A woman on a mission

Phoebe Graham is a specialist in deep cover espionage, infiltrating the enemy, observing their practices, and when necessary eliminating the threat. Her latest assignment is McKay-Taggart Security Services, staffed with former military and intelligence operatives. They routinely perform clandestine operations all over the world but it isn’t until Jesse Murdoch joins the team that her radar starts spinning. Unfortunately so does her head. He’s gorgeous and sweet and her instincts tell her to trust him but she’s been burned before, so he’ll stay where he belongs—squarely in her sights.

A man on the run

Since the moment his Army unit was captured by jihadists, Jesse’s life has been a nightmare. Forced to watch as those monsters tortured and killed his friends and the woman he loved, something inside him snapped. When he’s finally rescued, everyone has the same question—why did he alone survive? Clouded in accusations and haunted by the faces of those he failed, Jesse struggles in civilian life until McKay-Taggart takes him in. Spending time with Phoebe, the shy and beautiful accountant, makes him feel human for the first time in forever. If someone so innocent and sweet could accept him, maybe he could truly be redeemed.

A love they never expected

When Phoebe receives the order to eliminate Jesse, she must choose between the job she’s dedicated her life to and the man who’s stolen her heart. Choosing Jesse would mean abandoning everything she believes in, and it might mean sharing his fate because a shadowy killer is dedicated to finishing the job started in Iraq.

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He’d fought and fought to live and now he was going to stand here and let her do her worst.
He didn’t want to live in a world where she betrayed him. He simply didn’t.

I’ve been a huge fan of this series since the very first book. Now eight books in and it’s still going strong. I think this may have been my favorite of the Masters and Mercenaries. I’ve been curious about Jesse’s story since we first meet him earlier in the series. He’s always been such a broken and tortured soul, that you couldn’t help but crave a HEA for him. This is a man that’s truly known suffering and needed a HEA that was truly worthy of the type of person he is, and boy did Lexi Blake deliver on that. She really gave it justice with this book.

You played me. You played me hard and well. You had me panting after you and then you pointed a bullet straight at my fucking heart. Do you see the irony, Phoebe? I was falling for you and you were there to kill me.

Phoebe has always been the super shy, clumsy and unassuming accountant for Taggart McKay. But looks can be deceiving and it her case, deadly. Having lost the love of her life in a mission gone terribly wrong, Phoebe is determined to bring those responsible for his death to justice…even if it means going deep undercover.

Jesse has been half in love with the quiet and shy Phoebe, but when he finds out who she really is, his world gets flipped. He wants her heart, but her heart belongs to a dead man.

This is probably the most emotional book in the series, or at least it was for me. Having tidbits of Jesse’s problems in the earlier books, you know that his problems run deep. He lives a waking nightmare with the PTSD and the memories of a voice that tortured and almost broke him. He finally thought he found his redemption when he met Phoebe, but he knows that he can never have her.

Every second of every day I want you to remember this…
Remember every second that you could have had a man who worshipped you with his body and soul.”

I really don’t want to give too much away, because this is simply a book you need to experience for yourself without any major details. But I will say that I absolutely loved it. There is nothing better than a kick ass heroine for me, and Phoebe was definitely that. But she also had a broken side to her that balanced out the tough operative persona. She can handle herself in the field, but her soul was broken with the death of her husband that she adored. I appreciated that Lexi Blake never diminished her love for her husband and yet made the reader truly see what her connection to Jesse was and make it real. It didn’t feel like settling, which I was afraid of. The connection between them was tangible…and not to mention super sexy

You won’t be quiet when I fuck you. You’ll give them a show. You’ll let them know just how good it feels to be fucked by me and I will make sure you scream. Don’t even think you can hold out on me. I won’t let it happen. I’ll fuck you so long and so hard, you’ll give me everything I want.

My other concern was how Jesse would come off as a Dom. He’s such a tortured soul that I was afraid he may come off as almost too broken, but that never happened. When he finally got his shit together, the man was truly a top. But he always maintained this vulnerable edge to him which was so incredibly endearing that you couldn’t help but completely fall for him.

I really wouldn’t recommend reading this book as a standalone as there is a story ARC that continues throughout the series. While you wouldn’t necessarily feel lost, you would appreciate this story and all secondary characters and the MCs that much more if you read it in order. Of course it wouldn’t be a Masters and Mercenaries book without Ian and his banter…

This is really the greatest thing that ever happened to me. Well, besides the whole wife-coming-back-from-the-dead and having a baby and shit, but other than that, getting to punch Ten at random is really the best.”

You also finally get a true peak into the enigma that is Tennessee Smith, and you just KNOW that his book is bound to be a fantastic one.

I don’t think there was anything about this book that I didn’t love. It was action-packed, emotional, filled with heart-pounding suspense and oh so sexy. I adored Phoebe and Jesse together. Their story will equal parts break your heart and absolutely melt it.

I think what I’ve figured out is that we don’t have a limited amount of love. It doesn’t get all used up and then there’s nothing left. We choose. We choose who we love and how we love, and how we love, and there is nothing between two consenting adults that brings them connection and pleasure and joy that’s wrong. This is ours, Phoebe.

