The words sounded right. He put them together, and Fisher could almost believe the lies. Almost. “I was your mark.”
“You know that’s not true.” Zach lifted his hands and rested them against Fisher’s stomach. “You meant everything.”- Mr. and Mr. Smith by HelenKay Dimon
Mr. and Mr. Smith is the first book in the series Tough Love by HelenKay Dimon. It was first published 2016. The book is a MxM romance filled with action and with a spy plot. I would sum it up, like the titles said, James Bond falls in love with G.I Joe.
The G.I Joe of the series is Fisher Braun. He works as a covert paramilitary operative who are sent on secret missions all over the world. Tough and experienced, nothing has shaken him. Not until he met Zachary Allen who becomes his lover. But one day, comes danger to his secret life and Zachary is kidnapped by an organization that specializes in kidnapping agents to sell to their enemies. Without a second though, Fisher goes in to save the man who has stolen his heart but he soon learns that not all is as it seems as Zachary has secrets of his own.
Fisher is, as first, an action stereotype. Single minded, focused, tough as rocks and stubborn. He is more hotheaded and goes into action with guns blazing. Zachary is patient, calm and gentle. He never raises his voice and can come across as cold.
At first, the romance is quite predictable among MxM romances. Fisher is the “alpha” male, dominant and protective. Zachary is the “beta” male, calm and understanding. Then the story set in motion and the stereotypes doesn’t fit in. Fisher is badass, but spent a large part of the portion acting like a love-stricken lady. He is angry one minute, hot and heavy the next. Sad the next and trying to convince Zachary not to put himself in danger. In action he is flashier but less efficient. Zachary turns out to be a stone-cold killer, cold, logical and efficient in battle. To sum up the action scenes it can be described as Fisher fighting a large guy in hand to hand combat, flashy moves and so on. Then Zachary comes in a headshot the guy, telling them to move on.
With other words, Zachary is far more active and awesome than the usual “bottom” who is often give a more submissive role in the story. The action is straightforward, I have never liked action, it can’t keep my interest but I guess others would enjoy it.
The thing that might deter people from this book is the middle of it. The story is structured simply, introduces a complication, then a plot twist. The story suddenly comes to a halt and present an eternity with back and forth arguing between the couple before the story starts again and the explosive final comes into play. The middle being the arguing, it is necessary for the plot but I felt it went on a bit too long.
Another thing is the lacking explanation to why the two main character do as they do. The author tries, I give her that but to me it never struck home properly. I cannot understand why Zachary went on a suicide mission even when he explains his background that is suppose to explain it. How is dying suppose to redeem him from a crime he has never done?
Then we have Fisher who is angry at Zachary for lying but he did as well. That is pretty much excused by Fisher claiming that Zachary’s lie was worse. No, it wasn’t. Fisher made it clear that his lies put Zachary in danger so it was pretty much the same as Zachary’s lie. Both lies were terrible.
I personally also had a hard time believing that their relationship was something other than sexual. I cannot believe either of those two know what love is, and all the focus on the sex scenes only make it feel more like it only was sexual. Now, this is only me. There are some romantic scenes but most, if not all, were given from Zachary’s perspective so it felt one sided. Fisher seemed more in love with the thought of a normal life than of Zachary.
All that said, I actually liked the story. It was simple, the characters were likeable and it gave me some nice surprises. All this came to a surprise to me since I do not like action. I first read this story as a mobile game, Chapter: interactive stories. I adored it enough to give the book a try and the book was just as good. The book has more inner dialog though, but the game if I remember correctly has some scenes not in the book that made the story feel more fleshed out. Not really sure which one is better but if you are not interested in the book, then maybe the game might interest you.
I would give the book a rating of 8 out of 10. It is solid. At least for me who normally doesn’t like action and spy books. I loathe James Bond and run from action movies. I assumed I would do the same with this one, but it is good enough for me to read twice and despite the flaws I mentioned, it still was worth my while.
With Kind Regards
Senefer.
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