nov – The Novel Approach Reviews (Team Leader Sloane Brodie) 
7th Nov – Bookwinked (Agent Dexter J. Daley "Dex") 
10th Nov – It’s About the Book (Chief Medical Examiner Hudson Colbourn) 
11th Nov – MM Good Books Reviews (Agent Rosa Santiago) 
12th Nov – Joyfully Jay (Exclusive Excerpt) 
13th Nov – Wicked Faerie’s Tales and Reviews (Agent Cael Maddock) 
14th Nov – TTC Books and More (Agent Ash Keeler) 
15th Nov – The Blogger Girls (Agents Calvin Summers and Ethan Hobbs) 
17th Nov – Love Bytes (Agent Julietta "Letty" Guerrera) 
18th Nov – Attention is Arbitrary (SSA Austen Payne) 
19th Nov – Sinfully Sexy Book Reviews (Team Members Interview) 
20th Nov – Books Make Me Happy Reviews (Author Interview) 
21st Nov – Prism Book Alliance (Farewell from Destructive Delta)

Other events scheduled

9th Nov – Meet the Author Facebook Chat

5 out of 5 stars

So I'll start this out with.. This is the third book in the THIRDS series and they really do have to be read in order. 

Now onto the fun part... And excuse me if I become a raving fangirl but I absolutely love this series and it's author. She's a wickedly talented writer, who in a very short time has created a wickedly addictive series.

This book was AMAZING in so many ways. The little intricacies that Charlie weaved into the storyline, that I didn't catch until my second read-through. Yes, I've already read Rack & Ruin twice. There was a tremendous amount of story packed into this book. So it's really one to pay attention to, as your reading along. 

The first book in the series sucked you in with the development of the characters and the action. The second book, kept the story moving forward and added in more backstory and developed stronger emotional ties between the whole team, and with Dex and Sloane. Rack & Ruin has the action still, but this book for me was about the intimacies of the emotions between Dex and Sloane, and also the ties among Destructive Delta. 

All the more relationship based scenes between Dex and Sloane are what stand out for me most. Through out the story there are these small intimate moments. Like Dex found a small jaguar stuffed toy with bandages on it's paws. While he's sitting on the side of the bed, tears rolling down his cheeks, Sloane walks in and the first thing he does is tenderly wipe the tears away with his thumb. The conversations that they had about Sloane's past, Sloane asking Dex to stay with him when he calls the doctor from the Center, and so many other moments. I can't say enough about how much these vignettes impacted me throughout the story.

I will totally admit that I've been a hardcore Dex fangirl since the first book. Now though, Rack & Ruin, firmly placed Dex and Sloane into my top 5 favorite m/m couples and my top 10 favorite overall characters. In this story we see more of the solid, strong Dex over the sweet and silly Dex. We also see Sloane, showing more of the boyfriend type traits. Which is a pretty adorable thing to see from him. Oh, and just in case if you were curious, there are still seriously flaming HOT sexy times with Dex and Sloane woven into the story. First one that will make you laugh is at Ash's apartment, in HIS bathroom. 

We do see the other characters in the book, including more of Bradley, Lou, Sebastian Hobbs, and two other team leaders, Levi and Taylor. The other big 'relationship' storyline that's picking up steam is Cael and Ash. Unfortunately it's not in a good way. We learn quite a bit about Ash's backstory and it's enough to break your heart. Then we see the interaction with Ash and Cael and you'll either want to rip dangly bits off Ash or cuddle him for his behavior, especially after his backstory is revealed. I still wanted to rip dangly bits off though, even after that part. What can I say, Cael is adorable and I love him almost as much as I love Dex. 

This was a very, very solid entry into the THIRDS world even if it was more focused on the relationships then the action. With a paranormal/urban fantasy type series it's very important to focus on character development and this book nailed it for me. Charlie Cochet has built a well-crafted world, and created characters that many people have fallen head over heels in love with them. She's quickly moved from a 'new' author for me to a I MUST OWN ALL her books author. 

I look forward to book four, Rise & Fall, coming in February 2015. Also to more of THIRDS Thursday with all the awesome story vignettes. If you haven't read this series, I highly encourage you to pick it up. You will love it!