Outside the Lines
Series: On the Run #1
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Author: Lisa Desrochers
Release Date: January 19, 2016
The first in an edgy new contemporary romance series that follows a family on the run, from the author of the USA Today bestselling A Little Too Far series…
As the oldest son of a Chicago crime lord, Robert Delgado always knew how dangerous life could be. With his mother dead and his father in prison, he’s taking charge of his family’s safety—putting himself and his siblings in witness protection to hide out in a backwater Florida town.
Fourth grade teacher Adri Wilson is worried about the new boy in her class. Sherm is quiet and evasive, especially when he’s around his even cagier older brother. Adri can’t help her attraction to Rob, or the urge to help them both in whatever way she can.
But the Delgados have enemies on two sides of the mob—their father’s former crew and the rival family he helped take down. It’s only a matter of time before someone finds them. And if Rob isn’t careful, Adri could end up in the crossfire…
You are so fucking beautiful in every way, and all I can do is ruin you…”
From the second I read the blurb to Outside The Lines I was hooked. I knew I had to read. You see, I have this obsession with mafia romances. As in, I can’t ever pass one up. And having loved Lisa’s A Little Too Far series, adding this one was a no brainer.
The premise of the book is fantastic. Robert “Rob” Delgado is the oldest son of a Chicago crime lord. When a rivalry with another mafia family finally overbuilds with a hit gone wrong against Rob and his four siblings, his father takes a plea bargain in order to get them WITSEC. Now Rob finds himself at a backwater Florida town, still plotting revenge against those that betrayed their family. The only problem is finding out who they are first.
Adri Wilson has grown up in the small little town. Her father is the sheriff (enter super delicious set up of boy on the wrong side of the law falling for the sheriff’s daughter) and a fourth grade teacher who happens to have Rob’s youngest brother in her class. Robert draws her in straight away. There’s something about him, something behind those unreadable eyes that intrigues her. She wants to help him. She wants to help his siblings. But before she does all that, she needs to find out the truth he’s hiding behind all his lies.
This book had such strong potential that got lost somewhere between all the mundane details. After the first 15%, I found my interest steadily waning until I was almost ready to give up by the halfway point. Luckily it does pick up, but not enough to really raise my rating.
There’s a lot of day to day activity, description, and just mundane detail that takes away from the story. It could have easily been cut out and not effected the book any in my opinion. The characters were in their head a little too much for my tastes and it also took much too long for Robert to come to his senses with certain things. There was a scene with Rob and another woman at one point that I truly felt the story could have gone without. Particularly since this was already past the 40% mark, the only thing it did was diminish his connection with Adri for me. I don’t mind scenes with ow so long as I feel they add to the story, and it really didn’t here.
Adri was incredible naive and pure for my tastes, too. Her constant drive to fix everyone around her with no thought to her own safety didn’t do much to endear me to her. Her being a virgin on top of everything was just another added blah.
I did like the two of them together, but the sex scenes, while hot, were almost cheesy at times.
What ultimately hooked me was the set up for the rest of the siblings. While the book ends on a romance HEA between Rob and Adri, the whole who done it of the hit is still unclear and the Delgado siblings are still in WITSEC. There was a bit of a hint at a rival family’s son and Rob’s sister that I’m hoping will be getting a book. I’m also itching to get my hands on Grant’s story as well as Ulie and Lee. That alone is enough to keep me reading. Hopefully the next book will be a little quicker paced.
Outside The Lines was one of those reads that wasn’t bad and wasn’t great. It was just ok. A middle of the road kind of read if you will. I didn’t hate it, but it’s nothing I’d come back to either. I do have my hopes set on the next book because like I said, the premise of the series is truly a fantastic one.
Graphics are stock purchased and created by me for DGR blog. Please don’t share without permission
There’s two things I’m guaranteed when I pick up another book in this fantastic series:
![Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000038_00072]](https://i0.wp.com/dirtygirlromance.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/27406436.jpg?resize=300%2C450)
I was craving a romance that was different and preferably a little bit of a mind fuck and when I read the synopsis for Unhinge, I knew I found myself a winner. It was a book that I read in practically one sitting not only because it read quickly and the writing grabbed me, but because the mystery of what was going on was driving me almost as crazy as Victoria was. Unhinge was exactly the kind of different I wanted.
Victoria has no recollection of her life before Fairfax Hospital, where she believes she’s been for the past three years when it’s really been six months. She knows two things; she loves her baby daughter, Evelyn, that’s in the institution with her and that she’s told that her beloved husband, Wes, is dead after a tragic accident. The details of how, why, and when are blurred within the shadows of her own mind. Determined that the hospital doesn’t hold her answers, she stops taking her pills. But there’s another two things that she knows; She sees her supposedly dead husband every day when he visits her in her room and a mysterious stranger that visits her is tugging not only at her memories but her heart. Her mind is frayed, but she’s convinced her husband is alive. So then why is everyone telling her he’s dead?
Well, well, well, Ms Kim Jones, welcome to my must read list because you write one hell of a fucked up tale and I happen to like it verra much. See, I have a thing for unconventional characters, and when I read the synopsis for Clubwhore, I knew I had to read it. In a sea of cookie cutter heroines, Delilah was a breath of fresh air. She makes no apologies for who she is. She embraces it fully. She loves the MC life, they’re her family and she’ll do anything for them. But while the other ‘clubwhores’ have their eyes on a patch and being someone’s old lady, Delilah wants none of that. She’s happy to have a different man warm her bed each night and promise her nothing in the morning. But there’s also a good reason for why she is the way she is. Sex is her escape, but she craves something much darker too. It’s her dirty secret and her penance. She knows that no man can satisfy her deepest darkest urges…until him.
You know when you read an epilogue that’s so good, it not only manages to be the perfect conclusion to the book but it actually flawlessly ties the entire series up. Like you have this amazingly delicious three-tiered cake, and it’s already prefect without anything, but then you add that icing that takes it from delicious to amazing? That’s what the epilogue of Appealed was to me. It was simple perfection. It deserves 5 stars just for that. But let’s talk about the actual book for a hot second here, shall we?
So at this point of the book, I’m as giddy as a Bilieber at a Justin Bieber concert. Their constant barbs in the courtroom and outside of it are laden with a heavy undercurrent of lust and you’re reading just waiting for them to give into the undeniable chemistry that’s brewing between them. And let’s be honest, what’s better than hate-to-lust? When it’s gloriously written entirely in the male POV and I fell hard for Brent from the very first chapter. He may be the happy-go-lucky friend of the group, but there was always something to him that just drew me. It may be because it’s not often you’ll read about a hero with a prosthetic leg that didn’t suffer his injury during a deployment. Or it may be because of his humor. But really it’s because when this man falls, he falls hard and he has no issue showing it and fighting for what he wants.
My my, Ella Frank, what a twisted tale you weave. The Masters Among Monsters series continues with Isadora, and all the puzzle pieces from the previous books begin to slowly put themselves together. But while you get answers to some things, you’re left with plenty more questions.
