Welcome to my review stop
on the Tasty Virtual Book Tour for BLACK LISTED by Shelly Bell, the newest
Benediction novel and trust me, this one is explosively good. Stick around for
an excerpt & fab giveaway too.
***eARC
provided by publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest and unscripted review
– I already bought my copy because this one is a definite re-read.
Blurb for BLACK LISTED:
She sacrificed everything to keep him safe…
Five years
ago, con artist Lisa Smith broke the first rule of hustling when she fell in
love with—and married—her mark, billionaire Sawyer Hayes. The erotic nights
spent acting out her darkest fantasies with her husband and Master were the
happiest of her life. But when her ruthless father demanded she kill him and
take his money, she had no choice but to disappear without a trace…or lose him
forever.
He’ll risk everything to have her again…
Now Sawyer
has found her, and he has an indecent proposal: submit to him for seven nights
and he’ll grant her the divorce she desires. Forced to pretend she no longer
loves him, each night spent in his arms is exquisite torture as they reignite
their intense passion through role play and ménage. But when a deranged killer
out for revenge targets Lisa, she must finally trust Sawyer with the secrets of
her past…or neither of them will live to see the future.
Warning:
Scenes depicting BDSM, fisting, MMFMM, consensual non-consent, and references
to abuse.
My Review:
Let
me just say straight out…I love the Benediction series. I cannot get enough of
it, and even though it is not a series for everyone, I think everyone should
try it on for size just once. I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I do
either, but it is truly addicting.
We
first met Lisa Smith in the White Collared books and frankly, I didn’t like her
much. I thought her conniving and was always feeling as if Kate needed to watch
her back with her. I guess there was a good reason for that…she’s a con artist.
Not just someone who manipulates to get things her way but an all-out,
criminally minded, con artist, who came from a family of con artists, and is
now hiding out from them—and her husband, Sawyer Hayes.
Lisa’s
real name is Annaliese Hayes nee Hunt. She married Sawyer Hayes, the sexy billionaire
computer genius who helped clear Rachel and Logan of murder in BLUE BLOODED. She
married him because that’s what her father wanted her to do then divorce him
for the money, only he changed his plans and decided she should kill him
instead, and take it all. Only one problem with the old man’s plan…Lisa had
fallen in love with Sawyer, so she took enough money to appease her hateful
father, and left. She left the man she loved, the life she wanted with him, and
took along with her a Black List that could put her entire family away for a
very long time…her included. She warned her father that if anything happened to
Sawyer, the list would go straight to the FBI. She gave up her life to save
Sawyer’s. All was well until her picture appeared in the newspaper and Sawyer
showed up at Cole and Danielle’s wedding.
Lisa
asks him for a divorce. Sawyer says he’ll agree only if she agrees to spend one
week as his submissive. Seeing that he was, and still is, her only Master, Lisa
agrees because she still craves this man, still loves this man, and wants to
protect him by making sure he goes away and stays away from her. The problem
is…if Sawyer could find her…so could her father, her brothers and any one of
the many marks, she’s defrauded over the years.
As
I read each book in the Benediction series, I think Shelly Bell can’t possibly
thrill or keep me enthralled as well as the one before but she can, and she
does. Having just come off reading RED HANDED immediately before reading BLACK
LISTED, I thought nothing could surprise me more, but it did.
BLACK
LISTED, book three in the Benediction series by Shelly Bell is raw, rough,
suspenseful, and not for the faint of heart when it comes to sex scenes but
it’s also, beautiful, emotional, passionate, and overflowing with an intense
love between two perfectly matched characters that are getting a second chance
at love, marriage, truth, and the future. We are used to second chance romances
where a couple who had unspoken feelings for each other come back together and
reignite their love and relationship but this time, in BLACK LISTED, this is a
married couple, a Master and Sub, two people who had already committed
themselves and their hearts to a union torn apart by secrets and lies. It’s
unique, it is heart wrenching, and we can’t help but be drawn into their world,
their love, and feel the same sense of healing when the truths—all of them—finally
come out.
