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Jake & Maddox #4
Guns and Shadows
Someone is out to get Maddox...
His house being burnt to the ground was only the start.
His clubs go up in flames, and his possessions are stolen.
His enemy is clever, they've studied him, and know what buttons to push.
They taunt, and gloat, but there's one thing they don't know.
The value of Jake.
His instincts tell him to lock Jake away, keep him safe, but he knows he can't.
He needs Jake, and Jake needs him.
But his enemy is getting closer, and it's only a matter of time before they find out about Jake.
They've destroyed everything else, but Maddox won't let them destroy Jake.
*Completed series*
Adrenaline Jake #1
Mad Dog Maddox #2
Festive Dog #2.5
Fire and Sand #3
Jealous Dog #3.5
Guns and Shadows #4
Diamond in the Rough #5
His house being burnt to the ground was only the start.
His clubs go up in flames, and his possessions are stolen.
His enemy is clever, they've studied him, and know what buttons to push.
They taunt, and gloat, but there's one thing they don't know.
The value of Jake.
His instincts tell him to lock Jake away, keep him safe, but he knows he can't.
He needs Jake, and Jake needs him.
But his enemy is getting closer, and it's only a matter of time before they find out about Jake.
They've destroyed everything else, but Maddox won't let them destroy Jake.
*Completed series*
Adrenaline Jake #1
Mad Dog Maddox #2
Festive Dog #2.5
Fire and Sand #3
Jealous Dog #3.5
Guns and Shadows #4
Diamond in the Rough #5
132 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 13, 2018
9 people are currently reading
82 people want to read
About the author
Louise Collins
44 books622 followersWriter of mm romance and erotica.
I write the stories I'd love to read, I hope you enjoy them too.
Lover of Romance but not without angst along the way.
Seduced by the dancing of a neanderthal and now a mother of two monsters.
Drinks tea with a passion, adores dogs, and their sea dwelling cousins.
Failed two chocolate eating challenges but will return for round three.
https://mailchi.mp/ad6955eed18f/louis...
♥
Facebook
I write the stories I'd love to read, I hope you enjoy them too.
Lover of Romance but not without angst along the way.
Seduced by the dancing of a neanderthal and now a mother of two monsters.
Drinks tea with a passion, adores dogs, and their sea dwelling cousins.
Failed two chocolate eating challenges but will return for round three.
https://mailchi.mp/ad6955eed18f/louis...
♥
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
September 15, 2018
Maddox is loosing terrain. Someone is watching him and put his properties on fire and steel his most precious belongings. They want to destroy him. The only thing Maddox can do is to keep Jake at distance... and knowing Jake... he can’t handle this.
Okay... i was grinning from ear to ear and more than once, Jake was witty and he always keeps Maddox on his toes.
Maddox somehow seems to stutter in his behavior. Business isn’t going well for him.
He has questions and doubts... things he hadn’t had before.
His dearest possessions are disappearing under his nose, and he is losing it.
This installment was far more angsty than the previous ones. It’s more complicated and focused on the confusing events around Maddox his belongings.
The burning heat between Jake and Maddox was intense. Maddox his attitude is still sharp, grumpy and Jake is still uncertain and vulnerable with his feelings around Maddox.
I just wanted to scream when the end was nearing...
It’s was somewhat different than the other parts of this series. Because of the consternation around the business Maddox spend time on that part. But when both men were together... there was that overwhelming possessive intensity between them and gosh... it was everything!!
Maddox is getting hampered and it’s so intriguing to watch how he handles this all and how he try to keep his most precious belonging on earth safe.
I want answers and I want them now lol.
Kindly received an arc from the author.
Okay... i was grinning from ear to ear and more than once, Jake was witty and he always keeps Maddox on his toes.
Maddox somehow seems to stutter in his behavior. Business isn’t going well for him.
He has questions and doubts... things he hadn’t had before.
His dearest possessions are disappearing under his nose, and he is losing it.
This installment was far more angsty than the previous ones. It’s more complicated and focused on the confusing events around Maddox his belongings.
The burning heat between Jake and Maddox was intense. Maddox his attitude is still sharp, grumpy and Jake is still uncertain and vulnerable with his feelings around Maddox.
I just wanted to scream when the end was nearing...
It’s was somewhat different than the other parts of this series. Because of the consternation around the business Maddox spend time on that part. But when both men were together... there was that overwhelming possessive intensity between them and gosh... it was everything!!
Maddox is getting hampered and it’s so intriguing to watch how he handles this all and how he try to keep his most precious belonging on earth safe.
I want answers and I want them now lol.
Kindly received an arc from the author.
