Regina Reviews: Shadow Line by Declan Rhodes

Two bodyguards. Two reporters. One network that wants them both dead.

The man Dane Fletcher took home from a bar on Salem Street wasn't supposed to walk back into his life three weeks later — across a conference table, working the other side of the same operation.

Blaise Farrow doesn't run with a firm. He runs on instinct, proximity, and a read of people that gets too close to be safe. Dane runs on distance, discipline, and a perimeter that holds. The Guardians have just paired them on a job neither can afford to fail.

Two Boston reporters have stumbled into the same story from opposite ends. Wiley Priest has spent two years tracking a domestic extremist network. Stanley Cabot has spent fourteen years inside the rooms where Boston's oldest families talk. Together they're a threat someone has decided to eliminate — and the countdown to a private wedding on Martha's Vineyard is closing fast.

Dane keeps people alive by holding the line. Farrow keeps them alive by crossing it. Every hour the threat sharpens, what's between them does too — and one wrong call by either man puts a principal in the ground.

SHADOW LINE is a high-stakes M/M romantic suspense featuring opposites-attract bodyguards, forced proximity, an intelligent, evolving threat, hurt-comfort, and a partnership where getting too close might be the only way to survive.

Review:

Dane Fletcher is a bodyguard with The Guardians. His charge is a Globe reporter named Wiley Priest who is hot on the trail of what could be a very dangerous story, hence his needing a bodyguard. Dane recently met a man named Blaise Farrow through an app. To say that sparks flew would be an understatement. Still as much as Dane is attracted to Blaise, there's something about the man that makes him think he's in the same business as Dane.

Blaise Farrow works in security too, though he didn't reveal that to Dane on their "date." His charge is also a Globe reporter named Stanley Cabot. Unlike Wiley who runs stories about the nitty gritty illegal business underworld, Stanley is a society reporter. Born into wealth, Stanley knows how to move in high society and he's been covering that world for a long time. He regularly covers a high society family by the name of Harcourt. 

When it becomes apparent to the guardians that Wiley's and Stanley's stories are connected in some way, the security company decides to bring both bodyguards and their charges together to work together to figure out what is going on, and to more easily protect both reporters. Blaise is happy to see Dane again and takes the opportunity to show Dane he's glad to see him. However, Dane is more cautious and serious when it comes to his work. He doesn't mind seeing Blaise again, after all the man literally blew his mind in bed the night before, but caution is the name of the game in his line of work and he wants to know why the higher ups decided to team them up. It becomes apparent rather quickly that the story Wiley is working on about shady business dealings and shell companies and something big and bad going down, and the high society wedding Stanley is set to cover, have some common threads putting both men in grave danger. Will Dane and Blaise be able to keep their charges safe and figure out what's going on before themselves, their charges and innocent people get hurt badly or killed? Also, will Blaise and Dane figure out a way to maintain a true relationship when this job is over, that is if they survive it? 

I loved reading Shadow Line! Usually these types of romantic suspense stories are about a bodyguard and his charge, but this was was about two bodyguards falling for each other which made it really interesting since it's not the usual thing with these types of stories. I really enjoyed reading about how these two managed to build a long term relationship (and protect their charges) after just meeting and then working together. I remember before I started reading this book that I was wondering how in the world the author was going to build a relationship between these two while being in the bad guys crosshairs, but still letting them protect their charges. Well, the author did a fabulous job, and I won't spoil it for you by telling you how, you'll just have to read Shadow Line for yourself. I highly recommend this and the other books in The Guardians series, and I can't wait for the next book! 

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.