Cut & Run (Cut & Run, #1)

by Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux

[lessthelonely]

3/5 stars.

OK, somehow, someway, I managed to read a book with a usually very avoided length - I guess I could start talking about that: this book is long. And here's the thing, if you go and see how big this book is on Goodreads, you'd think it's not that long. 370 pages. Well, on my Kindle, it appeared as 470 with the settings I'm doing - and I've become very accustomed to whatever happens to ebooks I read in it and I've learned to gage certain books that way: over 400 pages is a length I only reserve to fantasy books. Certainly not books that are labeled as Thrillers.

Remember when I said that I was reading way too much romance and I needed to humble myself with a Thriller? I tried. I swear to God I tried, but my initial tries only ended up with me DNFing a couple of books that failed to meet my expectations for a Thriller. And I'm going to take a moment to appreciate someone who gets me and my taste and described what I expect from Thrillers perfectly, all the while just telling people reading their review why they hadn't been so interested in the genre recently:

The books they tried didn't deliver thrills;Books were insanely slow for most of their length until the ending when a twist makes everything happen;

And I believe there was a third point that I also agreed with but I don't remember it and I can't find the review again, so sorry for the incomplete thing. But OK, you understand that Thrillers, for me, are about doing justice to the genre's name. Otherwise, I'm not saying books are inherently bad - they just aren't Thrillers. If you want to know, the review I was mentioning was for The Guest List, by Lucy Foley. Google has a genre for those types of books, that goes for the slow-burn storytelling: Suspense. I agree with that.

Now, is this book a Thriller? No. I mean, it has some cheap thrills - buddy cop blockbuster type beat, ya feel me? - but I didn't read this book for the plot. That's not what kept me going, not by a long shot. No. This book got me going because it was gay. So I just basically read a glorified romance with a serial killer plot. And I don't have many regrets on that end, because the romance left me extremely invested. But don't think this book is getting anywhere near 5 stars. I can't, with a right mind, give him that rating, but I'm getting ahead of myself. I want to talk about the positives, first.

I'm going to do a comparison that you'll probably frown at when you read it, but I want to remind you it's a compliment: this reads like a fanfic. I am not saying that this is undoubtedly a repurposed fanfic from some cop TV show where the two main guys are painfully straight but with the highest level of homoerotic undertones. Maybe that is spot-on, but I don't watch cop TV shows, even if they're gay.

So. Moving on. Why do I say this: because this book is short but it reads EXTREMELY SLOW. We're talking painfully slow slow-burn, which I'm all here for and there you go for the reason I finished this book. But this book is also a mess: one second nothing has happened for the past 50 pages, and then a main character is in immediate, high-stakes danger because a computer gets fucking kamikaze'd. I have to admit I got whiplash more than once and it was hard to shake it off, even if the romance kind of makes up for it with some good tropes: enemies to lovers (though there is a problem with it, just a sec), tend-to-wounds, angst... And I'm talking A N G S T.

OK, let's talk about the main selling point: enemies to lovers. It started very interesting and well-executed. Then, it got a little bit stale because this book got a little too caught up with selling the tropes. I think this book is, undoubtedly, a product of its time. It came out in 2008 or 2007, and it shows. So the romance gets a little bit hindered as the two lovers get caught up in their own identity as men and though it was very fascinating to read, I'd even say realistic for men within Ty and Zane's age range, where the idea of being attracted to men poses a very looming threat to their fragile concept of masculinity.

The point I'm trying to make is that this would've been even better if they got past this thing and realized there isn't anything wrong a bit quicker, but since the authors wanted to maybe subvert expectations, we get this amalgamation of moments of genuine care and love between these two - glorious to read, by the way! -, but then they're on-and-offing the way they treat each other, saying that they hate each other. You might think: Oh, so it's an "I hate you" that means the opposite, is that it? I guess? It's hard to know because the authors went above and beyond with these interactions, making them seriously angry at each other and you get a little bit confused. 

I guess I should say that a lot of the times they're angry it's a bit... dramatic? Like, I guess it makes sense that some of the things they do to each other make them resent one another a bit... but there it is! A bit. The thing is, I 100% see men of this age acting like this. At least these two don't act like women are the emotional ones, I guess. 

The romance is still glorious, in my opinion. Their first (and only) sex scene is absolutely everything I waited for. But since I've already started the negatives, let's keep this roll going. The writing is very repetitive. And adverb heavy. I admit I kind of turned my brain off, but when I was researching reviews to see what people thought of this book, I saw a lot of excerpts and remembered myself thinking... That's a lot of words ending in -ly. It's not indigestible, in my opinion. Treat it like fanfiction. I heard book 2 is way better but I don't think I'll be reading it. We'll see.

(I'm back on my MM romance bullshit, by the way, expect more reviews of books in that genre. I'll try to mix it up a bit with others, tho.)

Finally, I guess I should tell you the plot gets 100% sidelined by the romance. The reveal didn't surprise me - before the middle point, I already knew who the killer was. The biggest thrill the book got out of me was then. I did enjoy the method reveal - about the killer's pattern. Very nice!

So... I'd say that if you want something romantic but unbelievably angsty and slow-paced this is for you. Have fun!