Rameau Reviews: Dine and Dash - Abigail Roux

After the fourth book in the Cut & Run series, Abigail Roux continues to write Ty Grady and Zane Garrett alone. I don’t know why this is, but I do like how it shows in the writing. The content is still nonexistent plot and characterization wise, but the text that delivers the somewhat detached scenes is smoother. 

Although, I could never pinpoint the exact moments when another author had taken the scene over from the other, I could tell that two minds were working on the scenes because there were logic gaps and action irregularities in the early books. Now, with one author, those remain absent but the repetition is still there. Armed & Dangerous was basically a long list of moments when Ty and Zane told they loved each other. 

Dine & Dash is a porny outtake for the series that I didn't find particularly arousing. Oh, well, that comes with reading too much quality fanfiction porn. I’m guessing the author looked at how Armed & Dangerous and decided to mollify her readers with a plotless fuck between plotless books. I’m guessing this works for the die hard fans, but it didn’t for me.

2 stars

Series: Cut & Run #5.5

Pages: 10 

Publisher:       Abigail Roux

Published:  May 18th 2012

Source: http://abiroux.tumblr.com/post/26789688331/dine-dash

Review: Sticks & Stones - Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux

Sticks & Stones

Six months after nearly losing their lives to a serial killer in New York City, FBI Special Agents Ty Grady and Zane Garrett are suffering through something almost as frightening: the monotony of desk duty. When they're ordered to take a vacation for the good of everyone's sanity, Ty bites the bullet and takes Zane home with him to West Virginia, hoping the peace and quiet of the mountains will give them the chance to explore the explosive attraction they've so far been unable to reconcile with their professional partnership. Ty and Zane, along with Ty's father and brother, head up into the Appalachian mountains for a nice, relaxing hike deep into the woods... where no one will hear them scream. They find themselves facing danger from all directions: unpredictable weather, the unrelenting mountains, wild animals, fellow hikers with nothing to lose, and the most terrifying challenge of all. Each other.

What can I say about Sticks & Stones? Not much that hasn’t already been said (by me) about Cut & Run. 

I was still cursing the adverbs and the repetition, although, the latter was greatly improved (read: greatly diminished) in this second part of the series. And as before, the characters are the story. There’s something around the 30% mark that could be interpreted as a hint of a plot, but it never develops into anything and fizzles out long before the end of the novel. 

To the list of authors’ sins we get to add infodump. Ty’s family is introduced in such a manner that the only impressions left are vague caricatural characterisations, one with a shovel, another with a limp, and a third with a cooking addiction. 

I’m still hoping for a better, more precise writing from this author duo. For example, there’s a scene where Ty and Zane spend a night in Ty’s old room and I was confused by the state of the door. Was it shut with a click, or was it left open to act as a deterrent for gay sex? Also, who was wearing which shoes? I could infer more details from the additional commentary, but only after spending a few minutes turning back the pages trying to find the right answer. 

These weren’t my only issues with the continuity within the book and the series so far. This time Zane took back the I love you he said in Cut & Run and Ty’s characterisation morphed from slightly unstable to properly insane without any real forewarning or foreshadowing. I guess the signs could have been there, but the imprecise writing undermined the effort.

My other issues include the questions when did “marine” become a magic word and why did the blissfully absent cockcommentary from book one have to be introduced here? 

Also it was fun (not really) reading how the men had a quickie with all their injuries and enjoyed unbridled and spontaneous kissing with a broken nose without a single complaint or a wince. No, the wince came after when he accidentally tried wrinkling his nose. 

In Sticks & Stones we also get to hear from Ty’s brother and father, but I was left wondering why. As nice as it was to have someone observe Ty’s and Zane’s unconscious cuddling, there really wasn’t a point to these point of views. Of course those paragraphs could have been wasted in background information or mental monologues in the middle of an action scene, so I’m not complaining too loudly.

There are lots of cute moments between Ty and Zane that unfortunately can’t carry this plotless story even if we do learn Beaumont’s real name.

2 stars

 I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

Series: Cut & Run #2

Pages: 322 (paperback)

Publisher:        Dreamspinner Press

Published:       January 25th 2010

Source: NetGalley

Review. Cut & Run - Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux

A series of murders in New York City has stymied the police and FBI alike, and they suspect the culprit is a single killer sending an indecipherable message. But when the two federal agents assigned to the investigation are taken out, the FBI takes a more personal interest in the case.


Special Agent Ty Grady is pulled out of undercover work after his case blows up in his face. He's cocky, abrasive, and indisputably the best at what he does. But when he's paired with Special Agent Zane Garrett, it's hate at first sight. Garrett is the perfect image of an agent: serious, sober, and focused, which makes their partnership a classic cliché: total opposites, good cop-bad cop, the odd couple. They both know immediately that their partnership will pose more of an obstacle than the lack of evidence left by the murderer.


Practically before their special assignment starts, the murderer strikes again — this time at them. Now on the run, trying to track down a man who has focused on killing his pursuers, Grady and Garrett will have to figure out how to work together before they become two more notches in the murderer's knife.

While reading this book I had quite a few thoughts circling in my mind, but of those the most prominent three were:

1. Gods, save me from the adverbs. 

2. Gods, save me from the repetition. I’ll forget the adverbs as long as the repetition ends NOW.

3. This isn’t a character driven story, because the characters are the story. 

Now, there’s nothing wrong with a character centric book, but. 

There’s hardly any plot. Scratch that. There’s no plot. There’s barely a framework for a murder mystery and an awkward excuse to bring two men together and have them fall in love against all odds and their life experience up until that point. 

Ty G. and Zane G. (Grady and Garrett respectively) fall into each others arms repeatedly in scenes that can only be described as fantasy fulfilment. They take turns disrobing in front of each other and getting conveniently hurt to allow the other to touch them in a caring manner.  And of course this leads to unresolved sexual tension which quickly becomes resolved. 

Too quickly. Their relationship progresses too fast, which is a considerable achievement considering the over all length of the book. My NetGalley copy showed closer to 400 hundred Kindle pages than 300 and half of those could have easily been left on the cutting room floor without any significant loss to the plot. Er. My mistake: -without any significant loss to the character and relationship arcs. 

One of my Kindle notes says: 

”They’re od’ing on deux ex machina plot point encounters.”

The success of this book hinges on the readers connection to the characters. 

As a long time soap opera viewer I’m a sucker prone to suffering through horrible plot lines just to see my favourite characters stumble from one ill-advised adventure to another.

But I’m also a mystery and crime novel fan and whodunnits have made my heart skip ever since I picked up my first Agatha Christie Novel. And in this, too, the novel fails.

Almost all plot advancement mystery partition of the story is done in short paragraphs telling what had happened with the case and the world around them. The foreshadowing is done with a heavy hand and the culprit is clear pretty much from the beginning. At the time it felt like some relevant information like Zane’s wedding ring is withheld until the last minute.

I also have other small complaints like the fact that I’m not sure how accurate the hospital scenes are or like someone on Twitter said: New York is a city that should be a character. It’s not in Cut & Run and that shows the lack of actual research on the authors’ part. 

There’s a lot criticism in this review, so why is the rating two stars instead of one? 

That’s easy. I’m picturing Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki as Ty and Zane. 

Wonder why exactly that is.

2 stars

 I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

Series: Cut & Run #1

Pages: 348 (paperback)

Publisher:        Dreamspinner Press

Published:         September 1st 2008

Source: NetGalley