SLAY
Series: Author: Abbi Gaines
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: March 25, 2024
Rumor
There are moments in life when you make a decision. Accept who you are. What you have become. This was one of those times…The fairytale I thought I’d found had become a nightmare so quickly after I said, “I do.” Which was the reason I ran when I had the chance. Not thinking about the consequences. Just knowing I had to get free before it was my life that was taken.
I never expected to end up finding a haven. A place where people were willing to help me hide. It was as if I had walked into my own perfect daydream.
King
“Don’t believe every pretty face you meet, sweets. You should know by now that’s a terrible f—-g idea.”
She was my job. I was to make her feel safe and do whatever I had to in order to make sure she didn’t run. Underneath the abused and broken exterior, there was a fighter. It was in her eyes. I lived for the moments when she let me see that spark.
I had been headed straight to Hell years before I met Rumor, but letting her fall in love with me was going to reserve me a room in the darkest pit available. One day soon, she was going to find out I was the monster she was running from and the family she had come to trust was the mafia that had killed her husband.
*Please be advised that this is book one in a duet and is a standalone in the Georgia Smoke Series.
Monsters could come in pretty packages. I knew that only too well.
Abbi Glines has been an auto buy author for me since 2012. There’s just something about her stories that are total book crack for me. The Georgia Smoke series is a spinoff of her Smoke series. Think mafia meet Yellowstone. And yes, it is as delicious as it sounds. This is the Georgia branch of The Family, and while you can easily start with this series, I highly recommend the Smoke series first, especially now that the series is all on KU. But I digress.
Abbi has a winning formula that just does for me each and every singe time, and it starts with her uber alphas and the sweet souther belles that they fall for. She writes some of the most deliciously borderline toxic alpha men and it just hits every time. Slay brings the story of King and Rumor.
Rumor has been stuck in a marriage to her abusive husband with no way out. With no family and no resources, she has has no choice but to survive one day at a time. But then an opportunity she never saw coming presents itself, and she doesn’t think twice before running, leaving her life in the rearview mirror. But with barely enough money to get her through the week, she doesn’t have a lot of choices at her disposal. So when a kind stranger offers to drive her to a bus station with a stop at his grandmother’s house along the way for meal, she takes it. Rumor is skittish but she’s a survivor through and through. She’s lived through so much in her young life but it doesn’t take away her sweet demeanor or generous nature. It was impossible not to fall for her.
And King? Sweet baby Jesus. This man. The hints towards his dominance and kinky penchants was enough to make me giddy with excitement. And the secret and ulterior motives that he hides from rumor made me eager to turn the next page. Rumor thinks she’s found a temporary safe haven, but King and his family are much more than they seem.
I devoured this in one sitting, just waiting for that other shoe to drop. Because I just knew that when it did, the story would take an exciting new turn. After years of abuse, it takes Rumor some time to warm up to King and even longer to accept the chemistry between them. The romance is a slow burn, but when it finally burns, it IGNITES. And I was so here for it.
The story was a delicious page turner with plenty of cameos from some of my favorites from Smoke. And that cliffhanger? Jaw droppingly painful. I need the next book immediately and luckily the wait isn’t long because I have zero chill for this conclusion.
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