Take Me Down

I enjoyed the first Riggs Brothers book, Drive Me Wild. This one? Not so much.

Jace—25, tall, muscled, and allegedly deep—just finished a 20-month sentence for grand theft auto. (The crime plot involving all the Riggs brothers threads through the series and doesn’t resolve here, in case you were hoping for closure.) Tara, his court-appointed therapist, is supposed to help him reintegrate into society, but she’s too busy making eyes at him. From their first meeting, neither can think about anything but stripping the other naked. And that’s the entire romance.

I can forgive insta-lust. What I can’t forgive is that it never matures into anything more. No banter, no buildup, no emotional development—just two people who don’t know a thing about each other but somehow keep tumbling deeper into an all-consuming forever. I kept waiting for something, anything, to justify their connection, but all I got was a hormonal freefall.

Here’s the thing: It’s not enough to tell me a lead is alluring, the sex is great, and the connection is real. A good romance author makes me feel it. She shows me the glances that linger a beat too long, the hesitation before a touch, the quiet moments where two people begin to see each other. She layers attraction with depth, so by the time the characters fall in love, I’m right there with them. What does Kriss show me? That wanting to bang someone the moment you meet them is apparently the foundation for a deep and abiding forever. Hard pass.

Tara makes no sense as a person and even less as a therapist. Jace’s backstory is absurd. And while I have no issue with virgin heroes, Jace as one is about as believable as a toddler reading Tolstoy.

The writing? Weak sauce. If I took a drink every time Kriss said wrong side of the tracks, I’d be too bombed to finish this (mercifully short) book. And honestly? That might have been preferable. Even the love scenes—usually a Kriss strong point—fell flat. Plenty of sex, no actual heat.

The crime subplot was the only thing keeping me engaged. I am curious to see how the Riggs brothers’ stories tie together. So, yes, I’ll read book three—Ryan’s story. Here’s hoping it delivers, and that this dud was just the proverbial sophomore slump.