Gator: An Omega Team Novella by Chris Almeida and Cecilia Aubrey
One of the hardest parts about liking (or loving) a series or an author’s work is the time between releases. Oh I understand and completely agree with the ‘want to get it right’ attitude, and when writing isn’t the one and ONLY thing you do in a day – it does take longer. But the wait, for the moment, is over for the next from Almeida and Aubrey and I couldn’t be more excited. Read on for
Gator
When bad choices as a teen lead to your path diverging from your best friend and your best girl, coming home is often paved with misunderstanding and wounded feelings. Such is the case for Gabriel (aka Gator) when a call from his childhood running buddy Manuel sends him back to Ybor City to protect Alysa, the girl he left behind, now in danger from Manny’s actions.
Gabriel 2.0, as Alysa has taken to referring to him, is toned, trained and ALL grown up now with an alpha bearing that is part military, part machismo and ALL palpable. The intervening six years have wrought changes to Alysa as well: grown up with a college degree and her ‘dream job’ at Deseo for the moment, she’s moved on, if not necessarily forward. Erratic behavior from her brother Manny, even though she is the last member of the family to not leave Florida for Texas, she held hopes that he would come around and she’d be there to help him.
Manny had worked his way from low level carrier to fully-fledged and trusted (as much as one can in that business) right hand to the El Rey cartel boss. Always looking for another ‘angle’, Manny had copied integral information about the cartel’s business onto a portable drive – hidden before the cartel head was called out of country leaving his erratic and mistrustful brother behind. Sensing change, Manny went into hiding while he decided what to do with the information he had stolen and hidden, leaving the cartel on a frantic search for him, or the means to flush him out.
Alysa and Gabriel are adorable together – both are so stuck on one another, yet guilt and insecurities from their youth, and those fleeting long held moments relived for the past years have them edgy. There’s sexual tension and past misunderstandings that shoot fire with every glance, and the fear about asking the one question each wants to know brings them back to that teenaged tumult with your first significant other. Almeida and Aubrey write some of the best back and forth dialogue, it displays both of their ‘sensitive underbellies’ as the interior monologues show just HOW desperately these two want, and are good for, one another. This isn’t just a wander down memory lane though: these two are steamy together, but that is surpassed by the wonderful tension filled moments surrounding Manny, the Cartel and the help from the Omega Team, the story is fast paced, layered with emotion and action, and certainly lives up to what I’ve come to expect from these authors in their storytelling.
Title: Gator
Author: Cecilia Aubrey, Chris Almeida
Series: The A.W.E. Crew #3
Genre: Contemporary Erotic Romance
Published by: Kindle Worlds
Published on: 24 May 2016
Format:eARC
Source: Author
Pages: 91
Rated:
Heat:
Get Your Copy: Amazon 
About the Book:
He gave her up once…
Gabriel “Gator” Moreno arrives in Florida ready to face his past, exorcise his demons and settle an old debt. To kill three birds with one stone, he has pledged to keep Alysa Cortez, his old friend’s sister and the woman who owns his heart, safe from the gang hunting her. What he isn’t ready for is the revulsion he finds in Alysa’s eyes when she sees him at her doorstep.
She loved him once…
Alysa Cortez never expected to see Gabriel in his old stomping grounds six years after he hightailed out of Tampa and straight into the arms of Uncle Sam. Neither did she expect the burn of betrayal to morph back into desire when she came face-to-face with the new law-abiding, hard-muscled and hot-as-hell soldier. When her brother’s legacy sinks its claws into her, she must put her trust in the one man who’s already broken her heart once—and is bound to do it again.
See More about the AWE Crew Series Here
NOTE: This story is a tie in between Desiree Holt's Omega Team World and the A.W.E. Crew Series. While the setting of the story is Desiree's Omega Team's stomping grounds and the Crew men are not fully in the picture in this book, one known Crew character, who made his debut in Alternate Connection, plays an important part in GATOR's story. Gabriel and Alysa will make regular cameo appearances in future Crew books.
A copy of this title was provided via Author for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.
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