Black Dagger Brotherhood, Book 18

I Picked Up This Book Because: Continue the Series

The Characters:

Syn (Band of Bastards):
Jo Early:
Butch,

The Story:

I can’t talk about this without major spoilers so consider yourself warned.

(view spoiler)

The Random Thoughts:


5 Stars

In case the spoiler link doesn't work Goodreads Review

What a story, if I could give this book 10 star rating I would. Once again Mr. Miller confirms why he is one of my favourite authors.

New Orleans, 1926

August Chevalier, a ruthless businessman with questionable morals is found murdered, investigative reporters Justice Harper and Remy Moral are determined to flush out the killer. Working alongside the police, they narrowed down the list of suspects to three:

The Sinner, Blaze Barbeau, a real estate magnate with a checkered past

The Saint, Lucinda Boyd, a pillar of New Orleans society

The Serpent, Belladonna Dede, a well-known voodoo queen

One potential suspect:

A mafia gangster: Nicky the Knife

This is a story rich in content written with a cinematic perspective approach. It is vividly told through rich dialogue. The narrative is incredibly fast-paced and the prose sails smoothly throughout making this one of those stories next to impossible to put down. It is so filled with tension I was trying so hard to figure who may be the killer. Justice and Remy did such a good job interrogating each one of the suspect that it was hard to pin point the guilty. They all had a reason to do the deed. Mr. Miller is definitely a master of plot twists and he threw some doozies to surprise us. I was on the edge of my seat from page one and so captivated trying hard to figure where the author was going with his story. Would we finally have the killer identified….or would we be kept guessing. By the epilogue Mr. Miller give us the most mammoth twists of all and what an ending….I never saw it coming.

The author created sub-plots for the other characters what essentially happens in their life when they are not part of the main plot. Serenity Dupree, a sultry jazz singer is one of the secondary players along with Barbeau, Boyd, DeDe and Knife’s contribution all make a delightful reading adventure. Of course we also have the police investigators trying to solve the case.

A special note as for the main characters:

Justice is a man of deep morals, very diplomatic hard not to like him. Remy is a complete darling, she is one to speak her mind with absolutely no filter whatsoever. At times Justice wanted to strangling her….Their interaction makes an excellent read.

I love this mystery it provided all the entertainment one can wish for. What a page turner you provided Mr. Miller, well-done.

I received a ARC from Lume Books via Netgalleys for my thoughts

April has loved Chris for years, and he really doesn't see her.   When he comes into her place of work he has his own purpose.  She just wishes that he could notice her as a woman and not a nurse.

Chris has wanted April for such a long time.  He cannot forgive himself for those he has hurt by his past actions.  Hard to move on, and hard to include someone in his misery.  The yearning seem pointless.

This was such an amazing book!  I loved the clear cut trope of protector and innocent.  The story was laid out with a fast pace.  I was particularly excited by the mention of some of my favorites from the Trident Security series.  What a great idea this was.  Having trouble putting the book down, I was moved by how determined the characters were.  I give this a 5/5 Kitty's Paws UP!

***This ARC copy was given to me in exchange for an honest review only.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Asher broke Remy's heart when he abruptly broke up with her and now years later, he's been trying to be her friend but she doesn't know if her heart can take it. When he objects at her wedding, she can't stop the flutter of her heart. Unfortunately, it's to arrest her almost husband, turns out he was a conman just out for her inheritance.
When she finds what could be a fortuitous gift left behind by her scam artist ex, she jumps at the chance to start her dream business. However, Remy's luck might not be changing as a shady maybe tied to the mob guy shows up and the only one who can help her is Asher.

“One chance to be friends, Asher. That’s it. Mess this up, and we’re done. Forever.”

A second chance romance in the Dangerous Love series, Remy and Asher have quite the past. They were madly in love while Remy was in highschool and Asher graduated and went onto the Police Academy. Asher gets recruited by the FBI and after his mother commits suicide, he decides that all the dark emotion inside of him should be kept away from Remy and he leaves her behind in Maine while he goes to D.C. I didn't read the first in the series and I felt like I missed background emotion between these two. There was a good flashback scene to their breakup and then a quick recap of how Asher's been back for five years, Remy ignored him for the first couple and the last year has just started talking to him. This story starts with Asher claiming to just want to be friends with Remy and her thinking maybe she can but nervous that she still loves him.

This angst could have worked for me but Asher's thoughts and emotions constantly contradicted the “just friends”, one moment he was spouting how he only wanted friendship because of the darkness in him and then there were scenes where he is wanting to spend all day in bed with Remy and basically acting like he wanted a relationship with her. He wasn't warring internally with himself, just the writing ignoring the character conflict in favor of having them together.

No one made her laugh like Asher. No one made her feel as alive as Asher had. In that empty hollowness of her chest, a part of her wanted to feel a little piece of that again.

Remy's interest in New Age things gave her an interesting hook but the catalyst for the danger she gets put in, using money she found in her house that she assumed was her conman ex-fiance's, to start her dream business, gave her an aggravating clueless personality as the story went on. It's obvious from early on that she should tell Asher, who is a cop or any of her other two friends who are cops, that a maybe mob guy is after her because of the money she used. The group of friends the series seems to follow provided some good friendships for Remy. I liked how the other two women, Peyton (heroine from first book) and Kinsley (bestfriend of Remy and sister to hero from book one) supported and laughed with one another.

He cupped her face, then brought his mouth close to hers, and before he claimed the kiss, he said, “I’m here and I’m not going anywhere.”

This book seemed to have a little too much going on, the heavy issues Asher personally had to deal with (his mother's suicide, alcoholic father), Remy being in possible danger from the mob, and their healing from a painful past while trying to build a current romance; these threads never had focus or time enough to go into the depth I needed to get me emotionally involved. The ending was more anticlimactic for me as the have to marry for inheritance forced these two together at around the 85% mark and then gave a quick “oh I guess I do want to be married to you” turn around that provided no emotional fulfillment. Basically, Remy and Asher's journey didn't flow for me, they had some sweet moments but emotions, thoughts, and actions contradicted for sake of dragging the story out. There was a secondary romance teased between Kinsley and Rhett (Kinsley's brother's bestfriend and fellow cop) that might have me checking out the third in the series.

Second chance romance and sweet/spicy tacos
That cover providing some Thirsty Thursday ;)

Wicked Sinner by Stacey Kennedy purchase link

Sweet and Spicy Sriracha Chicken Tacos recipe