BACKFIRE
Series: Vigilantes #2
Genre: Dark, Contemporary Romance
Author: Keri Lake
Release Date: June 9, 2016
This book is a standalone set in the same world as Ricochet.
No matter how unbreakable he may seem, every man has a weakness.
A year ago, my home became a bloodstained crime scene. That night marked the beginning of my hell—the same night I was tortured by my enemies and tossed into an underground prison to die.
They failed. I survived.
Now that I’m free, only one motive burns in my soul: revenge.
Lucky for me, they think Jase Hawkins is dead. Maybe I am. I’ve got nothing but a cold, merciless rage, and Black Betty, the sharp steel blade that never leaves my side.
Then she drifts into my life.
Lucia wants answers—so much so, she’s willing to fall into the darkness where my enemies lie in wait, to kill her for what she knows.
Or to take her for the depraved fantasies her body alone can rouse in a man’s mind.
Me? I want her for the fire in her touch that feeds my addiction, forces me to feel what has become numb, but my appetite for bloodshed runs deeper than flesh.
For my own sanity, I’ve vowed to stay away from her. Because she’s my only weakness, an obsession that leaves me craving more—one that could make even the most steadfast plan backfire.
Shit thing about life is, when you throw an immovable object into the path of a bullet, it doesn’t follow any laws or principles.
It backfires.
It’s official; I have PTKD (Post Traumatic Keri Disorder). The woman has ruined me. This book? I hope you all have your big girl panties on, because a walk through the meadows with unicorns it. Is. Not.
Backfire is dark, gritty, and unapologetic. You’ll be reading it with your heart in your throat and your stomach twisted up in knots. It’s violent, a touch depraved, darkly erotic, action packed and absolutely, positively unputdownable. The story is filled with so many unpredictable twists and turns that it will make your head spin! It’s brilliantly written and I will even go so far as to say this was darker than Ricochet and that’s saying something, trust me.
Jase has spent the last year of his life in hell. Now he’s free and the only thing burning inside him is revenge. It’s what he eats, breathes, and lives. The chain of events that began on that one bloody night a year ago that cost him him his family all lead back to one man; Tesarik. Only problem is? He’s so powerful he’s practically untouchable. So when the mystery man standing before him promises him the vengeance he seeks for the price of a favor, he knows that he may fight it but he’ll agree. The favor will take him deep into the bowels of the worst sort of human depravity. Into a something only known as The Seventh Circle; a group of men that get off on pain and death.
And his first stop? Finding the mystery woman with the camera that may be the reason why he was thrown into the crosshairs of Tesarik in the first place. But Lucy is not at all what Jase thinks though. A photo journalist that saw something she shouldn’t have seen, she’s on the run for her life, and the only man that can help her may be the most dangerous of them all…
What begins is a story filled with heart-stopping moments, eroticism in a way only Keri Lake can write, and enough grit and darkness to leave you crying for your mama.
If you’ve read any book by this author, then you already know she’s not afraid to go to the very pits of darkness. She’ll take the readers deep into the bowels of the worst of humanity. Her writing is raw, gritty, and absolutely unapologetic.
You’ll live and breathe Jase and Lucy’s story. It’s a page turning, heart in your throat, painful to read but never wanting it to end anyway sort of book. Jase is the epitome of the perfect anti hero.
He’s not a good man, but he skates that fine edge between the good and bad. He’s a man that was forced to do some bad things for some very good reasons and you’ll love him for it. Guaranteed.
If nothing else but for his dirty mouth alone.
Set aside a whole night, because this is one book you’ll read in one heart-pounding sitting. Trust me on that.
The characters are incredibly multi-layered and the story has depth. It’s not your run of the mill dark romance.
Long story short? I loved the absolute fuck out of this book and I cannot wait for all of you to meet Jase and Lucy!
If you haven’t read Ricochet yet, I highly recommend it. But while Backfire is set in the same world as Ricochet, you don’t have to read Ricochet first in order to enjoy this one.
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhbke…
DON’T MISS THE BOOK THAT STARTED IT ALL
RICOCHET (Vigilantes #1)
READ MY 5 STAR REVIEW HERE
The only sure way to destroy a man is to take what he cannot live without.
Three years ago, I had everything.
A beautiful wife.
A son.
A reason for living.Until a ruthless task force, assembled under Mayor Michael Culling, with a brutal strategy to make the streets of Detroit ‘safe’, ripped away everything I loved in a deadly hunt called The Culling.