September 15, 2023
I love Jake, but my god Maddox annoys the life out of me!!!
I understand he's trying to be protective but he's such a dick about it 🤦🏻♀️
Looking forward to the conclusion!
I understand he's trying to be protective but he's such a dick about it 🤦🏻♀️
Looking forward to the conclusion!
January 21, 2020
Twist , Shout and Run
Fun ... plot twist!!!
Maddox is being played like one of his favorite Beethoven 's symphonies ; if he doesn't finds out who is behind it , major, life threatening consequences are bound to continue happening.
Book 4 in the Jake and Maddox series didn't disappoint. It was fun, hot and entertaining.
Fun ... plot twist!!!
Maddox is being played like one of his favorite Beethoven 's symphonies ; if he doesn't finds out who is behind it , major, life threatening consequences are bound to continue happening.
Book 4 in the Jake and Maddox series didn't disappoint. It was fun, hot and entertaining.
December 17, 2022
Well, this is officially the first Louise Collins book I've read that I've given less than 3 stars to. While the last 3 chapters (Ch 8-10) were great, the rest of it was a disappointment.
To start with, there was an interaction between Maddox and Jake near the beginning that made me really uncomfortable. A mystery arsonist has been torching Maddox's places of business and residence and between that and being kidnapped in Books 1/2, Jake is dealing with some anxiety issues and he wants to learn how to shoot a gun. Both of these situations were out of character for Maddox and also for Jake. In the past books, it's very clear that what attracts Maddox to Jake is that Jake isn't scared of him. In the face of Maddox's glares/temper/anger etc, Jake is the only one in Maddox's life who either pushes back with his own temper or gets excited by annoying Maddox. When Jake acts out, he always does it in a playful, purposeful way (like in Book 3.5 at the nightclub) and when Maddox reacts by being angry or possessive or dominating, Maddox is giving Jake exactly what he wants. But having Jake react to Maddox's anger at the shooting range with pleas for understanding and stammered apologies really rubbed me the wrong way because it made their dynamic seem abusive. I also hated the whole thing with Maddox secretly tracking Jake's movements because Jake being independent and capable of taking care of himself was something else that attracted Maddox to him.
After that scene, the story became a boring slog up until Chapter 8. Until then, Maddox is spending time with his mafia employees, trying to figure out the arson situation and there were three problems with this:
1. Jake isn't part of it. Like, at all. Maddox deliberately lies to Jake to hide the true nature behind the seemingly random arson attacks and Jake goes about his normal life working at the stationary store while Maddox and Co (ie Amber, Tom, Carl etc) are trying to deal with the situation. Since this book is from Maddox's POV, it means Jake is barely in this story.
2. All of Maddox's mafia employees (except for Carl) are annoying and one-tone characters. Amber is always angry, aggressive and either wants to slap people in the face or is actually slapping people. Tom is generally just gross (in a literal sense - the guy eats like a pig, constantly sweats etc) and hates Jake. I didn't want to spend two thirds of the book with these annoying people instead of Jake.
3. I know Louise Collins' books require readers to suspend their disbelief. This usually works for me because the story is paced and plotted so well that I barely notice plot holes or the bending of reality. But I put my foot down it comes to characters being stupid and that's exactly what Maddox and co are. From the start of the arson situation, it's obvious that somebody inside Maddox's inner circle has to be part of it because the timing and placement of the arson attacks are too specific for any other explanation.
I know the author was making everything lead up to the final 3 chapters, during which Maddox realizes that keeping Jake in the dark actually hurt both of them (since Jake is the one to figure out that somebody from the inner circle is involved) and that's followed up by a thrilling climax that I really enjoyed. But the rest of the story was boring and pointless.
I was also unimpressed with Mad Dog Maddox in this installment. The whole point of his character is that he's a big bad mafia boss. He's the top dog who everybody else is afraid of. Literally, people cower and hide when he walks by and he effortlessly intimidates people with just a glare. And in Books 1/2, the author provided enough evidence to make this believable. During those two books, Maddox murders two people, both of whom had betrayed Maddox and/or tried to screw with the things that are important to him. In particular, we see in Book 2 that the first murder (killing the guy in the car who had stolen the diamond) was carried out in a cold, precise fashion with zero remorse on Maddox's part. It helped to create the image of a tough, remorseless mafia boss.
