5 Smooches!
Synopsis
Lies
Mig’s wife is a bitch.
How else do you describe a woman that lies, cheats and steals to get what she wants?
That’s exactly what happens when she traps him into a marriage he wants nothing to do with, saddling him with a kid that he knows doesn’t deserve to be in a world like his.
He’s doing a pretty bang-up job at ignoring everything but his responsibilities as a DEA officer and a member of The Uncertain Saints MC.
Then his neighbor knocks on his door, and everything he thought he knew is blown out the window.
Deceit
Annie teaches Mig that not every woman is out to get him.
Her love for Mig stretches past what’s appropriate for two friends, and Annie soon straddles that invisible boundary between appropriate and inappropriate.
Annie’s not a cheater, though.
When she tries to say goodbye, Mig won’t let her leave, and soon the tiny town of Uncertain blows up with the news of Annie and Mig’s innocent friendship.
Betrayal
Matters of the heart are foreign to Mig, and it takes Annie being gutted for him to see the wrong he’s done.
He waits too long, though, and Annie’s heart is broken.
She wants it all, or she wants nothing. She can’t take anymore half-hearted attempts at being just friends.
The heart wants what it wants, and it doesn’t take long for Mig to realize that.
But just when Mig finally has it all in the palm of his hand, his life is ripped to shreds by a new player in the game, and it takes all of Annie’s love and devotion, as well as help from the men of The Uncertain Saint’s MC, to put Mig back together again.
Review
“…here I was, years later, still just as hot for him as the day I’d seen him for the first time.”
Annie has been crushing on Mig for years, since he first rolled into town. After her marriage to her cheating ex ended, Annie unknowingly purchased the house next door to Mig, and a friendship began. Annie settled into the friendship, after all what choice did she have? He was married with a baby on the way.
“…if there was any way I could rewind a year, I’d do it in a heartbeat.”
Mig is a DEA agent and a member of the Uncertain Saints. He has always had difficulty trusting women—with good reason. It began after his parent’s marriage fell apart, when his dad’s girlfriend’s would behave towards him in one way when his dad was present. But out of his father’s sight was another story, as Mig became the bothersome little boy to his father’s bevy of girlfriends.
“…she’s a master manipulator, and she knows exactly what she’s doing.”
His opinions are only solidified after he meets Jennifer. She came into his life with a purpose. He was her target, and she was intent on a relationship with him. This is not a loving relationship, but one born out of deception and entrapment and through a heinous act. Though her actions were premeditated and criminal, Mig’s moral code forces him to do the right thing by his child and thus the woman carrying her. Despite his vehement dislike for the mother of his child, he does the unimaginable—he marries her. But this is no real marriage. Jennifer is selfish and rude, and Mig is miserable. The only pleasant thing about his home life is his pretty and sweet next door neighbor, the woman he has befriended and who his heart longs for.
“I wanted Annie to be the woman carrying my child and not this deceptive bitch…”
All of Jennifer’s lies start unraveling when Mig confronts one of Annie’s customers. There is more going on here than Mig suspected, and while he may be the target, it is Annie who winds up in the crosshairs. Can Mig track down the source of their problems before the danger swirling around them comes crashing in?
This is the second book in Lani Lynn Vale’s Uncertain Saints series. This series is different than Vale’s previous works. Her voice here is edgier, the storylines are grittier than what we’ve seen from her before, and I am truly loving this evolving side of her talent. She tackles some tough topics, and she does it well, with empathy and detail. Her books are always fresh and exciting, rich with her trademark sarcastic humor and deliciously sexy. This one, though, is all of that but so much more. The suspense portion of the plot is unlike anything I’ve ever read, and it kept me turning the pages. Vale balances all of the action, though, with a passionate romance. Incredibly, she has really ramped up the steaminess in this series and that’s truly saying something considering her books are never short on that element.
Each month, Iike all Vale fans, I get a new book from her, and it should no longer surprise me that she manages to amaze me every month, but it does. Her talent and her creativity are evident on every page, and as a long time fan of hers, I am so excited about the direction she’s taking her writing in this series and her Kilgore FD series. I enjoyed this book so much, and I’m anxiously awaiting the next one in this series. Lani Lynn Vale’s Jack & Coke gets 5 smooches from me!
~ Danielle Palumbo