They tried to kill me, too. I wish they had. Now I’m cursed by the memories of that night, and the words I whispered to my dying wife.
A promise—to avenge the wrong and set it right.
I’m no longer Nick Ryder. I’m a masked vigilante. Faceless. Loveless. Fearless. A man with nothing left to lose—one who’s seen the dark and violent truth behind the city’s flawless veneer.
Michael Culling doesn’t know who I am. Or what I want. All he knows is that I’ve kidnapped his beautiful wife.
An eye for an eye—isn’t that how the saying goes? And Aubree Culling is the perfect pawn to destroy him.
If she doesn’t destroy me first.
Book slump officially over! #DoublePeenForTheWin
Written in dual first person POV, you get equal time in both Henry and Evan’s heads and it just makes the story that much better.
Let’s talk about things that trigger my one-clicker for a second here, shall we?
As for that ending? Well let’s just say I may or may not be rocking myself in a corner as we speak while I wait for July 25 to finally get here
Sparrow Raynes grew up the daughter of a drunken father who happened to work for one of the most feared men in the Boston underground. But now that man is dead, and his son who’s known to be even more ruthless is to be her husband…and she has no idea why other than it’s been arranged and her father agreed to it. So she’ll do it, but she won’t like it. In her eyes it’ll be a marriage in name only because no way can she give her heart to the devil with the steel-blue eyes that’s known as The Fixer. He’s ruthless, he’s cold-blooded, but she refused to cower from him like even the most deadly of the deadly underground seem to…
Sparrow was exactly the kind of gritty anti-hero that I needed. L.J. Shen was not afraid to stick true to her characters and pulled no punches to do so, and I respect the hell out of her for this. Yes, Troy did some things that may not sit right with some readers, but for this reader, I loved to hate it. See I love when an author takes risks to stay true to the characters and that was definitely the case here. This is no insta lust, insta-love, or insta-anything. Troy and Sparrow’s connection formed over time and it felt authentic because of that. Considering how Troy is and where he came from, I wouldn’t have bought it any other way.
L.J. spared no detail to make her story gritty and real. It was action packed, super sexy, and filled with twists and turns. It was enough to keep me at the edge of my seat the whole time and eagerly turning the pages to see what will happen next. The romance was sizzling hot and together with the plot it all came together perfectly.
My only minor quibble with the book was that it went a little much and too creative with the analogies at times. But that was such a minor thing compared to everything that I loved about it that I barely batted an eyelash at it.
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.
You know when you read the first book in a series and you love it so much that you don’t think anything can top it, but then you read the second and you love it just as much? So then you know that the chances of that continue to hold for the 3rd book are slim, right? In my experience, it’s tough to keep that sort of momentum going…unless, of course, you’re Elle Kennedy. Because not only was The Score absolutely fantastic, but it turned out to be my favorite in the series. And considering how much I loved the previous two books, that’s saying something.
What I love about Elle’s writing, is the depth that she gives her characters. And Dean certainly was no exception. He may be the hard partying manwhore with a crass sense of humor, but beneath that perfect exterior there’s so much more to him and you really get to see it blossom here.
It’s been a long time that I read a book that effected me on such a visceral level. I had honest to god tingles while reading this. My heart was beating out of my chest, my head was spinning, and I was completely and utterly incapable of putting it down for even a second. It’s also been a long time that I read a hero that was so alpha he practically crackled with electric magnetism through the pages. This book hit every single one of my yes spots. It’s exactly the kind of thrill I love in my romance. It was unpredictable, erotic, a little taboo, undeniably captivating and absolutely spell-binding. It’s also almost impossible to review without giving anything away, so excuse my attempt at trying…
The sexual aspect of the romance may take many out of their comfort zones, so if you’re not a reader that’s comfortable with that, this book may not be for you. It has a touch of BDSM and yet…not quite. There’s no clear lines, and that may not work for some. Emily is a multi-faceted character and her desires are not quite…standard. But that’s what truly works because you can see exactly what draws these characters together.
Then Laurelin hits you with the mother of all cliffhangers but I swear it just made the book all that much better. Does that even make sense? Ugh. I don’t even care because it does to me. The wait for the second book just may kill me, but I don’t regret it for even a second. This book was nothing that I expected and yet everything that I love. If you’re looking for something spellbinding and different, this is a must read. First touch is part one in a duet.
