Author: Eden Butler
Genre: Romantic Suspense | Mystery
Release Date: March 26, 2015
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.
Bambi's Review
Sultry Scale: 
This was a solid work for Eden Butler, who decided to try out the romantic suspense niche for this series. I didn't realize prior to reading this that there is a prequel novella in the Night Shift anthology. I wish I would have realized that first because now my Literary-OCD is driving me crazy that I didn't read things "in order". I'm weird, I know.
Anyway, as a newer resident of New Orleans (originally from TN), I enjoy Ms. Butler's works as they are often set in (or at least referencing) Nola and TN. And she does both places justice. You get the grittiness of New Orleans and the serenity of Tennessee. At least that is the way it comes across to me. But I may be biased. (wink wink)
In this story, we have small-time con artist and grifter, Alex, who had a tortured past and is making her way the best she knows how. She has a couple run-ins with ex-SEAL, ex-cop and all around boy scout, Neil Ryan. Thrown together by circumstances that neither understand in the beginning, their attraction slowly blossoms into something more. The romance was actually on the back burner in this book. Ms. Butler instead wanted us to focus on the unfolding mystery, suspense and set of coincidences that tied Alex and Ryan's pasts together.
I didn't connect with Alex as well as I would have liked. The scene where I felt she was most likable was actually not with our main love interest, but between Alex and Frank, when she is helping the wounded warrior understand why he would be desirable to women despite losing his leg to an IED in the war. That was very sweet and a nice addition to the story.
All-in-all, this was an enjoyable read and I look forward to where the series goes in the future. But I would have also liked to see more chemistry between the characters and a little more action in the suspense department.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Anyway, as a newer resident of New Orleans (originally from TN), I enjoy Ms. Butler's works as they are often set in (or at least referencing) Nola and TN. And she does both places justice. You get the grittiness of New Orleans and the serenity of Tennessee. At least that is the way it comes across to me. But I may be biased. (wink wink)
In this story, we have small-time con artist and grifter, Alex, who had a tortured past and is making her way the best she knows how. She has a couple run-ins with ex-SEAL, ex-cop and all around boy scout, Neil Ryan. Thrown together by circumstances that neither understand in the beginning, their attraction slowly blossoms into something more. The romance was actually on the back burner in this book. Ms. Butler instead wanted us to focus on the unfolding mystery, suspense and set of coincidences that tied Alex and Ryan's pasts together.
I didn't connect with Alex as well as I would have liked. The scene where I felt she was most likable was actually not with our main love interest, but between Alex and Frank, when she is helping the wounded warrior understand why he would be desirable to women despite losing his leg to an IED in the war. That was very sweet and a nice addition to the story.
All-in-all, this was an enjoyable read and I look forward to where the series goes in the future. But I would have also liked to see more chemistry between the characters and a little more action in the suspense department.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Excerpt
“Ryan,
when I play you,” she held her breath, using the pause to lick her lips again
likely because she caught onto how I couldn’t move my eyes from her mouth.
“You’ll be begging for it.”
“That
right?” She nodded, coming closer, stepping into me. Her forehead was soft, the
skin warm when I brushed the hair from her eyes and I repressed a grin, seeing
the small shutter that worked across Alex’s shoulders at my finger touching
her. “Well, darlin’, when you play me, make sure you’re playing hardball. I
don’t do kid games and I fucking play dirty.”
“Is that
a promise?” she asked, tilting her chin up to me, and I pushed down the grunt that
wanted to leave my throat. She really was beautiful, and she really did know
it.
“Think a
lot of yourself, lady? A little flirt, a little peep show and that’ll get you
in my bed?”
The woman
was smooth, so was the smile that crawled across her face. Those eyes challenged,
teased. But that smile deepened, became a grin and I shouldn’t have trusted
that she’d fight fair. “Yeah. I do,” she said and Alex cupped my very hard,
standing-at-attention dick.
“So do
you, apparently.”
I
withheld a little choke in the back of my throat and turned away from her,
twisted my neck, trying to forget that her hands were soft, that she’d known
exactly how to touch me. The little shit.
I felt
the pillow land on the back of my head and glared at her as she complained. “I thought
you were a good guy. You’re seriously not going to let me sleep in your bed?”
“Why the
hell would you ever think I was a good guy?” I tossed the pillow back onto the sofa.
“Besides, you don’t wanna see that shit.”
“What
don’t I wanna see?”
“Me. Buck
ass naked under my blankets.”
“I don’t
know, Ryan...I’m thinking I might.”
Shit. That
little brat got me, had me almost tripping as I walked away from her, but I ignored
her chuckle, ignored the promise behind her words and crashed into bed trying damn hard
not to think about how much I wanted her to keep that promise.
Eden Butler is an editor and writer of New Adult Romance and SciFi and Fantasy novels and the nine-times great-granddaughter of an honest-to-God English pirate. This could explain her affinity for rule breaking and rum. Her debut novel, a New Adult, Contemporary (no cliffie) Romance, “Chasing Serenity” launched in October 2013 and quickly became an Amazon bestseller.When she’s not writing or wondering about her possibly Jack Sparrowesque ancestor, Eden edits, reads and spends way too much time watching rugby, Doctor Who and New Orleans Saints football. She is currently living under teenage rule alongside her husband in southeast Louisiana. Please send help.
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