My rating: 2 of 5 stars
This is kind of a weird book that I’m not sure how to characterize. It’s a shoot ‘em up action style story with a lot of hot sex but the actual plot is convoluted and totally unbelievable. I can get behind a book that needs considerable suspension of disbelief, but Gemini stretches it too far. To accept the sequence of actions and villains in the plot, the good guys don’t come across so well. It’s certainly an attention grabber and I think for those readers that are instantly engaged and absorbed, the flaws may not matter. But as soon as the flaws are noticed, I think it’s a downhill ride to an unsatisfying finish unfortunately.
Cass found his current boyfriend in bed with his female best friend so he hopped a plane from England back home to Texas. His twin brother, Paul, lives there and although the two are estranged Cass can’t think of anywhere else to go. Things start to go wrong almost immediately as Cass gets nearly accosted in the airport restroom and his twin isn’t happy to see him at all. Paul has gotten himself into some real trouble and he refuses to talk about it sober. He promises to tell Cass everything once he’s shot some heroin but dies on the bathroom floor from a bad batch while Cass is in the shower. Unable to revive Paul and scared to call the police, Cass is at a loss what to do. Thankfully Paul’s customer Kilo, a mercenary for hire with a strange loyalty to druggie hooker Paul, shows up and he and Cass get it on immediately. Then the two run off to hide from the goons trying to now kill Cass.
So for starters the entire plot is pretty ridiculous. The governor of Texas is a client of Paul’s but now wants to kill Cass because … well I don’t think the story ever says why Cass needs to die. There’s a subplot about some kids in a juvenile detention center that are being molested by some richy rich brothers who get the ok from the governor and Paul told a reporter about the issue. The reporter is killed, Paul is given bad drugs and I guess they want to kill Cass because why not. Kilo is the only thing keeping Cass alive and since the two have sex with Paul’s barely dead body on the bathroom floor next to them, it’s safe to say they don’t really care what the reason is as long as they get to have more sex. Which leads to this long and convoluted hiding game where they hide out in Kilo’s nearby safe house, have sex, wander the internet and plan the downfall of the governor.
It’s weird honestly. I liked the individual characters and even Cass and Kilo together have some incredibly hot sex, that alley scene is enough to set the book on fire, but there’s just no real purpose to the whole thing. It’s like the story kept throwing in ideas without having a fleshed out map of the various bad guys and how it all fit together. Then the ending is so over the top I literally laughed out loud on a crowded plane I couldn’t help myself. But it’s not that the story is so horribly written is awful. It’s not. Both authors know how to write some great mystery and action stories. Not to mention sometimes I choose books by this duo because I know the sex scenes will always be amazing. When reading though, it feels as though the plot got away from the authors and even with solid characters and great chemistry it couldn’t quite make up for the octopus like tangents that went nowhere or were resolved with super convenient coincidences.
I think this could be a hit with the right reader that wants some non-stop action, a lot of sex, and isn’t fussy about the details and how it all fits together. It’s not horrible but I was left wondering how that entire book happened and again… why Cass never even cried about his twin OD’ing. I never could quite get over that neither Kilo nor Cass seemed to mourn Paul even though they both supposedly loved him so much. Either it’s a flaw in the characters themselves or the story for not explaining that and a thousand other confusing points regarding the plot. Suffice it to say I would not recommend or re-read this one but for the right reader, maybe it’ll work.
three am 