{"id":76598,"date":"2024-10-10T08:00:13","date_gmt":"2024-10-10T12:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=76598"},"modified":"2024-10-09T08:22:32","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T12:22:32","slug":"release-arc-review-crossfire-the-cross-duet-1-by-kathy-lockheart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=76598","title":{"rendered":"Release & ARC Review: Crossfire (The Cross Duet, #1) by Kathy Lockheart"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Crossfire, the first book in the Cross Duet by Kathy Lockheart is live<\/strong><\/h4>\n

A fast paced and exciting romantic mystery\/thriller, this is a chemistry-filled sort-of-enemies-to-lovers story that had me hooked from the very beginning<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Amazon<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n

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Blurb<\/strong><\/h4>\n

In my defense, I didn’t know he was sent to kill me when I fell in love with him.<\/b><\/p>\n

Grayson. Dark. Dangerous. Irresistible.<\/p>\n

One moment, he’s making me feel alive for the first time since Dad died. The next? He’s got a cold steel blade to my throat.\u00a0Turns out, Mr. Tall, Dark, and Homicidal is actually an assassin ordered to kill me.<\/b><\/p>\n

Now I’m his prisoner. I hate that his touch still ignites my soul, each one a cruel reminder that the next could be my last. I want to believe he would never actually hurt me, but Grayson\u2019s code is eliminate any threat to innocents. And someone’s working overtime to convince him I\u2019m guilty\u2026 Who? And why?<\/p>\n

As secrets unravel, I’m forced to confront the shocking truth about why Grayson was sent to silence me forever\u2026 Leaving me with one haunting<\/p>\n

Will the man who gave me a reason to live become the one who takes my life?<\/b><\/p>\n

**Author’s This book follows Grayson Lockwood, brother of Hunter from the Vendetta Duet. While not essential, readers may enjoy starting with Secret Vendetta for additional context.<\/i><\/p>\n

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Add to Goodreads<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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Review<\/b><\/h4>\n

“My best chance of surviving was in the protective arms of my assassin.”<\/i><\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

3.5 stars<\/b><\/p>\n

A fast paced and exciting romantic mystery\/thriller, this is a chemistry-filled sort-of-enemies-to-lovers story that had me hooked from the very beginning, and I really enjoyed this read.<\/p>\n

This is the first book in a duet, and part of a broader series as it follows on from the Vendetta Duet<\/i> – the heroes of both duets are brothers, and there are two more Lockwood brothers who look poised to have their stories told as well. But you could read this duet independently of the first (I did). Just beware mini-spoilers for the earlier books.<\/p>\n

Grayson Lockwood is a CIA assassin who is on the trail of a dangerous arms dealer, but his mission goes all wrong when an unknown woman walks into his carefully set-up trap. It\u2019s his second attempt to take down this particular bad guy, so when he fails again, he assumes the woman is involved somehow, and he\u2019s determined to find out all that he can about her. So he plans a \u2018random\u2019 meeting at her local coffee shop, posing as a flirtatious customer, only to find himself completely smitten for real.<\/p>\n

Ivy is pretty much at rock bottom. She is in some serious financial trouble, she\u2019s got a pesky ex, and she\u2019s still grieving the death of her beloved father a year ago. Then she gets caught up in a scary situation and barely escapes with her life. But things start to look up when she meets Grayson in a coffee shop. He\u2019s smart, funny, their chemistry is wild, and he makes her alive for the first time in a long time.<\/p>\n

But their two worlds truly collide when Grayson received his next target, and it turns out to be the very woman that he\u2019s falling for. Desperate to uncover the truth, he whisks her away to a remote cabin to figure out who Ivy really is, what she is involved in, and who is targeting her.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an exciting ride, and I was right on board with these two from the very beginning. I could feel their attraction, I was excited to see how their story would unfold, and when everything shifts and we get this captive\/captor, forced proximity situation, it becomes even more intense. With the story written in dual POV, we know exactly what\u2019s going on with both of them and can see how they feel about each other, but I loved watching them work through it all, falling harder for each other every step of the way. The romance is fast moving but it\u2019s sexy and emotional with great sexual tension, and it ties in well with the mystery and suspense of their situation, which kept me guessing through the whole story.<\/p>\n

This is my first read by Kathy Lockheart, and I like her writing, though I think there was a bit too much time spent inside the characters\u2019 heads. It\u2019s one of those situations where a line of dialogue is spoken, and then you disappear into the character\u2019s thoughts so deeply that by the time they reply, you have to flick back and see what they\u2019re responding to. I prefer more dialogue to thoughts in my books. But I am invested in the story and keen to go back and read Grayson\u2019s brother, Hunter\u2019s books. I enjoyed what we did see of his family, and am hoping we get to see more of them.<\/p>\n

The book ends on a nasty cliffhanger, and I\u2019m looking forward to the continuation of Grayson and Ivy\u2019s story in [book:Crossover|217292064].<\/p>\n

I enjoyed this one \u2013 3.5 stars.<\/p>\n

An Advanced Review Copy was generously provided by the author for an honest review.<\/i><\/p>\n

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The Cross Duet<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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Crossfire (#1)
\n<\/strong>Review<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n

Crossover (#2)<\/strong>
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Meet the Author<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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Kathy Lockheart is an International and Amazon Top 25 Bestselling Author of Romance with intense suspense. Her books\u2014which have a unique blend of emotional elements typically found in women’s fiction and the romance and danger elements found in romantic suspense\u2014contain themes that include dark romance antiheroes, enemies to lovers alpha tropes, and forbidden romance angst. When she’s not writing, you can find her silently cursing the person who put fluorescent lights in dressing rooms.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Website\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Goodreads\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Amazon<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 Facebook<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 Facebook Group<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 Instagram\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Twitter<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 TikTok<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 Bookbub<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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  Crossfire, the first book in the Cross Duet by Kathy Lockheart is live A fast paced and exciting romantic mystery\/thriller, this is a chemistry-filled sort-of-enemies-to-lovers story that had me hooked from the very beginning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":3.5,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,86,95,9,29],"tags":[59,1586,1585,48],"class_list":["post-76598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action","category-enemies-to-lovers","category-mystery","category-romance","category-steamy","tag-arc","tag-cross-duet","tag-kathy-lockheart","tag-review"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Crossfire.jpg?fit=200%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-jVs","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=76598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/76492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=76598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=76598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=76598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}