But after that, Maddox is portrayed as being oddly kind hearted and forgiving in the face of people not obeying him or impacting his business. For example, when he goes to visit one of the men who he'd loaned money to, he talks about roughing the guy up and I was prepared for lots of violence...but no, Maddox just tells the guy to stop smoking so he can put the smoking money towards paying Maddox back. At the nightclub, he thinks about killing the guy who Jake was flirting with, but their last interaction only involves Maddox glaring at him until the guy runs away. In this book, Maddox's non-violent approach is even more apparent because he seems to go out of his way to solve situations without any violence, such as . Personally, all of these situations made Maddox look soft and kind of pathetic. Maybe the author wanted to make the books after Books 1/2 lighter, but you can't really do that if you choose to make a scary mafia boss one of your MCs. I normally love Maddox's POV but I think being in his POV in this book didn't do the author any favors because it forced her to showcase Maddox's day-to-day mafia dealings, which turned out to be pretty mundane.
Lastly, I was bored with the two sex scenes in this book because they didn't include anything new or interesting.
However, I did enjoy the last 3 chapters that involved Maddox and Jake interacting because there were a lot of good moments between them and the climax of the story related to the traitor was done really well, hence the 2 stars. That climax sets things up really well for Book 5 and I'm curious about the identity of the mystery arsonist, so I'm going to give the last book a shot.
To start with, there was an interaction between Maddox and Jake near the beginning that made me really uncomfortable. A mystery arsonist has been torching Maddox's places of business and residence and between that and being kidnapped in Books 1/2, Jake is dealing with some anxiety issues and he wants to learn how to shoot a gun. Both of these situations were out of character for Maddox and also for Jake. In the past books, it's very clear that what attracts Maddox to Jake is that Jake isn't scared of him. In the face of Maddox's glares/temper/anger etc, Jake is the only one in Maddox's life who either pushes back with his own temper or gets excited by annoying Maddox. When Jake acts out, he always does it in a playful, purposeful way (like in Book 3.5 at the nightclub) and when Maddox reacts by being angry or possessive or dominating, Maddox is giving Jake exactly what he wants. But having Jake react to Maddox's anger at the shooting range with pleas for understanding and stammered apologies really rubbed me the wrong way because it made their dynamic seem abusive. I also hated the whole thing with Maddox secretly tracking Jake's movements because Jake being independent and capable of taking care of himself was something else that attracted Maddox to him.
After that scene, the story became a boring slog up until Chapter 8. Until then, Maddox is spending time with his mafia employees, trying to figure out the arson situation and there were three problems with this:
1. Jake isn't part of it. Like, at all. Maddox deliberately lies to Jake to hide the true nature behind the seemingly random arson attacks and Jake goes about his normal life working at the stationary store while Maddox and Co (ie Amber, Tom, Carl etc) are trying to deal with the situation. Since this book is from Maddox's POV, it means Jake is barely in this story.
2. All of Maddox's mafia employees (except for Carl) are annoying and one-tone characters. Amber is always angry, aggressive and either wants to slap people in the face or is actually slapping people. Tom is generally just gross (in a literal sense - the guy eats like a pig, constantly sweats etc) and hates Jake. I didn't want to spend two thirds of the book with these annoying people instead of Jake.
3. I know Louise Collins' books require readers to suspend their disbelief. This usually works for me because the story is paced and plotted so well that I barely notice plot holes or the bending of reality. But I put my foot down it comes to characters being stupid and that's exactly what Maddox and co are. From the start of the arson situation, it's obvious that somebody inside Maddox's inner circle has to be part of it because the timing and placement of the arson attacks are too specific for any other explanation.
I know the author was making everything lead up to the final 3 chapters, during which Maddox realizes that keeping Jake in the dark actually hurt both of them (since Jake is the one to figure out that somebody from the inner circle is involved) and that's followed up by a thrilling climax that I really enjoyed. But the rest of the story was boring and pointless.
I was also unimpressed with Mad Dog Maddox in this installment. The whole point of his character is that he's a big bad mafia boss. He's the top dog who everybody else is afraid of. Literally, people cower and hide when he walks by and he effortlessly intimidates people with just a glare. And in Books 1/2, the author provided enough evidence to make this believable. During those two books, Maddox murders two people, both of whom had betrayed Maddox and/or tried to screw with the things that are important to him. In particular, we see in Book 2 that the first murder (killing the guy in the car who had stolen the diamond) was carried out in a cold, precise fashion with zero remorse on Maddox's part. It helped to create the image of a tough, remorseless mafia boss.