Frankly,
I hope Shelly never ends this series but I know it will happen
eventually…happily, these are stories I will be revisiting many times in the
future. I highly, highly recommend that if you love good suspense, characters
rich in realism, a world of the sexually unusual—one that intrigues and makes
you wish you were brave enough to venture into—and experiencing love that you
wish could exist outside the realm of romance novels then please…read BLACK
LISTED by Shelly Bell, and welcome the addiction.
Happy
Reading Everyone!
Amazon | B
& N | Google
Play | iTunes | Kobo
Excerpt from BLACK
LISTED:
Lisa turned and caught
sight of Rachel walking toward her with two men by her side.
It took only a moment
for it to register.
The long blond hair she
loved to tug on during rough sex.
The stubble lining his
jaw that used to scratch the skin of her inner thighs as he worked her over
with his mouth.
The roguish and
lighthearted appearance he maintained in public and the dark dominance that
lurked beneath the surface.
It was him.
He was here.
Her Master.
He had found her.
She blinked a few times,
trying to see if maybe she was imagining that the man she’d run from four years ago was suddenly only feet away and
talking with her friends as if he knew them. That was impossible, right?
Her heart galloped a wild
beat, and the sounds of the crowd disappeared under the roar of her pulse.
She wanted to run from
him.
She wanted to run to
him.
All the sorrow and
regret she’d buried deep down inside came rushing back with a force that nearly
bowled her over. And when the ghost from her past stood right in front of her
and looked at her like a stranger, the glass of red wine slipped from her
shaking hand onto the green grass, the liquid pooling beneath her heels.
Seemingly oblivious to
her shock, Rachel smiled, a twinkle of mischief in her eyes. “I’d like to
introduce you to Logan’s friend, Sawyer Hayes. Sawyer, this is Lisa Smith.”
Logan’s friend? Sawyer
was Logan’s friend? This was the man who had helped Rachel and Logan in Las
Vegas when they were framed for murder and running from the FBI?
“Hello,” Sawyer said
cordially, standing so close she could feel his body heat radiating off him and
smell a scent that reminded her of the best days of her life. “It’s nice to see
you again, Annaliese.”
Her mind was a jumbled
mess.
Like she was prey caught
in the sights of a hunter, she became entrapped in his eyes.
She couldn’t breathe.
Couldn’t speak.
Couldn’t move.
“You know each other?”
Rachel said, her brows wrinkled in confusion.
“You could say that,”
Sawyer said slowly, still holding Lisa captive with his eyes. “She’s my wife.”
“Lisa is the woman who
conned you?” Logan asked incredulously.
Shame heated her cheeks,
and she suppressed the threatening tears. Her friends would hate her when they
discovered what she’d done. Not that she deserved any less.
And what did it matter?
She was about to lose everything. She wouldn’t be surprised if she was arrested
at any moment.
Rachel took her hand,
but she still couldn’t look away from Sawyer. “I’m sure if she did, she had her
reasons.”
Yes, she had her
reasons. Dark, dangerous reasons that sometimes woke her out of her sleep in
the form of violent nightmares.
And now with Sawyer’s
appearance, her nightmares were one step closer to becoming true.
About the Author:
A
sucker for a happy ending, Shelly Bell writes sensual romance often with a bit
of kink and action-filled erotic thrillers with high-emotional stakes for her
alpha heroes and kick-ass heroines.
She
began writing upon the insistence of her husband who dragged her to the store
and bought her a laptop. When she’s not working her day job, taking care of her
family, or writing, you’ll find her reading the latest smutty romance.
Shelly
Bell writes the Benediction series for Avon Red Impulse and the forthcoming
Forbidden Lovers series for Grand Central Forever.
Tour Wide Giveaway
3 comments:
Okay, your review honestly made me cry happy tears. Thank you so much for...well, everything!
:) Shelly Bell
Amy, what a fabulous review! Thank you so much for hosting!!
Thanks Lisa, it's easy to write a review for a book that excites.
Shelly, I certainly didn't mean to make you cry, but that's the nicest compliment a reviewer can get that my reaction to your book affected you as much as your book affected me. Thank you for writing Lisa and Cole's story. I hope Gracie gets a new master some day. xo
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