BALLISTIC
Series: Vigilantes #3
Genre: Dark, Contemporary Romance
Author: Keri Lake
Release Date: October 30, 2018
A life for a life.
On the streets of Detroit, it’s the code we live by. You take from me, I take from you. A balance of power, and a ceaseless war between rivals.
As a foster kid from the projects, I never had much, besides an unshakable addiction to women and drugs. Only took one glance into the amber eyes of a slave for me to realize my two worst vices could be one and the same.
And the woman behind those eyes quickly became my obsession.
Nicoleta is more than she seems. An enigma I’m determined to crack before time runs out and our enemies hunt her down. Except, she moves by her own trajectory, an unstoppable bullet on the warpath to track down the men who murdered a girl from her past.
Me? I’m the rogue whose path is less predictable. A junkie, fiending for the one thing I shouldn’t want: the only woman who gets me high. I want to keep her for myself, but when the unstoppable bullet finally hits her mark and secrets begin to unravel, another life must be paid.
A heart for a heart.
We were as tragically beautiful and fragile as a dead rose. Two souls, broken beyond redemption.
If you’ve read any book by Keri Lake, then you already know that the woman can write a dark, gritty and captivating story like no other. She has this amazing ability to suck the readers into the dark abyss that are her books and keep them at the edge of their seat from beginning to finish. She’ll throw twist after twist your way until you don’t know which side is up. But one thing you’ll know for sure is that you didn’t just read a book of hers, you experienced it.
I’ve been waiting for Dax’s story for what feels like forever. Ever since he watched helplessly as a young girl was driven away by one of the criminals he’d been after. He’s been searching for her ever since, only to hit one dead end after another. Until finally he finds her. But Nicoleta is not at all what she seems. And Dax definitely never saw a storm like her coming.
While this is set in the Vigilantes series, you can easily read it as a standalone. Though I highly recommend the other two books as some of the story arcs do carry over. Ballistic was a whole different beast in this series with Nicoleta being the one seeking revenge. I loved the way that Keri Lake balanced the scales with the two characters. Nicoleta really took the driver’s seat in a lot of the story, but Dax never blended into the background. He was no less alpha and no less intense in his need to be the tool she uses to mete out her punishment. I LOVED this delicious turn of roles.
Nicoleta was a mystery wrapped in nightmares; nightmares of a hell that she’s lived through and a past she barely remembers. This is a woman that’s absolutely shattered, but she’s not weak. She’s vengeance and hell, pain and retribution. She’s a fiery ball of hatred and passion, and she was the perfect balance to Dax’s intensity.
This was a dark and twisty page turner of a story filled with blood, vengeance, and a love amongst the ashes. It sucked me in right into the dark underbelly of the worst sort of underground crime imaginable and those that rose out of the ashes of the pain it brought. It was deliciously twisty. It had me a ball of anxiety with my heart in my throat the entire time. It made me cringe. It made me cry. It made shiver in anticipation. In a word? It was UNPUTDOWNABLE!
DON’T MISS THE REST OF THE SERIES
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.
BACKFIRE (Vigilantes #2)
READ MY 5 STAR REVIEW HERE
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.
CHURCH.
Holy hell. I mean holy hell! These might be the most fucked up characters I’ve read in a long while. Or ever. I’m still trying to figure out how I felt about them. But what I do know? Is days after finishing, I’m still thinking about it. And that certainly stands for something.
I don’t want to tell you too much about the plot or the characters, because I don’t want to ruin the suspense of it. And let me tell you, this book is full of it. It’s twisted and full of twists with an undercurrent of something so dark, you’re almost afraid to name it. It’s like Charles Manson meet Natural Born Killers sort of twisted.
VERONA BLOOD
Well…hell. That was certainly…something.
DEVASTATE 
Holy.
First of all, while this book introduces a different couple, I really don’t recommend it out of order. A lot of the backstory would simply be lost on you. Do yourself a favor and read the series in order. Trust me. Tate is a character that I first became intrigued with in 
Lucia was this eerie combination of strength and pain. You want to judge her for who she is and what she does, yet it’s impossible. There’s so many layers to both of these characters, that by the time you’re done peeling them all back, you’re completely sucked into their story.
REAPER
Holy.
Cross the MacKenna syndicate, and you’ll find yourself in front of The Reaper. He’s the man that handles all of the delicate and painful jobs. When someone needs eliminating, they find themselves in Ronan’s basement, their screams forever becoming a part of the cement walls. A brutal upbringing that knew only pain, Ronan doesn’t function like any other man. He’s numb. Unfeeling. He only feels rage and breathes punishment. There’s only one person that ever stirred a different reaction in him, but she’s forever off limits to a man like him.
Sasha hasn’t had an easy life herself. Taking care of her ailing mother and protecting her younger sister put her in the crosshairs of a man that changed her life irreparably. Forced into a life she never wanted and doing whatever she can to survive, she’s tired. All she wants is to leave, move to a different place where no one knows her or her past. There’s just one problem with that; Ronan is not about to let her go.
I loved this gritty and sexy dark mafia romance. The story was completely unputdownable and the characters vivid and unforgettable.
THE PRINCE
You’re probably like, “Wtf with the mermaid gif?” WELL, you should read the book to find out wtf :).
THE KNIGHT
*shivers*
“Sinfully sexy and darkly beautiful, The Pawn will play games with your heart and leave you craving more!” – Laura Kaye, New York Times bestselling author
TAKE ME WITH YOU
What.
Take Me With You is dark, twisted and immoral. It’s violent, crude and dirty. The characters are so far outside typical comfort zones and the norm, they may as well be in a different dimension. It was also phenomenally written, completely unputdownable, and utterly unforgettable.
RETRIBUTION
I had one plan, one goddamned thing to do. Break the girl. That was all.
Retribution marks my second book by this author and it definitely confirmed what I knew after the first; I’ll definitely be reading all her future books. The woman can write one hell of a tortured, brooding, anti-hero alpha. This was a dark and twisty tale of revenge and pain and second chances. It was gritty, violent, and erotic as hell!
The writing was engaging and the story was fast paced, yet somewhere around the 25% mark, it began to lose some of the intensity for me. Adam starts off so strong, but soon enough becomes almost wishy washy in his drive for vengeance. He wants to make her pay, yet his conscience gets the best of him. I suppose I just didn’t feel as much connection to his character to truly understand the why’s of it.
BLOOD TO DUST
Well slap my ass and call me Sally, what in the ever hell did I just read?
Any other woman that finds herself bloodied, tied and locked in a dark basement waiting on certain death at the hands of men intent on collecting their debt from her, may be shaken. But not Prescott. Every minute in her captivity is another minute for her to plot and scheme and plan her escape. Because she will escape. Even if she has to use her unwilling captor to do it…
The story packs a hell of a one two punch. It’s deliciously dirty and anxiety inducing gritty. The characters are incredibly well developed, multi-layered, and impossible not to like. Prescott was one kick-ass chick. She’s a survivor and she never stops fighting. She maintains an almost morbid sense of humor even during the most dire of times which gives her this incredibly endearing quality.
There was one particular detail at the end that confused me a little because I don’t remember it being explained. It could have been something I overlooked, but after re-reading the part several times, I’m still not sure. I’m not expecting everything wrapped in a pretty little bow, but given the detail was a pivotal one that set the plot in motion, I suppose I just wanted slightly more explanation on it. But that’s just one minor quibble in what was a truly amazing book, so I really can’t bother myself to complain about it much. If you’re looking for a dark read with strong characters and an unpredictable plot, READ THIS BOOK.
