Bang

by Ruby McNally

Great Barrington beat cops Jackson Ford and Marisol de la Espada enjoyed a seamless partnership for a decade, guarding each other’s backs and predicting each other’s moves. Until they sent it all to hell with a gesture of comfort that turned romantic. Not only was the sex awkward—terrible, even—it messed with their focus.

And then Jack got shot.

Four months later, Jack has been cleared for active duty, but beneath his barely mended body, he’s barely holding it together. Because once the paramedics tore his blood-soaked body out from under Marisol’s hands, she practically disappeared.

Since that day, Marisol has done nothing but replay every mistake she made over and over in her mind. As she and Jack grope through the pain, the guilt, and the fog of PTSD for the key to healing their partnership, they begin to wonder if love is enough to heal the trauma, or if they’re destined to blow their partnership—and any chance at love—all to pieces.

Genres: Romance

165 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 20, 2018

About the author

Ruby McNally double-majored in psychology and cognitive linguistics before ultimately deciding her talents lay elsewhere. She grew up hiding her diary from her five brothers, who will never know she writes romance. She lives in Boston and has no cats. You can visit her online at rubymcnally.tumblr.com or follow her on Twitter @Ruby_McNally.

Reviews

[Julie WB · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5⭐️ Gah. Loved this one, too. It’s short and messy, I couldn’t put it down. I liked that these characters were a little older (30s) and had a history together. Just wish we got more of them. This author does not believe in a slow burn apparently. And I’m here for it. Again, I wish it were longer and I felt more comfortable at the end, but I also like that it’s different from other romances in that respect.

[A · Rating 5 out of 5]

Guess what!!!! Also great!!!! RTC

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

More like 3.5, but I'm rounding up. :) I think I liked this one the best (minus one thing) because the characters were older and more grounded in their flaws?

[krystal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. 2.5. Didn’t really like either of the characters, but I appreciated the main female was Latina :)

[virtualb · Rating 2 out of 5]

There didn’t seem to be much of a resolution that made me think the characters had developed skills that would see their relationship through.

[Leigh Kramer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite loving the first two books in this series, I went into this with low expectations since the MCs are both beat cops and Jack is coming back to work after being shot in the line of duty three months prior. This novella bit off more than it could chew. Not only do Marisol and Jack need to address why she abandoned him after he was shot, he needs to recognize he has PTSD, all while the force is still actively looking for the person who shot Jack. It's a lot and it all needed much more time to breathe.

Marisol and Jack just plain confused me. Sure, people respond to things differently but I could never hook up with someone who abandoned me in my darkest hour without first thoroughly talking about what happened and where they were. Marisol and Jack have no such problem, even though he's mad and she feels guilty. She didn't visit him at the hospital at all! Her mom actually went but she didn't? Regardless of what was happening between them interpersonally, they were partners for over ten years and she was with him when he got shot. She owed him more than that. We don't learn about what actually happened when he was shot until 82% and this did not serve the story well. Nor did what happened in terms of finding the shooter. It was incompetence and copaganda including a rookie cop killing the suspect because she mistook a taser for a gun all the way down.

I don't have much confidence in the relationship because of how much story was crammed into such a short space. They both have major issues to work through and he needs therapy for his PTSD—thankfully he agreed to start seeing someone by the end but it felt a little late given everything else.


Characters: Marisol is a 33 year old Boricuan cop. She has a 4 year old daughter named Sonya. Jackson is a 35 year old white cop. They were in same same Academy class and have been partners for 10 years. This is set in Great Barrington, MA.

Content notes: PTSD, flashback, panic attack, internalized ableism, ableism, off-page officer-involved shooting rookie cop kills the boy suspected of shooting MMC; she thought he had a gun but it was a taser, MMC was shot in the line of duty by robber 4 months ago (stomach, chest, collarbone), gun misconduct (MMC accidentally points gun at FMC while they're at the shooting range), police incompetence, copaganda, professional ethics violation (MMC and FMC are partners and do not disclose relationship to their boss, as they likely wouldn't be partnered anymore; they also cover for each other in various situations instead of being honest), past disordered eating (MMC's sister), past divorce, past death of FMC's father (heart attack), drug trafficking case, substance abuse and overdose case, past smoking cessation, scarring from gunshot wounds, weight loss and gain, body commentary, forgetting to eat, stomach bug/vomit (FMC's daughter), past death of pet dog, family planning discussion, unsafe sex practices (no condom for penetrative sex without discussion of STI and pregnancy prevention; FMC takes Plan B the next day), on page sex, bondage, alcohol, inebriation (secondary character), cigarettes, homophobic and misogynist insults, gendered pejoratives, gender essentialist language, ableist language, hyperbolic language around addiction

[Bernadette Bloom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this one I just prefer firefighters over cops. 😉