REVIEW: Live Wire (Nashville's Finest #1)

Live Wire (Nashville's Finest #1), by Caisey Quinn
Publish Date: March 7, 2017
Publisher: Intermix
Format: e-ARC, provided by the publisher
Genre: adult contemporary romance
To Buy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Rating: 4.5 STARS

(Synopsis) HE’S NOT AFRAID OF ANYTHING… 

Explosive ordinance disposal specialist Chase Fisk never breaks a sweat defusing even the most complicated of explosives. So when a homicidal maniac threatens to set off military-grade IEDs during Nashville’s largest music festival, Chase is the man to take him down. But with the reappearance of a woman he thought was long dead, everything he thought he knew is blown away.

EXCEPT LOSING HER AGAIN.

FBI operative Vivien Montgomery is an enigma to everyone around her. So when a deadly threat lands her in Nashville and paired up with the only man she’s ever loved, she isn’t looking forward to an emotional reunion. She’s only here to get the job done and get out. But when the madman behind the chaos targets her for death, the one man she left behind might be the only person she can count on to save her life...

The story laid out in Live Wire was started in a novella that I read several months ago. It blew me away, especially the end when Vivien Montgomery was killed and her boyfriend Chase was left devastated by the loss. I remember reading the end and thinking, "That can't be it."

Thankfully, that was not it. 

Live Wire picks up four years later, as we learn that Vivien in fact did not die, but was taken in by the feds and put undercover to bring down some really bad people. When she was done her assignment, she was too afraid to go back to Chase in case he was so angry she lied to him he wouldn't speak to her. But now her hand is being forced and she is about to come face-to-face with the man she never stopped loving. And she has no idea how he's going to take it.

Needless to say, Chase doesn't take her return from the dead well. My heart absolutely broke for both of them. Chase was obviously feeling horribly betrayed because she never told him she was alive. Vivien is a mess because Chase is being so openly hostile toward her. I can understand both points of view. Neither Viven nor Chase are completely innocent of wrong. 

I knew that Vivien's return was going to be emotional, but I was surprised by all the feels. Caisey Quinn did a wonderful job connecting me with both main characters. I was right in the story with them as they tried to figure out a way to work together again amidst all their past baggage. 

To make matters even more complicated and stressful, there's someone after Vivien and Chase automatically steps in to protect her. Thankfully, they don't spend the entire book being hateful with one another, so there's still plenty of sexual chemistry and hot times between the sheets. 

We get to spend a bit more time with Chase's fellow bomb squad members and get to know them in advance of their own books coming out. I'm really loving what I'm seeing and can't wait to see what their stories will bring. Because this one? Chase and Vivian's story? It was pretty epic.