Full review appeared on Reader's Edyn on 11/13/17

Kendall Reed (Decima Stephens) is on the run. She’s being hunted by her lunatic father. Escaped from the compound she was born and raised in, now they want her back, but she helped the FBI with information and she knows capture or return is a death sentence. She’s been hiding out with a biker friend, but he’s been compromised, so he’s turned her protection over to Andre. Kendall looks at the world a little differently because of her upbringing, but she knows she wants Andre. Problem is, she’s so screwed up in the head … and she knows she has an expiration date. It’s going to be soon because she can’t hide form her father forever. Too bad she can’t just hope for a while that Andre might actually be able to save her.

Andre Luna owns a private security company. He is former military as are all of his employees. They all have particular skill sets and he vets each of his clients before taking them on. He doesn’t like to deal with drama and potentially over dangerous cases and he won’t knowingly put his men in danger – not any more than comes with the job anyway. But Kendall gets thrown in his lap and as a favor he takes her on. He knows there is a hell of a lot more to her story than he’s getting, but he never dreamed it was as deep or serious as it actually is. He’s only got one choice now to save the woman he’s falling for … and it’s going to involve several of his combat friends. They’ve only got one chance and if they screw it up, Kendall is dead.

Full disclosure – this book contains a LOT of language. About half of it is cussing in Spanish, the rest is just bad words and graphic descriptions involving sex, lust, and death. Not saying I don’t read such books, but I felt this had more than “average”, so I wanted to mention it. At one point, even Kendall asks Andre if he thinks it’s any different cussing just because he’s doing it in Spanish. I’m sure it was meant as a joke or dig at Andre, but I was like, “I know, right?” 😊 I enjoyed this book, but had a difficult time because of the content. Andre is what I typically look for in an Alpha lead. His heritage comes out a lot in his dialogue, speaking Spanish rather frequently, but mostly in universal terms that anyone would recognize (at least in my opinion). His strong Alpha presence and Cuban heritage makes him a likeable, if not lovable character. He has skills, he knows it, and he uses them. And that’s hot! Kendall was a little different. Her mind is seriously warped. Almost to the point that I didn’t like her. I tried to be empathetic toward the character and found that I liked her a bit more when taking into consideration her circumstances and the crap she had dealt with. However, with the mental issues – you will notice it with some of the things she says – I revert back to “real life” and know that, as a couple, they would have one helluva long road ahead of them. But this is fiction, so it’s all sunshine and rainbows if we wish it, so OK. She’s also almost a contradiction of herself, exhibiting moments of extreme strength but cowering in fear at other times. I guess, in the end, I never really got a handle on her character and ultimately liked her, but didn’t love her.

I think I would read another book in this series because obviously the female leads won’t be the same character as Kendall, and I did very much enjoy Andre’s character. Additionally, Ms. Bartel did a good job with the secondary characters in the book. Both Andre’s team and Callan were developed to a point in which I’d like to read more about them. And I’d like to see where Ms. Bartel goes with other characters that don’t come from the same background as Kendall. Overall, I am always drawn to the romantic aspect of the story and for me, I was satisfied in that respect. I just regret not being able to connect with Kendall more. The story was somewhat harsh in both language and content and was just a bit too much for me. Maybe I am just too used to military reads glamorizing so much of the death and destruction. Others of you might read this book and react differently. Something like “hell yeah, finally, something I can sink my teeth in to”. But for me, I am fine with the romanticized versions. Despite my issues with this book, my strong like for Andre gives me pretty high hopes for the other books in the series. I’ll be sure to let you guys know what I think of them.

Kindle version provided by Expresso Book Tours/Author in exchange for an honest review. ( )