Title: The Darkest Link
(Second Circle Tattoos #4)
Author: Scarlett Cole
Publication Date: August 30th, 2016
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
When
a pin-up worthy tattoo artist meets a car mechanic on a Florida roadside, it
feels like the start of a great one-night stand. But when feelings grow, and
secrets are revealed, both of their lives will be at risk. The only question is
from who? Find out in THE DARKEST LINK by RITA finalist, Scarlett Cole.
When
her car breaks down off the side of a lonely highway far from her sunny Miami
home, tattoo artist Lia never expected her very own white knight to ride up on
the back of a barely street-legal motorcycle...and she never expected to fall
for her dark savior. After a string of failed relationships and a bruised heart
Lia is not looking for forever, and the hot mechanic, with his sexy scruff and
shaggy hair, is simply impossible to resist. He's the perfect candidate for a
mind-blowingly-perfect, no-strings-attached one-night stand.
Reid
left his life in Chicago far behind him and hasn't been back, but he's never
been able to escape the guilt he feels about his own painful role in inviting a
monster into his baby sister's life. A monster who almost destroyed her. Being
with Lia is an unexpected gift, one he doesn't feel he deserves, and their one
night together has him wanting more than he should. When he surprises her at
her tattoo studio, Second Circle Tattoos, in Miami, he's in for a shock—and a
fist to the face—when his past and present collide.
With
secrets coming to the surface, Reid and Lia are thrown into a world of etrayal
and lies that threatens to pull them under, and the last link to his former
life may be the darkest of them all.
“What is this?” she asked, running her
hand over the elongated hood.
“A 1958 Ford Thunderbird. It was a
shell when I bought it. Was found in an unused barn with a bunch of other old
classics.”
The wheels were black with white faces,
and the soft top was a creamy white. Reflections from the chrome cast light
onto the white walls.
“I love it,” she said, excited to sit
inside.
“Hood up or down?” Kenny asked,
slipping her cases into the trunk.
“Oh, most definitely down,” Lia said.
Screw the victory rolls, she could always put her hair into a high ponytail and
add the red ribbon she had in her purse if her scarf failed. She reached into
her bag to find it and tied it around her head.
“I like this,” Kenny said, fingering
the knot under her chin gently. The way his eyes crinkled at the corners made
her feel all kinds of gooey inside. Perhaps it was a good thing they lived a
long drive away from each other. His very presence made it difficult to remember
why she was taking some time off from men. But a little harmless flirtation was
adding to the adventure of a few days off work. There couldn’t be any harm in
that.
Once inside the car, Kenny took her
hotel details and plugged them into his phone. “There are few downsides to the
classics, but lack of sat-nav has to be one,” he said, turning the radio on.
“Ready?”
“I feel like Thelma and Louise about to
drive over the edge of the cliff,” she said with a laugh.
“Close. That was a 1966 Ford
Thunderbird, eight years younger than this baby. Does that make me J.D.?”
“That depends. Are you planning on
driving me to a motel, having your wicked way with me on the dresser, then
stealing my life savings?”
“I know a motel, don’t know if they
have a dresser, but more than willing to do a drive-by to find out.”
Lia laughed. “I was joking.”
“I wasn’t. Say the word, Red.”
He revved the engine several times, the
low growl sexy as all hell, and grinned as he roared out onto the street. Lia
watched his hand as he shifted the stick. He caressed the gear stick. The more
she stared, the more turned on she became until she had to cross her legs and
look out of the window.
Damn him for getting her so hot and
bothered. She spared a glance back toward him, just as he turned to face her.
And he winked. Because he knew.
And that just turned her on even more.
Scarlett Cole is a
writer of contemporary romance and a two-time RITA finalist. Her debut, THE
STRONGEST STEEL, has already become an Amazon best seller in romantic suspense,
was a Best Debut Goodreads Author Finalist 2015, and Authors On The Air Global
Radio Network Contemporary Romance Pick of 2015.
When Scarlett isn't
writing, she spends her time reading, hoarding mason jars, and working out to
off-set an epic sour candy habit. She likes hot men, cold beer, and expensive
shoes.
Having travelled the
world for work and fun, Scarlett is a citizen of both Britain and Canada. A
true city-dweller, she considers Toronto and Manchester home and likes to set
her books in vibrant locations such as Miami and Los Angeles.
Rep'd by Beth Phelan
at The Bent Agency, and published by St. Martin's Press.
She'd love to hear
from you on twitter @itsscarlettcole
4 “Hot Mechanic” Stars
ARC via NetGalley.
Thank you, St. Martin's Press!
Scarlett Cole keeps writing steamy romantic suspense
books like it’s no big deal. She makes it look easy, huh?
I first heard of this author when her debut “The
Strongest Steel” came out, and bloggers and romance readers I knew called it
amazing among other things. Plus, the covers were so artistic and pretty and
hot (and I’m not even a fan of naked chest covers). So, yeah, I was intrigued.
Then, I had the chance to read the third book in the
Second Circle Tatoos series earlier this year. I was impressed.
Consider myself still impressed after reading her new
one.
This time, we follow Lia and the extremely hot man she
falls in love with, Rey.
If like me, you haven’t read the first two books (or
even the first three), you might miss out on some of the references, but you
won’t be lost at all. The author does a good job grounding the readers, so
people new to the series get to enjoy this book as a standalone.
Lia is one of the tattoo artists working at the studio
that served as a setting for the first three stories in the series. She has a
great sense of style (think red hair, Pin Up dresses and great tattoos) and a
tendency to fall in love too fast and too had. Lia also has a lot of family
problems – her father is a jerk with political aspirations, her mother is
unstable but refuses to leave her husband, and Lia doesn’t know how to please either
of them without having to change everything she is.
One day, on her way to a conference, her car breaks
down and Lia is rescued by a hot mechanic on a motorbike. The guy is all
muscles and leather jacket, and Lia loves all of it.
Reid can’t resist the beauty in need of assistance when
he sees her standing by the side of the road. He’s a mechanic, after all, but
that’s not why he stops and offers his help. He notices the woman’s long legs
and red kissable lips before he evens registers that she’s driving a
cool-as-heck car. The moment he introduces himself to her, he’s already
thinking about how nice those legs would feel wrapped around his waist.
So, yeah, we get great chemistry right from the start.
Lia and Reid’s relationship develops quite fast
because those two cannot keep their hands off each other – which means we get
many hot scenes right from the start. Little by little, we start to fall in
love with them.
Then the first wow moment happens, and it must have an
even bigger impact in readers that have been following the series since the
first book.
When Reid surprises Lia at work, he sees his sister,
Harper, the one he abandoned years ago when she was first attacked by his best
friend. Damn. The story Reid and Harper tells us is full of mistakes, bad
decisions and guilt. It’s heartbreaking to see those two characters trying to
find their way back into each other’s lives after so many years apart.
One thing I truly appreciated was how the author didn’t
feel the need to make Harper and Rey problems into a Lia and Rey problem. Lia
reacted like the mature woman she was and helped the guy she was falling in
love with through this really difficult time in his life. From that moment on,
Lia and Rey only grew as a couple.
But they didn’t get their HEA then. They needed to
suffer a bit first. So the suspense element kicked in, something we can always
count on when reading a book from this series. I’m not going to go too much
into that because it might ruin the experience of reading all of it for the
first time. Let’s just say the things that happened to these two characters
were enough to make me feel really, really sorry for them. Poor people.
I really enjoyed how the author developed the plots
and the characters. It was also interesting to see how Harper’s story was a big part of Reid’ plot, which made it
almost seem like the series was coming full circle, you know? I’m not sure this
will be the last book in the series, but it kind of felt like it when I looked
at the story from this perspective.
Even though the suspense was well developed and
important to the book (and the series) as a whole, the best part of this story
to me was the romance. Lia and Reid were great together and had instant
chemistry. Reid was a solid love interest with a good, complicated past and a
little bit of a dominant side in bed that made his scenes with Lia a lot more
interesting. And Lia was a good protagonist with lots of family drama, but
enough confidence to carry her role as a protagonist.
“The Darkest Link” was another great adittion to the
Second Circle Tattoos series. I can’t wait for the next book by this author.
Follow the blog tour
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