Self-Published | May 7, 2016 | MC Romance
Uncertain Saints MC, book 2
★★★1/2
SOURCE: ENTICING JOURNEY
LiesMig’s wife is a bitch.How else do you describe a woman that lies, cheats and steals to get what she wants?That’s exactly what happens when she traps him into a marriage he wants nothing to do with, saddling him with a kid that he knows doesn’t deserve to be in a world like his.He’s doing a pretty bang-up job at ignoring everything but his responsibilities as a DEA officer and a member of The Uncertain Saints MC.Then his neighbor knocks on his door, and everything he thought he knew is blown out the window.DeceitAnnie teaches Mig that not every woman is out to get him.Her love for Mig stretches past what’s appropriate for two friends, and Annie soon straddles that invisible boundary between appropriate and inappropriate.Annie’s not a cheater, though.When she tries to say goodbye, Mig won’t let her leave, and soon the tiny town of Uncertain blows up with the news of Annie and Mig’s innocent friendship.BetrayalMatters of the heart are foreign to Mig, and it takes Annie being gutted for him to see the wrong he’s done.He waits too long, though, and Annie’s heart is broken.She wants it all, or she wants nothing. She can’t take anymore half-hearted attempts at being just friends.The heart wants what it wants, and it doesn’t take long for Mig to realize that.But just when Mig finally has it all in the palm of his hand, his life is ripped to shreds by a new player in the game, and it takes all of Annie’s love and devotion, as well as help from the men of The Uncertain Saint’s MC, to put Mig back together again.
{ about lani lynn vale } .
I’m a married mother of three. My kids are all under 5, so I can assure you that they are a handful. I’ve been with my paramedic husband now for ten years, and we’ve produced three offspring that are nothing like us. I live in the greatest state in the world, Texas.
{ excerpt } .
“Go get the door for the policemen I can see outside,” I called. “And tell them you have a DEA Agent in your house so they don’t try to shoot me when they enter.”“I already did,” I heard Annie say as she got closer.
I saw her only a few seconds before she disappeared around the edge of the hallway into the entry way beyond it.
Then the door was unchained, unlocked, and swung open.
Three cops were the next to enter, and I nodded at the one I knew.
“Hey there, Officer Kirkpatrick,” I called to my good friend.
We had drinks every week, sometimes multiple times a week.
I had to do some creative thinking to get away from my wife, and Officer Kirkpatrick, a.k.a. Bullseye, was one of them.
Well, I didn’t do him…but I hung out with him.
Often.
And Bullseye had a hell of a wife that didn’t care if I was over there as much as I was.
“What’s shakin’?” Bullseye asked.
“These two men here decided to break into Annie’s house. I’m just here making sure that they don’t get off with anything valuable,” I answered.
The other officer, Antonio Juarez, I didn’t know very well.
He was new, and hung out with the young’uns instead of us old folks.
Well, I was thirty-four, which wasn’t ‘old’ per se, but it sure as fuck wasn’t young, either.
“What’s that in his hand?” Juarez asked.
I looked down at Howard Ryan’s hand, and narrowed my eyes.
“That’s Annie’s purse,” I answered.
Annie’s ‘purse’ was more of a beach bag, and I didn’t know how the hell she found anything in it.
But I wouldn’t know what to do with her if she didn’t have it with her.
She’d been able to supply me with an ice pack, and a water on two different occasions, so I wasn’t one to complain when it was beneficial to me.
“Well, boys, let’s go for a ride downtown,” Bullseye said, walking behind Howard Ryan and handcuffing him.
Ryan shot me an evil look as he left, promising retribution, and I smiled at him.
Bring it, little boy. You can’t handle this, my look said.
Forty-five minutes later, the cops were leaving with both men in the back of two separate cars, and I was left standing on Annie’s front porch with her next to me.
“Thank you,” she said, looking up at me with all sorts of promises in her eyes.
I touched my fingertips to her cheek and smiled down at her.
God, she was beautiful.
Long, wavy brown hair that went down to her mid back. Beautiful, full lips.
A smokin’ ass.
Light brown skin that was nearly the color of mine.
She wasn’t Italian like me, though.
She was Puerto Rican, and she wouldn’t let anyone call her otherwise.
I’d give anything to be with her but my life, and name, belonged to my wife.
God, if there was any way I could rewind a year, I’d do it in a heartbeat.
I would’ve never invited my now wife, Jennifer, to the club party.
Jennifer was the exact opposite of Annie.
Rude, opinionated, and selfish.
Now she was six months pregnant with my child, and I hated every fucking second of my life.
“You’re welcome,” I said roughly. “I’m gonna have a few men over here in the next few days to install an alarm and make sure nobody can ever do that to you again.”
“Mig, what the ever loving fuck are you doing over there?” My wife screeched.
I winced and slowly dropped my hand, looking over at Jennifer like one would a pile of fish heads and vomit.
Then I turned around when I saw she was dressed in little to nothing.
How not surprising.
{ playlist } .
{ review } .
Please note... this review may come across as negative, when in fact, I did enjoy the story -- however, upon reflection, I had more critical thoughts than the flowers-and-candy kind...
After Whiskey Neat, I had high hopes for this particular book. The former had holes and style issues that left my wanting more, but I held out for this next book because the lead-in for Annie and Migs had me excited.
And for the most part, the little issues I had previous were cleared up (namely the Jack & Coke reference), but where the writing had flow previously, I found myself wanting more in Ms. Vale's writing style this go-round. Immediately, we're thrown into a suspenseful situation, and it simply felt off. The familiarity that Ms. Vale wrote of Annie and Migs was more dating-for-some-time than simply the friends that they were.
I also became increasingly annoyed with Migs's continuous reference to 'his wife'. While I did read the previous book, and the synopsis spells it all out more than enough, I personally think that starting the story out with his thoughts of his wife and why he's with her and why he hates her, all before laying on Annie and his body reacting... He wouldn't have come across as such an eighteen year old player. As it was, he was written as either strong and protective (and gah, I loved him in those moments), or a man with no backbone -- however that works.
That said.
I did enjoy Migs and Annie. They were both complex characters who had a crappy hand dealt to them. The plot itself was well-thought out, and like the book before, the suspense line was extremely well written considering I found parts of the rest lacking. The epilogue made their relationship seem very happy and butterflies, and was actually very cute.
Unfortunately for the indie world, this is the kind of book that screams 'self-published'. There were style points that felt repetitive and quite honestly, the synopsis is a long summary of the book. I feel that, while Ms. Vale has a following with her readers and she has a number of books out, she could grow exponentially with better attention to detail and flow.
After Whiskey Neat, I had high hopes for this particular book. The former had holes and style issues that left my wanting more, but I held out for this next book because the lead-in for Annie and Migs had me excited.
And for the most part, the little issues I had previous were cleared up (namely the Jack & Coke reference), but where the writing had flow previously, I found myself wanting more in Ms. Vale's writing style this go-round. Immediately, we're thrown into a suspenseful situation, and it simply felt off. The familiarity that Ms. Vale wrote of Annie and Migs was more dating-for-some-time than simply the friends that they were.
I also became increasingly annoyed with Migs's continuous reference to 'his wife'. While I did read the previous book, and the synopsis spells it all out more than enough, I personally think that starting the story out with his thoughts of his wife and why he's with her and why he hates her, all before laying on Annie and his body reacting... He wouldn't have come across as such an eighteen year old player. As it was, he was written as either strong and protective (and gah, I loved him in those moments), or a man with no backbone -- however that works.
That said.
I did enjoy Migs and Annie. They were both complex characters who had a crappy hand dealt to them. The plot itself was well-thought out, and like the book before, the suspense line was extremely well written considering I found parts of the rest lacking. The epilogue made their relationship seem very happy and butterflies, and was actually very cute.
Unfortunately for the indie world, this is the kind of book that screams 'self-published'. There were style points that felt repetitive and quite honestly, the synopsis is a long summary of the book. I feel that, while Ms. Vale has a following with her readers and she has a number of books out, she could grow exponentially with better attention to detail and flow.
No comments:
Post a Comment