Canary
Tijan
Who is in it?
Girl/Carrie/Ash/Not Mistress Morakov/ Ash
Raize/Clay
What Should I Watch Out For?
Swearing, Violence, mentions of rape, abuse, abduction (but not by the hero), mafia, drug use, drug abuse, suicide
What's the Story?
Girl, AKA Ash, has been won in a poker game by Raize, who basically went to the game to win her for her remarkable talents. She has gut instincts that tell when someone is lying and it is gold in the mafia/cartel world.
Raize is brutal, harsh, dead to the world, and Ash ignores him for the most part, doing her job. Which is not making eye contact, telling whether someone is lying or not and just basically surviving.
She entered into the mafia world to find her sister who had been taken as a sex slave.
She eventually has to learn where her loyalty lies, what lines she will cross and how to survive in the world of mafia and cartels.
As the story progresses, she realizes that Raize is actually pretty hot, and the sparks fly.
Oooh, it’s a good one.
Spoilers ahead... Why I love this story.
Allll right.. First thing’s first- I KU’d the book based on a teaser. It took me a few chapters to get sucked in, but only because I’d been in a book slump and I was anticipating not enjoying it.
I was wrong for the first 3/4 of the book. It drew me in.
The story begins with a girl, unknown nameless girl who has been won in a poker game because of her ability to tell when people are lying. Girl has joined the mafia because she is searching for her sister who was kidnapped into the prostitute lifestyle.
Raize is better than her previous owner, only kills when he has to and is actually a pretty okay guy. He’s in the mafia/cartel and is trying to get back his sister and mother. They are family of a cartel he left . His mother was the Mexico cartel heads mistress, and he shares a sister with the cartel head’s son. So weird family connection/triangle there.
Girl/Ash/Carrie/Canary whatever the hell her name is- it ends up being Ash- and Raize have pretty much no relationship what so ever. Raize finds out that the previous crime boss she “worked” for raped her and that is kind of where the story really picks up pace.
Okay, we have to clear up some relationships here because otherwise it gets messy.
Raize works for the Morakov Mafia/Cartel. There are three bothers and each has their own territory, Russia (Roman), Philadelphia (Igor) and New York (Maxim). The other two don’t matter because they are going to die.
Working under Igor is Ash’s old boss, Carlo and Raize. Each run their own area.
Raize builds a team, inluding Ash and two other guys (who know one is going to care about later) and Igor sends them down to Texas to work on getting area down there. Here is where Raize learns that she was raped and decides that she needs to learn to protect herself by learning to shoot.
When she fires a gun for the first time “pent up emotions” and this is when she and Raize have any sort of relationship for the first time. And it is stale, and cold and lacks a lot of chemistry (Which is pretty much their relationship throughout the book).
They have sex quite a bit, and then eventually they have it all the time because Raize uses sex to save one of their team’s lifes. Raize learned he was working for the other guy, and not doing a good job of it. Eh…. Weird… So now they are still doing it all the time and it’s hot sometimes, but for the most part I don’t feel their affection.
Lots of shit happens from here on out, with it being twisty and turny. The two older Morakov brothers die, because Roman wants their territory. The Mexico Cartel leader and Raize’s mother are murdered by the cartel heads son. Raize moves to save his sister and puts her into hiding.
It actually got kind of boring and I skimmed a lot of the last of it.
OKay, the spoiler. Ash has a secret.
Her mother was psycho and stole a girl from Colorado when Ash was very young. She said the girl was going to be Ash’s sister, and that is how she lived. Her father was abusive and a habitual liar, her mother was a drug addict and died by suicide.
She enters the mafia/cartel to save her “sister” and eventually does. But she does it because she feels guilty, not because she actually loved the sister. Or maybe she did in a ass backwards kind of way.
So there you have it in a nutshell. They stay in the mafia, and eventually Raize and Ash start a family.
The story line was good, the writing is excellent. The story just kind of petered out for me at the end.
I’ll still pick up other books by her, but not if I’m looking for something with steam.