Stop on the STRIPPING HER DEFENSES by Jessie Lane Blog Tour + #Giveaway

Welcome to my stop on the STRIPPING HER DEFENSES by Jessie Lane Blog Tour. I was so lucky to be included in this tour and allowed to read book two in the Ex Ops series even as it was being released. This series rocks!

***eARC provided by author in exchange for an honest and unscripted review.

Blurb for STRIPPING HER DEFENSES:

He can’t change the scars on her body…
but fate will give him a second chance to mend the scars he put on her heart.

Riley Sullivan and the Ex Ops Team are headed to Miami undercover… as bikers. Following up a lead, the men will perform their investigation acting as members of the Regulators Motorcycle Club with the club’s permission. Surrounded by hardcore bikers and investigating missing strippers, Riley finds the last person he ever expected to see again—his ex-wife.

Kara Sullivan left the man she loved after a tragic accident cost them their unborn son. After years of therapy, she’s come to grips with the loss and has re-emerged from the pain a brand new person. That doesn’t mean she’s ready to face the man who inadvertently broke her heart, and who she’s hurt in return.

Riley has never stopped loving her and he never will. He’s ready to fix their marriage and move on with their lives, however Kara’s reluctance to renew their relationship isn’t their only problem. Danger lurks just around the corner… and there’s a chance she could disappear permanently.

*               *                *                *                 * 

Kara Sullivan loves her husband, but can’t help but wonder if he loves her as much as his job or even perhaps, their unborn child. When tragedy strikes and their child is lost along with any hope of future children, Kara leaves. She leaves. She leaves everything behind, her life, her past, her future, her husband, and seeks out the Kara she needs to be.

Riley Sullivan is a man of loyalty, respect, and honor. As a Navy S.E.A.L., he allowed his obligation to his team and his job get in the way of his marriage to the only woman he’s ever loved, and it cost him everything. Eight long years of loss, of not knowing where she is, of not being able to tell her how much he loves and misses her, has driven him to go through life on the edge of giving everything over to the darkness. Until one night, when he walks into a strip club on an Ex Ops mission and looks into the eyes of the main attraction, who happens to be his wife – well, ex-wife.

Riley and his team have their hands full with a mission to find the man behind missing women being sold into slavery, the same man responsible for the death of a woman and the severe beating of an FBI agent. (If you read SECRET MANEUVERS, book one in the Ex Ops series then you know the story, if you haven’t – DO!) Finding out his wife is the main attraction on the stage of a strip club run by a biker gang is not what he expected at all, and now he’s trying to keep his mind on the job while trying to figure out how to win his wife back.

Jessie Lane created a wonderful cast of characters and introduced them to us in SECRET MANEUVERS, the first book in the Ex Ops series. STRIPPING HER DEFENSES continues the mission started in the first book as well as gives us a happily ever after second chance romance for Riley and Kara. Giving us the story directly from the main characters' point of views and in first person, we climb into the skins of Riley and Kara experiencing their wishes, their regrets, their angst, and their joy. Meanwhile, we get to know the other members of the Ex Ops team even better with more focus centering on Declan, Riley’s brother and Lucas Young through his connections to the MC, the Regulators. Lucas is carrying a torch for a long lost love too.

With plenty of action, angst, pasts filled with sorrow, and depression playing a secondary role in Riley and Kara’s story, I didn't find STRIPPING HER DEFENSES by Jessie Lane quite as romantically powerful, or action-filled exciting as SECRET MANEUVERS was. I would like to have had more emotional interaction between Riley and Kara. I also felt her studio being trashed was a bit of a misdirection that didn't work. Still, I enjoyed it very much as it kept me turning the pages, expecting all hell to break loose at any moment between Riley and Ice, but in the end proving to be an exceptional read. I highly recommend STRIPPING HER DEFENSES, book two in the Ex Ops series by Jessie Lane to anyone who enjoys a second chance love story with some sexy ex-military men saving the day, and enduring the costs. It works great as a stand-alone but I highly recommend reading SECRET MANEUVERS first.

Happy Reading Everyone!

About the Author:

Jessie Lane is the bestselling author of The Star Series, Big Bad Bite Series, and the Ex Ops Series. She lives in Kentucky with her two little Rock Chicks in the making and her over protective alpha husband. She has a passionate love for reading and writing naughty romance, cliff hanging suspense, and out-of-this-world characters that demand your attention, or threaten to slap you around until you do pay attention to them.

Jessie writes Adult Paranormal and Contemporary Romance & Upper YA Fantasy/Paranormal Romance.

If you’d like to learn more about Jessie and her books, please visit her website, and feel free to follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

TOUR WIDE GIVEAWAY

STRIPPING HER DEFENSES, an Ex Ops novel by Jessie Lane, Whiskey Girl Publishing, available in ebook formats at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobobooks, All Romance eBooks, and Smashwords. Print available on 11/6.

***click on links above or cover below for purchasing information, remember even pennies per sale using my links help keep this blog alive. Thank You.