Of course I also loved all the secondary characters (including some new faces). Did I already mention Ian and Charlie?

Charlie, that’s not a foot. It’s a horn. We’re having a demon. I know it.”
She rolled her pretty eyes and sighed. “They’re your girls so they’re probably slightly demonic.”

I can’t wait to get my hands on Ten’s book next and hopefully Ian’s brothers will be getting theirs soon after. If you like sexy espionage and BDSM all in one action packed book, this series is a definite must read!

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A Tragic Love Story

Charlotte Dennis’s mission was clear: distract and misdirect CIA operative Ian Taggart by any means necessary. If she failed, she would never see her sister again. With her training, it should have been simple, but after one night in Ian’s arms, she knew that saving her sister would mean losing the man of her dreams.

Ian was tracking a terrorist when he met the beautiful American daughter of a Russian mobster. His instincts told him Charlotte was trouble, but his body craved her like a drug and his heart would not be denied. She took his ring and his collar. For once he was truly happy. But as he closed in on his target, her betrayal cost him his mission while her sacrifice saved his life. As she died in his arms, Ian vowed he would never love again.

A Dangerous Reunion

For six years, Charlotte has thought of nothing but returning to her husband, her Master. Working in the shadows, she has devoted herself to earning a chance to reclaim her place in Ian’s life. But forgiveness isn’t a part of Ian’s vocabulary.

Nothing is more important to Ian Taggart than his new mission. But the information he needs is firmly in the hands of the woman who betrayed him. To catch his most dangerous prey, Ian will have to let Charlotte back into his life. As the hunt takes them to some of the world’s most exotic locations, the danger grows and their passion reignites.

Will Ian forgive his wayward submissive…or lose her again?

AMAZON

He’d been a different man with Charlotte, a softer man, a man who might have had a future.

If there was one thing she’d learned in her lifetime, it was that the world was a game. She would win or she would die.When I read the first book in the Masters and Mercenaries book, I knew, I just knew that I had to, I needed, I had to have Ian’s book.

I’m pretty sure I got to a point where all I had to do was think of Ian’s name and my mind was all

So needless to say, my anticipation and my hopes have gotten quite high in 5 books’ span. I don’t remember the last time I pre-ordered a book and then spent hours staring at my Kindle willing it to come in. Did this book meet my expectations? Not quite…IAN

The bigger they are, the bigger they fall. That’s kind of the idea I had built up in my mind for Ian. He was always so cynical with love with all his friends. I was waiting for a woman to come in to knock him on his ass. So when 5 years later his dead wife shows up at his office, he gets thrown for a bit of a loop.

Charlie

I absolutely loved Charlie’s personality from the last book. She was spunky, tough, and kick-ass. I just knew that she was going to be even better in her own book. She had been through so much in her life and at the hands of her father. And when she was forced to betray Ian five years ago in order to save herself and her sister, she has spent those years apart trying to atone for her actions.

A girl had to have a hobby. Hers just happened to be causing chaos for some of the world’s worst terrorists and criminals. It was fun.

She made plenty of sacrifices, and even stood in front of a bullet for a member of Ian’s team in the previous book. All in hopes for earning the right to be back in his life.

When Ian is force to work with Charlotte since she holds the key information he needs in order to finally get to the rogue agent responsible so much of his past turmoil, he finds it hard to fight his attraction to her. Even though he should hate her for what she did to him, he can’t help but still feel the pull between them.

He was going to kill her. He was going to wrap his hands around her pretty throat and squeeze. Except the minute he had the vision of killing his back-from-the-dead wife, she was suddenly naked and he wasn’t thinking about throttling her anymore. Maybe he could fuck her to death. That would be a better way to go.

The one thing that I have loved in Lexi Blake’s books in the past was the super steamy love scenes. You could just feel the burning passion between the couples when you read it. I couldn’t seem to get the same thing here. The sex scenes between Ian and Charlie read almost mechanical to me at times. Like insert slot B into slot A, moan, breath, *insert dirty words here*, rinse and repeat. It took Ian pretty much the entire book to finally open up some. So maybe that was what was missing for me? I’m not even sure. Then again, this also might have been the case of my high expectations just being too high? Who knows. What I do know that is that in all the build up to Ian’s book, it didn’t quite meet my expectations in that.

I really liked Charlie. The way that she fought for her sister, and then fought her way back to Ian melted my heart. She took on so much abuse, and she took it all from Ian too, in order to make up for her mistakes. She was understanding, and sweet, yet at the same time maintained a lot of her strength.

The other thing that I found lacking was the romance. At times I found that the romance took a backseat to the suspense. Don’t get me wrong, the story was action packed and entertaining. I guess I just wanted something…more. I was even able to look past a few details that irked the Russian in me. A few stereo types here and there, and the name Dusan Denisovitch. (Dusan? Not a Russian name. At least none I’ve ever heard.) But I suppose that’s just me being picky.

There is a HEA at the end, but a hell of a cliffhanger introduction into the next book. I was really hoping to get Simon’s book next, but looks like we will be getting a different sexy Brit, Damon Knight.

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