Book: Without Mercy (book #2)
Author: Victoria L. James and LJ Stock
Genre: Contemporary M/C Romance
Ayda Hanagan’s life took a whole new road to hell when she agreed to lay down beside Babylon’s very own devil in disguise, Drew Tucker. With an evolving love and the world she once knew now gone forever, Ayda’s toes were no longer dancing on the edge of the flames. She’d jumped straight into the fire, dragging her younger brother, Tate, along for the ride. No matter which way they both turned, Harleys and leather were their new reality, and they had to get used to the fact that acts of war and bad blood were never far away.
All that seemed so easy for Ayda to push aside when she was resting in the arms of the man she never expected to love, but when lust, need and sex became as important to her as the air she breathed, it was only going to be a matter of time before reality decided to slap her around the face harder than ever before.
Lost in the screwed-up perfection of their new fairytale, Drew and Ayda thought they could handle anything life threw at them. For every cop, whore or enemy that tried to tear them apart, they found strength in each other and a new weapon to fight back with. Only not all assassins wore their patches on their chest, and before they could even see the eyes of the wolves in the shadows waiting to bring them to their knees, they were all out of places to run.
With everything they'd ever believed in suddenly at risk, fear was no longer an option and Drew and Ayda soon found themselves in the middle of a war that looked impossible to get out of alive. In order to survive, they had to learn how to fight together.
Without restriction.
Without thought.
Without mercy.
Even if that meant sacrificing everything they’d worked for, including each other.
All that seemed so easy for Ayda to push aside when she was resting in the arms of the man she never expected to love, but when lust, need and sex became as important to her as the air she breathed, it was only going to be a matter of time before reality decided to slap her around the face harder than ever before.
Lost in the screwed-up perfection of their new fairytale, Drew and Ayda thought they could handle anything life threw at them. For every cop, whore or enemy that tried to tear them apart, they found strength in each other and a new weapon to fight back with. Only not all assassins wore their patches on their chest, and before they could even see the eyes of the wolves in the shadows waiting to bring them to their knees, they were all out of places to run.
With everything they'd ever believed in suddenly at risk, fear was no longer an option and Drew and Ayda soon found themselves in the middle of a war that looked impossible to get out of alive. In order to survive, they had to learn how to fight together.
Without restriction.
Without thought.
Without mercy.
Even if that meant sacrificing everything they’d worked for, including each other.
Author Bio
L.J. Stock on Victoria L. James ~ What can I say about Victoria L. James? Loads actually, she’s an amazingly talented author and I had the absolute distinct pleasure of writing with her. I also call her a friend. When we first met, we bonded instantly over our love of music, Victoria tends to be as eclectic as I am with her tastes. She finds stories in lyrics and feels the moods in the melodies.
When we first started writing together, I’ll admit I was intimidated. Here is this woman with a huge passion for putting words onto paper and painting pictures so clearly that you are completely immersed in them. How was I going to keep up with that? I’m not sure I ever did, but over time we’ve built up a repertoire. We bounce off one another and bring our characters to the forefront and hope that the interactions are as real as they appear for us.
On a more personal note, Victoria is bright, smart, kind, intelligent, funny, caring and witty. She can see so much in the world around her and always has time for anyone. Victoria lives in sunny ole Yorkshire with her family and her cats - had to mention them - and can normally be found in the playground of her imagination, listening to the Foo Fighters.
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Victoria L. James on L.J. Stock ~ There aren’t many people you bump into in life that you want to both work and spend your free time with. From meeting L.J. through the wonder that is the internet, we soon came to realise that we had a hell of a lot in common. Music was where our friendship truly began, but our writing partnership flourished not too far behind. I always felt like my writing was missing something, and it was only when I read L.J.’s work that I realised what exactly that was. It was missing her influence!
After spending over a year working together, day in, day out, not a moment goes by where I don’t thank the Twitter Gods for bringing this amazingly strong and talented woman into my life. She’s an inspiration, a positive force in every situation and one hell of a talented writer. To say I’m honoured that she wanted to create a new world with me is a gross understatement. I’m blown away. One day, I hope I get lucky enough to visit her in Texas, where she lives with her family and her zoo of animals, so we can write by her pool and take part in our other dream… The great Taylor Kitsch Road (stalking) Trip. Who needs a yacht in the Caribbean when we have that to look forward to, right?