But after that, Maddox is portrayed as being oddly kind hearted and forgiving in the face of people not obeying him or impacting his business. For example, when he goes to visit one of the men who he'd loaned money to, he talks about roughing the guy up and I was prepared for lots of violence...but no, Maddox just tells the guy to stop smoking so he can put the smoking money towards paying Maddox back. At the nightclub, he thinks about killing the guy who Jake was flirting with, but their last interaction only involves Maddox glaring at him until the guy runs away. In this book, Maddox's non-violent approach is even more apparent because he seems to go out of his way to solve situations without any violence, such as . Personally, all of these situations made Maddox look soft and kind of pathetic. Maybe the author wanted to make the books after Books 1/2 lighter, but you can't really do that if you choose to make a scary mafia boss one of your MCs. I normally love Maddox's POV but I think being in his POV in this book didn't do the author any favors because it forced her to showcase Maddox's day-to-day mafia dealings, which turned out to be pretty mundane.
Lastly, I was bored with the two sex scenes in this book because they didn't include anything new or interesting.
However, I did enjoy the last 3 chapters that involved Maddox and Jake interacting because there were a lot of good moments between them and the climax of the story related to the traitor was done really well, hence the 2 stars. That climax sets things up really well for Book 5 and I'm curious about the identity of the mystery arsonist, so I'm going to give the last book a shot.
January 26, 2019
Thrilling!
I’m enjoying this series so much, despite the frequent editing errors. This installment was edge-of-your-seat exciting, and while I’m disappointed that things didn’t wrap up, that’s also good because there will be more!
Maddox is a tough nut to crack, but he lets Jake in a little more each time. It’s really helpful having the occasional episode in his POV and seeing his logic behind his actions.
I’m enjoying this series so much, despite the frequent editing errors. This installment was edge-of-your-seat exciting, and while I’m disappointed that things didn’t wrap up, that’s also good because there will be more!
Maddox is a tough nut to crack, but he lets Jake in a little more each time. It’s really helpful having the occasional episode in his POV and seeing his logic behind his actions.
September 9, 2021
3.5
It always pains me when Maddox has to ignore or dismiss Jake for his own safety :(
This volume is more dangerous but still manages to have super hot scene: sex in the middle of the woods... outdoor sex, wow.
It is mostly from Maddox POV since he is being humiliated by a blond woman and he can't sleep, can't leave his apartment, can't see Jake. Except for one day tour where they spend the day together but ends with a murder from a traitor
It always pains me when Maddox has to ignore or dismiss Jake for his own safety :(
This volume is more dangerous but still manages to have super hot scene: sex in the middle of the woods... outdoor sex, wow.
It is mostly from Maddox POV since he is being humiliated by a blond woman and he can't sleep, can't leave his apartment, can't see Jake. Except for one day tour where they spend the day together but ends with a murder from a traitor
September 20, 2018
I really love this couple! I love how Jake keeps Maddox on his toes and I love how dominant Maddox is. Lots of angst and drama in this installment surrounding Maddox and his businesses as someone is after all of his belongings. Jake still has his insecurities with Maddox but when they are together, it's explosive. Can't wait for the next one. I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book.
March 9, 2023
My thoughts as I read:
These books and bodily fluids😭 I can't deal!
Aww, Carl has won me over.
Someone should tell Maddox to stop saying the word dirty!
At this point, I'm tired of the intimate scenes but I love the characters’ dynamics so much I don’t mind skipping over to those parts. So it's still nice. I don't think it's five star worthy. But the end, gosh, that was tense. Can’t wait to see what happens in Book 5.
These books and bodily fluids😭 I can't deal!
Aww, Carl has won me over.
Someone should tell Maddox to stop saying the word dirty!
At this point, I'm tired of the intimate scenes but I love the characters’ dynamics so much I don’t mind skipping over to those parts. So it's still nice. I don't think it's five star worthy. But the end, gosh, that was tense. Can’t wait to see what happens in Book 5.
January 30, 2023
Maddox is stressed out. He knows that someone is out to get him, setting fire to his home and businesses, yet always managing to avoid detection. Jake knows that something is bothering Maddox, but Maddox refuses to open up to Jake. The ending of this installment is very exciting and I look forward to reading the conclusion to this story.
Read 1/29/23
Read 1/29/23
September 18, 2018
Yay
I was worried that the series wouldn't be continued on KU but here it is and it was worth the wait! I love this series and 5 books in it's still interesting, sexy, and a good read. Louise doesn't disappoint; now just hoping for the next installment of the super hero series
I was worried that the series wouldn't be continued on KU but here it is and it was worth the wait! I love this series and 5 books in it's still interesting, sexy, and a good read. Louise doesn't disappoint; now just hoping for the next installment of the super hero series
March 22, 2022
I'm really not sure if I believed that ending. I prefer Jake's perspective.
October 8, 2018
** 3.5 stars **
May 11, 2019
3.75*
September 5, 2023
OMG!! Me va a dar algo 🥴 que pinches nervios, es taaaaan emocionante.
September 13, 2023
Esto se esta poniendo bueno 😌👌🏻
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews