Title: Relentless Author: Jade West Genre: Contemporary Romance
I’m an heiress with a broken past. It should have been the end for me, but now my mortal enemy has become my savior. He hides me away from the world as if he can save me.
Lucian Morelli is a billionaire who doesn’t know how to feel anything. Except when he’s with me.
Love between a Morelli and a Constantine will never survive. The war between both families turns into an inferno, consuming the entire city of Bishop’s Landing. The world is soaked in blood. No one is left standing, not even the couple who vowed their final breaths.
I would sacrifice everything for the man I love, and I just may have to.
RELENTLESS is the explosive finale of Jade West’s Starcrossed Lovers trilogy set in the world of Midnight Dynasty.
“So what do we do?” I asked him. “We have to do something, right? There has to be something we can do, because I can’t go back there. I can’t, Lucian.”
“Every second is one step closer to our doom,” he told me. “We have to move. Quickly.”
I was nodding, frantic. “Yes, we move! We move anywhere! I don’t care where we go, just as long as I’m with you. Please, Lucian, let’s run. Let’s run now!”
His cell sounded out again. A message. He picked it up and I watched his face as he read it. I saw his mouth drop. “That’s my good friend, Hunter Sparro. He’s asking me what the hell is going on. Says everyone is talking about Lucian Morelli and Elaine Constantine and how I’ve been hunting you down.”
My head was spinning, trying to work out some miracle solution. I’d been a fool to think a single note would condemn the Power Brothers for wiping me out without anyone questioning a thing. Only I hadn’t cared about Lucian Morelli then. Not enough to attempt something less questionable.
Lucian’s fingers were still hitting his cell screen.
“I’ll make some calls,” he said. “Get an exit plan together.”
“An exit plan?”
“Fake IDs. We need to get out of here, overseas as soon as possible.”
“Okay. Right,” I said. “I guess you have loads of them, right? Fake IDs and stuff. I know people do. People like you, I mean.”
He sneered, but there was affection in it. “People like me. I love how you’ve been raised to believe that I really am some monster from the underworld and your family is on the other end of the spectrum. Believe me, sweetheart, your family will have as many fake IDs as mine will. They’re as fucked up in the evil shit as we are.”
I tipped my head. “Yeah, okay, well, I don’t have any fake IDs. I’ve never seen one in my life.”
He smirked. “I love your innocence.”
I rolled my eyes. “Not many people would say a party girl with a debt so huge it would cost her her life had a huge amount of innocence about her.”
“Still,” he said. “You’re innocent. I love you for it.”
Hearing those words from him made my soul sing. I love you. Lucian Morelli really loved me. A Morelli really did love a Constantine.
And a Constantine loved him right back.
“You know this is like some fucked-up version of Romeo and Juliet, right?” I said. “It’s like a modern-day Shakespeare, just a whole load less… picturesque.”
I adored his smile, even though it was a sad one. “Just a shame Romeo and Juliet both die at the end of it, isn’t it? Let’s do our best to make sure we don’t follow in their fucking footsteps.”
He finished his coffee and wandered away with his cell in his hand, fingers busy. I finished mine and headed through to the living room, daring to put the TV on to check out the latest news.
It was all still the same, pleas for information from my family and people saying random shit about where they’d seen me. It seemed the mainstream media wasn’t anywhere closer to the truth. I doubted they ever would be.
I could hear Lucian speaking, his voice low and his tone his usual icy pitch. I didn’t focus on what he was saying. There was a strange calmness in me somehow, even with the looming carnage. It was trust. I trusted Lucian to take care. Of me. Of us.
He was gone a while before he came through to the living room.
“The UK,” he said to me. “We’ll go to the UK. We’ll be running, but we stand more chance of surviving with the Atlantic as a buffer, at least.”
I hadn’t been to the UK since I was a little girl. We’d gone there as a family, smiling for the cameras as we checked out London with a few of the aristocrats we were such good family friends with. I’d been in awe of the place. I’d loved it. The London Eye and Buckingham Palace and the quaint countryside surrounding the city.
“Can we get there?” I asked him. “Will we manage to make the journey?”
“Only one way to find out.” One thing was for sure, I’d risk my life trying.
Jade has increasingly little to say about herself as time goes on, other than the fact she is an author, but she’s plenty happy with this. Living in imaginary realities and having a legitimate excuse for it is really all she’s ever wanted. Jade is as dirty as you’d expect from her novels, and talking smut makes her smile. She lives in the Herefordshire countryside with a couple of hounds and a guy who’s able to cope with her inherent weirdness. She has a red living room, decorated with far more zebra print than most people could bear, and fights a constant battle with her addiction to Coca-Cola.
Can she trust the man who holds the fate of her family’s ranch–and her heart–in his hands?
Astrid Anderssen never planned to manage her family’s ranch. When her father breaks his leg, however, she has no other choice. She has pinched every penny and stretched every dollar, but it’s still not enough. If the new bank owner is anything like the old one, he’ll send them packing when the next loan payment comes due.
