The author duo known as Taylor Hutton is back in the groove with a steamy follow-up to their debut dark romance, Strike and Burn. Axe and Grind returns to the shadowy world of sexy former CIA operatives and the snappy women who keep them on their toes.
Josie Hart is finding her footing as an independent young woman after a childhood of battling illnesses. She beat the leukemia, learned to live with her type 1 diabetes, but is still fighting for emancipation from her mother, who can’t seem to get out of the warrior mom mode she donned for most of Josie’s childhood. In order for Josie to move on, she’s seriously considering an opportunity from Axe MacKenzie to help test his AI dating simulator.
Axe is ready to move on with his life as well, beyond the bloody CIA assassin work that defined him for years. He’s leaving behind the lizard brain that kept him alive in the field and reverting to the nerdy programmer he was as a teen. His company is developing a virtual girlfriend for the hordes of geeks desperate to pluck their ideal AI gal from the ether. And he’s got his sights set on Josie as a real-life model for the bot.
Josie’s not thrilled with the idea of becoming an AI “It” girl, but a girl’s gotta eat. And maintain her expensive prescription meds. And be independent. Right? Josie’s desperation propels her toward Axe’s offer, and Hutton takes a tried-and-true trope—fake dating—and gives it a very modern twist: Josie will go on fake dates with Axe while his team collects data on their interactions to build the bot.
But just as they’re getting into the groove of this situation, danger comes knocking in the form of Axe’s violent past. Even though Axe and Josie have perilous situations and enemies to face, they still have decisions to make, new life trajectories to take and new romantic opportunities to entertain, and Hutton ably balances suspense with character growth in this worthy sequel to Strike and Burn.