Ultra Meital Reviews: Warrior's Cross (Cut & Run side story) by Abigail Roux & Madeleine Urban

A beautiful sensitive love story. I find it interesting that I'm rating this book higher than I did the first time around which was right after the 5th installment of Cut&Run - "Armed and Dangerous". I guess when I first read it, I expected it to be something like the "Sidewinder" spin off series is now but it's nothing like it.

Julian and Cameron appear in "Armed and Dangerous" as a couple Ty and Zane suppose to deposit into Richard Burns hands. Well, it's Julian Burns is after but Cameron sort of "Tags along". Julian and Cameron has a very different relationship than Ty and Zane yet their appearance in front of and so close to them impact them quite a bit.

This novel gives us the background of how Julian and Cameron met and formed their relationship.

While I just said that it makes sense reading this one before or after "Armed and Dangerous" so you'll understand them better, in a way it really doesn't matter. It doesn't have any real meaning to be read as a "part" of the Cut&Run Series, for the simple reason - it isn't. It was actually published in 2009 a short time after the first installment in the Cut&Run Series. It's a total and absolute side story which doesn't even really share the same genre in my personal opinion. While the Cut&Run series is action pact and stand on the Suspense shelf, this one felt as a "regular" Contemporary Romance novel, the story of a Spook, tired of the life he is living, falling for his waiter, the one who serves him the same order each Tuesday and asks nothing of him and gives him a sort of peace he never had before.

I loved both Julian and Cameron. Julian, the huge silent man, who might look intimidating to anyone but Cameron who sees a man who needs taking care of, a sensitive gentle man, someone so like everyone else, yet so different with the life he was living. Cameron was so sweet, it was impossible to dislike someone like him. A happy guy, who sees the positive in life and in Julian especially. Who doesn't consider himself courageous but in his own way he is.

Their relationship has a lot of brakes, mostly Julian's work making him keep his life apart from Cameron as much as he can which naturally affects the intensity and intimacy of their relationship. When you meet once or twice a week and don't even talk on the phone, not knowing where you lover lives and what bruises he will show up with the next time you see him (if you see him?) isn't easy but in the end the question is what they are both willing to pay to have one another.

While most of the story is easy paced, near the ending there is a little bit of "action" with someone from Julian's past hunting him down. Yet in the end I still see it as a sweet romantic story and not an action / suspense novel.

Loved this novel, a sweet love story between the extraordinary and the ordinary.

There is one last thing I have to add. I KNOW I'm going to sound foolish, obsessive or whatever but I really don't care.. It's mentioned quite specifically that Cameron has 4 Westies (West Highland White Terriers). Since I have a friend who is a groomer and breeder of Westies I know quite a lot about them so I was annoyed to read inaccuracies in the breed's specific grooming.. Westies don't shed their fur and it need to be plucked (not brushed as was mentioned..) so while the scene in which Cameron uses the sticky roller to remove fur from Julian's coat WAS sexy, it was actually inaccurate..

Additional Details: Kindle Ebook, 316 pages, 14-15 February 2015 / On GoodReads

Originally reviewed 04/06/2013:

I enjoyed this book. mostly the beginning which really got me hocked up. later on I felt it was a bit lacking and I wish they would have unraveled more about Julian.

I loved their interaction and relationship between Cameron and Julian but the story it self just wasn't as good as the cut & run series.