4 Smooches!
Synopsis
One lie can change your life.
A web of lies can destroy it.
Neil Ryan was a good Navy SEAL. He was an even better detective, but when an unmarked envelope lands on his desk, long-buried secrets are resurrected and Ryan questions everything he thought he knew about justice, including who killed his mother.
Alex Black is a distraction Ryan doesn’t need—she’s loud, obnoxious and a common thief, but her eyes are haunting, her lips irresistible and Ryan happens to love her filthy mouth.
Alex is also the only one able to help Ryan find the leads he’s missing. She’s the only one who can lead him to the one person who has the answers he seeks, but following her could cost Ryan everything.
Secrets get told, lives get wrecked and in every shadow, the truth is hiding.
Review
Alex Black has not had an easy life, and the one she is living just keeps getting harder. A product of her life’s circumstances, Alex survives the only way she knows how, the way she was taught to – by chasing the next con. Alex doesn’t dare allow herself to think or even hope that there could be something more or different for her in this life.
Former Navy SEAL and police officer, Neil Ryan has seen his share of life’s horrors. He’s lived them, he’s survived them. Still managing to follow his moral compass, he became a police officer after serving in the SEALs under a man whom he respected and thought of as a father figure. Once Ryan became a police officer, he began to dig further into his mother’s murder and her best friend’s supposed suicide. He never uncovered anything factual, and he was left with more questions and suspicions. After a confrontation with his mentor, he leaves the police force and heads to New Orleans where he and a few SEAL buddies start a security firm.
Ryan and Alex meet in a very unusual situation, and they realize that they have met before. Ryan can barely stand Alex, and Alex certainly doesn’t trust Ryan, but then again, she doesn’t trust anyone. Alex has something Ryan wants, and Ryan has something Alex needs, so they strike a mutually beneficial deal, and so begins the unusual partnership of Ryan and Alex.
But Alex has a lot going on, and she is getting some very unwanted attention. That attention escalates truly frightening her, and, with no where else to go, it sends her running to Ryan. Ryan, recognizing the situation must be bad for her to come to him, takes her in and agrees to help her.
The mystery in this book is what had me turning the pages. This part of the plot was very well developed and rich with details. Eden Butler has created an exciting mystery in this book that runs very deep, and I believe it will carry through at least the next book, if not further. I’m very intrigued, and I’ll continue reading this series because I have to know what happens next!
The reason I gave 4 instead of 5 stars was because the romance portion of the book was a very, very slow burn. The reasons for this were partly due to Alex, who really struggled with letting Ryan in and trusting him. I still would have liked there to have been more romance and a slightly quicker romantic build between the characters, but they did get there in the end.
This author is a very talented writer, and she has built a plot line that is nearly impossible not to get completely swept up in. She went into such great detail, it was so easy to picture the places she was describing vividly. I enjoyed this aspect of her storytelling so much, and it made it so easy to get lost in her book. This was the first I’ve read of the talented Eden Butler, but it most definitely won’t be the last. A solid 4 smooches for me!
~ Danielle Palumbo
