What a spectacular thrill-ride this series has been start to finish! For someone who rarely reads Romantic Suspense novels, this story has now turned me into a bona fide aficionado, and this author’s fan for life. Just as action-packed as its prequel, just as brilliantly written and masterfully executed, this was a book I was dying to get my hands on from the moment I knew it was coming, and it did not disappoint one bit. An unexpected love story, striking in its beauty, juxtaposed against a violent backdrop of deadly gun fights, sadistic mobsters, and hair-raising escapes—I felt like my poor heart was going to either burst out of my chest or give up on me altogether, and I loved every single exhilarating second of it. This is nothing less than one of my favourite reads of the year.
“She was quicker, faster. Lily 2.0. Her curves had been replaced by tone muscles, and her fiery passion had been replaced by ice cold anger.”
After surviving their diamond heist across North Africa, they might have found hope for a better life in each other’s arms, but we find our two mercenaries apart. In an attempt to spare her from risking her own life by going after the man who put a bounty on her head, Marcelle “Marc” De Sant has abandoned the love of his life on a beach in East Africa, telling her to find happiness without him. But as noble as his intentions might have been, Liliana “Lily” Brewster is all but moved by his actions, and determined now more than ever to prove to him and to everyone else what she’s made of. And then kill Marc for not believing in her.
“Do you see any of this, De Sant? Wherever you are, have you heard about me yet? You’re a coward, you’re spineless, you’re weak willed, and I’m going to prove who is the stronger one, once and for all.”
With the help of our favourite smooth-operating, suit-donning, motto-professing, deadly Englishman, Lily trains to become an unstoppable killing machine, channeling her heartbreak into an unquenchable thirst for vengeance and justice. She single-mindedly hunts the man responsible for her sister’s death, chasing him across two continents and using every resource at her disposal, but as she finally reaches her target, she finds herself in a face-off with the very man who broke her heart.
“You think I’m some delicate, fragile, little girl wandering around out here. I’m not. I wasn’t in Africa, and I’m even less of one now. You need to recognize that.”
“You’re delicate to me, and I would die if I broke you.”
And so we embark on a nail-biting adventure peppered with countless twists and turns, never knowing what act of death-defying insanity we’d find as we turn the next page. Yet, as wild and dangerous as their mission becomes, the love story between Marc and Lily never fails to take centre stage, driving the story forward and infusing it with a romantic softness that stands in stark contrast to the mayhem around them.
“You’re free. Go back to work. Get some jobs. Become Marcelle De Sant again.”
“Sweetheart, I haven’t been him since I looked into a pair of green eyes six months ago.”
Lily is quite possibly the most fearless heroine I have ever come across, a woman set on proving to everyone around her that she is no wilting flower and that she does not need a man to ‘save’ her, but her true courage is to be found in the way her heart refuses to stop loving even when giving her heart away is the riskiest act of them all.
“How could I have gone home? Home had become wherever he was.”
A brilliant marriage of gripping drama and gritty action, held together by phenomenal character development and mouth-watering chemistry between them, this is a book I devoured as quickly as I could, absolutely entranced by this author’s vivid prose and flair for effortlessly mixing action sequences and sexy romance. I hope one day to see this breathtaking story on the big screen since that is where it truly belongs, the role of Lily naturally played by Bruce Willis, in a red wig or something, because…Bruce Willis.
“I came out here so you wouldn’t have to.”
Excerpt
She writhed on top of him, grinding her hips down while her fingernails raked across his scalp. He was still tied to the chair, so he just leaned into her as much as he could, pulling his lips away from hers so he could work them down her neck.
“God, you’re incredible,” he groaned, pulling at her shirt with his teeth. She leaned away and yanked the blouse off, then grabbed his head and shoved it into her cleavage.
“Why did you tease me for so many years!? We could have done this long ago, then you wouldn’t have to die,” she told him, pulling her skirt up even higher so it was above her hips.
“Hindsight is twenty-twenty,” he replied, then locked his lips over her nipple and sucked hard.
That did it. She shrieked, her whole body shimmying. Then she was moving, pushing him away. She rushed around the chair and soon enough, he felt her cutting his restraints off. She came back to his front and cut his legs free, then grabbed his belt, yanking him to his feet.
He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her close, his free hand pulling roughly at her hair while he plunged his tongue into her mouth. She fought with his buckle while they stumbled across the room. They fell into a large dresser, the items on top of it clattering and clanking together.
“I want you to tie me up. Use the whip – don’t be gentle,” she demanded. He chuckled and bit down on her lip.
“Oh, don’t worry baby. I won’t.”
The hand in her hair yanked back. Beyond sexy hair pulling; hard enough to make her shriek and forcing her to look straight up at the ceiling. His other hand grabbed one of the many knives that sat on top of the dresser and then he spun her around, letting go of her hair and circling his arms around her torso. He held the knife to her throat, pressing so hard that if she so much as shook her head, blood would spill.
See? This is so much better than foreplay.
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Your reviews are the best, they always have me 1-clicking
AWWWWW!!! Thank you so much, Sue!! xxx