Grant Watson left Rattlesnake Ridge under a cloud of shame. Inheriting his late uncle’s bank brings him back to town, but ledgers full of gouging loans do nothing to help his reputation. Even the lovely blonde newcomer he crosses paths with on his first day in the bank seems to share the town’s opinion of him.
When all hope seems lost, Grant offers Astrid a job in the bank. Is it an answer to her family’s prayers? Or will a growing attraction for her new boss add up to a disastrous end?
If you enjoy romances with tortured heroes and damsels in distress, then you’ll love Returning from Rhode Island.
When Grant Wilson returns to Rattlesnake Ridge after an urgent and unexpected request from his uncle, he’s shocked to find that his uncle has died and left him quite an estate – including several local properties and the town’s only bank. He’s also shocked to find out that his uncle did not run a very ethical business. But what is Grant going to do about it? He turns to trusted counsel to figure things out, and along the way meets Astrid.
Astrid was one heck of a good character. She was a strong young woman that had already decided the path of her life was to be a rough one. Taking care of her father and sisters, trying to keep the ranch afloat, and then along comes Grant Wilson. She thinks of him as a hero that does the right thing and helps, but I really felt like she was the hero of the story here. She accomplished things I couldn’t have imagined, and has nerves of steel when her family is on the line.
The book has a lot of women’s rights woven into the pages. At times a little heavy-handed, although I don’t doubt that it was hard for a woman to do certain things in those times, it seemed to be overly emphasized at times. The town was a gem. I loved all the residents, and they seemed mostly to be honest hard-working people that you grow to love.
The villains were a bit obvious. I think they were supposed to be, but it made the big confrontation a little less dramatic. Although the way it was resolved was quite exciting.
**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**
A duke’s daughter must be prepared for whatever life—and love—throws her way…
Lady Cassandra Fallon is finally ready to take control of her life and join her late mother’s investigative society. She’s more than confident she can do the job—even when her first case involves a potentially deadly scandal. What she’s not quite prepared for is her brother’s attractive (and increasingly distracting) friend acting as her self-appointed bodyguard…
When Lord Luke promised his best friend he’d keep an eye on Cassie, he meant it. But the brazen and entirely too alluring woman she’s become is a far cry from the mischievous, freckled girl she used to be. Luke knows a lowly viscount has no business longing for (or touching) a duke’s daughter. But against all reason…he does…
She craves independence. He only craves her. An epic battle of the sexes is at hand. But will love be enough to get them to happily ever after? Cassie and Luke will soon find out…
He ground his teeth together as he recalled how she’d felt against him and how damned close he’d been to feeling a lot more. He could not claim to be the most self-controlled man in the world but with Cassie, he’d always maintained it with those three words.
She’s Anton’s sister.
The words failed him now. He could only see her as Cassie—the woman he’d touched, the woman he’d kissed. The woman he wanted more of.
“Do they know anything of what you are doing?” he asked when their hands touched, and they twisted around one another. He needed to maintain his focus on the important matter of keeping her safe.
“In some respects.”
He lifted his brows. Cassie and her sisters were close. Her relationship with Eleanor was especially intimate and Cassie had always felt protective of her half-sister.
“What is it?”
“I am merely surprised you have not involved them in your investigating.”
Her gaze dropped briefly to the floor before meeting his. “They know what I am doing but I have no desire for them to get further involved.” She gave a light laugh that sounded strange to his ears. “After all, it is hardly the work of a lady to go about investigating such matters.”
“They shall not be impressed that I know of the danger to you and did not tell them.”
“I can manage my sisters.” She wrinkled her nose. “Besides, I am not as helpless as everyone assumes me to be. I can manage this on my own.”
“With my help,” he added.
“Yes,” she conceded, “with your help.”
“So what next?”
She bit down on her bottom lip. “You will not like it.”
“I do not like any of this, Cassie. If it were up to me, I would lock you away until Anton returned but knowing you, you would escape like Rapunzel.”
“I think Rapunzel didn’t escape. The prince came to her if you recall.”
“Well, I know you well enough to know you would not tolerate such a thing.”
Her chin lifted. “Of course not.”
“I shall do the next best thing and be stuck to your side and hope that Anton or your sisters do not decide to make a eunuch of me.”
“Luke!”
“What?”
“You should not speak of such…matters.”
He fixed her with a look, lacing his fingers with hers to draw her around him. “The potential loss of my manhood?”
Her cheeks blazed pink. A rather appealing look. “Yes,” she hissed.
Oh, this was interesting. Cassie might be willing to sneak into bedrooms and commit crimes in the name of this investigation, but it seemed she could not tolerate such bold talk.
USA TODAY Bestselling Author Samantha Holt is known for fun, witty, and usually steamy historical romances. She’s been a full-time writer for longer than she ever thought possible having originally trained as a nurse and an archaeologist. She’s a champion napper, owner of too many animals, mum to twins, and lives in a small village near the very middle of England.
She’s usually writing (or napping) but when she’s not, Samantha is plotting (books of course!) with her husband, drinking coffee, climbing hills that are far too high for her fitness levels or visiting stately homes and pretending she’s posh.
