Monday, February 8, 2016

NEW REVIEW - NEVER TRUST A SAINT: LOS SANTOS Cartel story #1 by Melissa Jane:


TITLE: Never Trust A Saint
SERIES: Los Santos Cartel Story
SERIES PLACEMENT: #1
AUTHOR: Melissa Jane
AGE GROUP: Adult
GENRE: Romance, Suspense
RELEASE DATE: February 8, 2016
PUBLISHER: Melissa Jane
PAGES: Approx. 187

COPY PROVIDED BY: Author
MY GOODREADS REVIEW LINK
RATING: 3.5
CLIFFHANGER: Yes

BOOK BLURB:
A SAINT.

A protector from evil. One who without fear will lead you safely through darkness.

LOS SANTOS.

Cold and ruthless. A CARTEL who cares only for revenge and glory.

My name is Nina Cross, and I’m the Los Santos’s newest prey. Determined to prove my partners innocence and avenge his violent death, I stumbled naively into the spider’s web. Tangled with lies and hunted for truth I was shadowed with each step I took. That was until one man, relentless in his touch and his desire threatened to bring me to my knees in ways I both craved and feared.

Jair Ruiz. Powerful, brooding and confident and not at all who he seems. He has me in his sights and has every intention of toying with his newest target while fighting to keep us both alive.

When the FBI turns it back on you and Los Santos cartel have already dug your grave, who is there left to trust?

Only one man. A saviour.

But if I look my saint in the eye and all I see is the devil…do I run?

“I’m not entirely good. I’m not entirely bad. But I’m enough of a little of each to ruin you.”


Reviewers Note: I received this eARC from the author in exchange for an honest review.


3.5 “I am your ruin.” Stars!

The Review: 
This read was definitely an unexpected and pleasant surprise. When the author contacted me and asked me to review her book, I was sucked in right away by the blurb. It sounded like something I could get on board with and I wasn’t wrong. I really enjoyed this read. It had action, romance, intrigue, suspense and it was well written with a flowing and solid story. I loved that the author spaced out the reveals, leaving you wondering who was good, who was bad and who was trolling the grey lines. Though the beginning was a bit slow and took me until the third chapter to really get into it, it quickly picked up and kept right on spinning until the very end.

Nina Cross is a rookie FBI agent. Her partner and best friend is killed, leaving her with a warning and a mystery that’s pulled her right into the cross hairs of two cartels, her own agency and a perfect stranger who both terrifies her and consumes her.

Nina soon finds herself on the run and soon after that, kidnapped. It’s one mishap after another for her and she really has to find her inner strength and bravery to survive the harrowing events that she’s found herself in. She doesn’t know who to trust and those she thought she could trust, leave her reeling and in situations she might not get out of.

Nina and her “perfect-stranger” have great chemistry together and I found myself really pulled into their romance. I do think it was played out to quickly and their insta-romance needed more time to evolve, especially considering the circumstances they were in and the way he presented himself, but it was fun to see how it all played out. The perfect-stranger was a mystery and you never knew what his angle was. The author did a fabulous job with his character, making you second guess everything. And in the end, you’re still not sure who might be betraying who.

Along with the insta-romance, there was one other thing I wish had been sussed out a bit more. It was said two or three times in the story that Nina wasn’t cut out for being an FBI field agent, and on that note, I will have to agree. Though I liked her character, she seemed fragile and naive. She’s had training and she has instincts but she seems to ignore all that when it really counts. No sooner had she met her perfect-stranger, than she fell into bed with him, knowing he was setting off alarms inside her. Throughout their trip, she didn’t question him nearly enough and let her libido take over when common sense should have prevailed. Also, there were times when I wanted her to be tougher than she was. I think her character could have really been one of the “kickass” heroines I love, if only she cried a bit less, was snarky a bit more and wasn’t shocked as much. Don’t get me wrong. She was a great heroine with tons of courage, and the situations she was in would have left me a sniveling mess on the floor crying for my mommy, but I wanted HER just a little more tougher than she was. By the end, I think she was starting to really find the voice I wanted her to have and I look forward to seeing where the story takes her and her perfect-stranger.

This book doesn’t leave off with a huge cliffy but there’s enough left unsaid that you can’t help but want to move on to the next book immediately, and I loved that!

All in all, this was a very enjoyable read that left me wanting more. It might have been my first book by this author but it certainly isn’t my last.


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