5 Smooches!

Synopsis

Griffin Storm wasn’t prone to violence, but when someone takes what Griffin holds dear, the world as he knows it is gone.

Retaliation, revenge and rage fuels him. His club, the Uncertain Saint’s MC, do their best to offer support, but Griffin is beyond redemption. He’ll do what he has to do. Kill who he has to kill.

He doesn’t care if that means he dies. If it gets him what he wants, then it’s worth it.

He fakes it all until the night he walks into a sex shop for batteries and lays eyes on a woman that will change his life.

Lenore makes him think past tomorrow. Makes him want to see just what the future might bring.

But his life’s a dangerous one built around pain and deception, and not for the faint of heart.

He won’t give up the past, not until he’s done what he promised to do.

And if that means she’s not there when the dust settles, he’ll risk it.

Lenore, though, won’t give up on him. She’ll fix him, whether he wants her to or not.

Review

“This couldn’t be happening. Not to me. Not to him.”

Griffin Storm is lost. Now on the other side of the divorce from hell, the single dad is doing his best for his little boy.  As a Texas Ranger, he knows just how unjust of the legal system he’s sworn to uphold and protect can be. But it’s after the brutal murder of his young son that he experiences that injustice firsthand and something in him shifts. Now assigned to Uncertain TX, he’s found kindred spirits in the Uncertain Saints MC, a brotherhood of disillusioned law enforcement officers who have all suffered the tragic loss of a loved one at the hands of a criminal who hasn’t been made to pay for that crime.

“I was destined to be disappointed…”

A lifelong resident of Uncertain TX, Lenore Drew is no stranger to disappointment. She fills her time by volunteering at an animal shelter and a nursing care facility for Alzheimer’s patients. She owns a sex shop, and she’s battling a serious medical issue alone. A tiny red-headed force to be reckoned with, she is fierce and a fighter. She’s smart, she’s loyal, she’s funny and she’s often sarcastic, but she’s never felt particularly beautiful and she can’t stand that she stutters when she’s nervous or excited. Her lifelong best friend, Remy, is married to an evil woman who makes a full time job out of tormenting her.

“I had too many other…things to worry about to add her ass to the list.”

Griffin comes into Lenore’s store to buy batteries one night, and they run into each other again later under less than ideal circumstances. No one is more surprised than she when this gorgeous man shows back up at her place a third time and things get heated. They start seeing each other, but Griffin is keeping secrets. He’s pursuing the person who murdered his son, and he’s connected the dots back to his ex-wife’s powerful state Senator husband, Justin Hayes. He also learns some surprising information about Lenore’s history when he mistakenly assumes the source of a panic attack is him and his MC.

“I’m sorry I didn’t say you were beautiful. I thought staring at you with my hard cock in my hand was sufficient.”

Not exactly a hearts and flowers kind of guy, Griffin has made Lenore feel beautiful and desired. She’s happier than she’s ever been before, and she’s falling hard and fast for him. Not quite ready to own up to his feelings himself, he is too. But what Griffin doesn’t realize until it’s too late is the can of worms he opened when he confronted Hayes, and unfortunately in order to protect Lenore, he’s going to have to let her go. The problem is that he just can’t seem to keep away from her. Forced together to search for a missing child, he throws in the towel and decides she’s just safer with him than without. When Griffin’s investigation catches up with him, though, will it be Lenore who pays the price?

“I want nothing more than to…be with you for the rest of my life.”

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m Lani Lynn Vale’s #1 fan. I love her work, I’ve read all of it, and a lot of it I’ve read more than once. I’m thrilled with the direction she’s going in with the Uncertain Saints MC series. There is a clear and distinct difference to Vale’s writing here. Her voice is a bit edgier in Whiskey Neat, and it absolutely had me sitting up to take notice. The key elements of her work that her readers love most are there – the snarky humor, the possessive alpha male, off the charts steam and those delicious little quotes that kick off each chapter – it’s just that they’re wrapped around a tone that is evolving. This is definitely a work in progress, but Vale knows where she wants her work to go, and I have a feeling her fans are going to enjoy the heck out of the ride as she gets there.

I always get excited about a new Lani Lynn Vale book, but I’ve got much more to be excited about now if the tone, style and writing of this book is anything to go by. Five smooches for Lani Lynn Vale’s Whiskey Neat from me!

~ Danielle Palumbo

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