SATISFACTION
Series: Lawless #2
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Author: Lexi Blake
Release Date: January 3, 2017
The sizzling second novel in a sexy new contemporary romance series featuring the Lawless siblings—from New York Times bestselling author Lexi Blake.
Brandon Lawless is a man on a mission: obtain the information that will clear his father’s name. He’s willing to do whatever it takes—even seduce his enemy’s personal assistant, the beautiful and innocent Carly Hendricks. But with her beguiling smile and captivating intelligence, Brandon soon realizes he doesn’t want to deceive Carly, he wants to win her over—both in the boardroom and the bedroom.
Then a twisted crime leaves Carly vulnerable and Brandon finds himself reeling. The stakes of his mission are now life or death—Carly’s life. And Brandon realizes he’s lost his heart to an amazing woman and his plan must succeed, because the stakes are no longer just revenge, but a once in a lifetime love.
He got his hands on her, covered her mouth with his. And all the dark voices that seemed to whisper to him all his days quieted. She was his peace.
It’s no secret that I’m obsessed with all things Lexi Blake, and ever since I first met the Lawless siblings in Master No, I’ve been eagerly anticipating their story. Suffice it to say, I was utterly hooked from book one. Ruthless sets off the series with Riley’s story. Mia’s story was a crossover in Dominance Never Dies. If you haven’t yet read the Masters and Mercenaries series by Lexi, you’re seriously missing out. But as always, I digress…
Satisfaction brings the story of the broken Lawless sibling, Brandon. We got a peak into his hidden demons in the first book; Bran has a hero complex a mile long, but you don’t know why. You know it stems from an event in his childhood which left him forever scarred, but you don’t know what. All we know is that if there’s a damsel in distress somewhere, whether stripper or hooker, odds are, Bran is right there trying to help her. He’s also the sibling that seems to hide the most scars from his past. When the Lawless siblings were torn apart and thrown into the system after their parents’ death, Bran took the brunt of the luck and barely aged out of it intact. Now he fights his demons with his fist and a barely repressed anger and a violence that quickly boils sits below the surface.
Watching the pain his brother’s now wife went through in their quest for revenge, he’ll be damned if he does that to another woman. So when the Lawless siblings set their sights on Patricia, the 3rd partner that they suspect was behind their parents murder, Bran breaks the plan and unveils the plan to Patricia’s assistant who they hope will be the person that helps them bring her down.
Carly Hendricks is coming off of a brutal divorce during which her husband took her for everything. A shy little mouse, her barely existing confidence took a real beating and she has a hard time understanding how a sexy man like Bran could hold even the slightest bit of interest in her. What begins then is a game of push and pull. Bran wants her, but he’s not good enough for her. Carly wants him, but doesn’t think he wants mousy little her.
As much as I loved the first book in this series, I’m a little bummed that this one paled in comparison. I think my main issue was the couple. I felt zero connection to either Carly or Bran. While I liked Bran as a character, I just had a hard time disconnecting his hero complex from his true feelings for Carly. She was just too much of the stereotype that he would typically try to rescue, so I suppose I had as hard a time as Carly really buying his love for her.
Carly was just too much of a mouse for me. While she does have a backbone that comes out later in the story and I could certainly sympathize with and understand her lack of self esteem, her constant questioning of her appeal wore me down. She was a heroine that unfortunately I’d forget about as soon as I read her. As a couple, they lacked a certain sizzle for me. Sure the sex was hot, but I just couldn’t click with their connection.
I found the suspense a bit boring at times too. The beginning and middle sort of dragged if I’m being honest. What DID keep my attention, as always, was Drew. And it didn’t hurt that his love interest is introduced here and boy does that set up already crackle with sexual tension. There’s a twist at the end that I never saw coming, which definitely added a great punch to the story. I can’t wait to see how everything concludes with Drew’s book next.
All in all, while it wasn’t my favorite in the series, the book at least helped tide me over until my next Lexi Blake fix.
DON’T MISS THE FIRST BOOK IN THE LAWLESS SERIES!
PRE-ORDER REVEVENGE!
(Releasing June 20, 2017)
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