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T Birds 5 Bare Naked Stars ***** Review
I finished Without Mercy and honestly, I had to sit for a while to sort out the many emotions that this story brought me. Words literally have escaped me when I think about how to write this review. I find it astonishing that this was coauthored because I could never, in a million years, be able to pinpoint who wrote what scene or chapter. Victoria L. James and L.J. Stock have such similar writing styles yet they each bring something that could only be described as magical to this story.
Not only is the writing style impressive, they have a talent of drawing out a huge range of emotions from their readers. I rarely am brought to tears while reading, it happens but not very often. In Without Mercy, the authors had me falling apart for different reasons on three occasions. I was so wrecked during those times I had to put the kindle down and walk away so I could gather myself. I won’t say what those scenes were, or give any hint as to what occurred because you must experience this book on your own but I found I had gained some valuable lessons from Drew, Ayda and yes even Tate’s journey.
Ayda was still adjusting to her new life at the hut with the MC gang. They had accepted her into the fold, well the whores who were hanging around didn’t like her but the men respected her not only as Drew’s woman but as Ayda herself. Kenny had taken Tate under his wing and the feeling of being an inexperienced single mom to her younger brother was less of a burden than it had been before. With not having to worry about paying the bills and keep a roof over their heads, she was now free to keep the hut going, laundry clean and food in the men’s belly’s while she found new ways to try and draw Drew out of his shell. With all of that going the number one thing she had left to figure out was, is living her dream with Drew really fair to Tate? Her younger brother was getting sucked farther and farther into the MC mentality and forgetting his dreams of college and high school football. She had sacrificed so much of her life after her parents died to provide and raise Tate, she isn’t sure if she can sacrifice Drew and the gang in order to keep Tate on the right path.
Drew was still leading the charge for revenge of those who were responsible for Pete’s death. He knew he had done things that would make a normal person sick and haunted with nightmares forever, but to him this was life, his life. With new threats emerging in town, a dysfunctional relationship with the head of police that could prohibit him from protecting what needs to be protected, he is also faced with the balance of how much does he let Ayda in on club business. If he isn’t careful he is going to wake up alone one morning and realize his need to protect her is actually what pushed her out the door.
It was a stunning turn of events that made all of the pieces fall in place for Drew and Ayda, leading them to find that lost link that had been there all the time, yet hidden due to their own stubbornness. I won’t give any hints, but trust me when I say, those few chapters left me in excruciating heartbreak as I watched them and had no clue how this would end. You read romance books and they use the word love all, but these two authors showed you what love is all about. That realistic kind of love that comes from so deep in your heart you don’t even recognize yourself any more. They also showed us about trust and the fine balance that it takes to maintain it. Acceptance was another message that I gained from this book. Love and loss is a promise in life, acceptance of that is something you must work to obtain. They both had to have their own form of acceptance to the new world they have created and how they acquired that was beyond anything I could have imagined. In conclusion, I think the most heartbreaking part for me was the last page, as their story had come to an end in this chapter of life. Knowing they will move on and we possibly won’t be there to watch, yes this is a pathetic plea to the authors to not bring this series to an end, was like saying goodbye to a loved one and knowing you might not see them again. I not only fell in love with Drew and Ayda and the rest of the gang, they became part of my heart that I will carry for a very long time.
Giveaway
BOOK 1: WITHOUT CONSEQUENCE
Synopsis
There are two kinds of prison sentence that try to break us: the ones served behind iron bars and the ones served through a lifetime of guilt. Some people are handed just one. The unfortunate are given both.
Drew Tucker, despite his formidable reputation, was a man shrouded in darkness who had been dealt every kind of sentence known to man. His only path of survival was to fight and conquer. After five years of solitude, with nothing to keep him company but old ghosts and relentless demons, Drew was finally out, and he had a plan in mind to reign supreme once more.
But everything had changed since he’d left the small town of Babylon, Texas, and where he once fit into the world around him, he now felt misguided, misplaced and misunderstood. Freedom wasn’t free anymore and it sure as hell didn’t come cheap.
That only got worse when he crossed paths with Ayda Hanagan. Legal guardian of her teenage brother, over worked, underpaid and clinging onto sanity by the skin of her teeth, Ayda should have been easier for Drew to beat down and manipulate. She should have been easier to keep quiet. But, as with everything in his life since he got released, nothing seemed to make any damn sense, and the walls were caving in on Drew now more than ever before.
Determined to stay on the road he was born to travel, he was willing to fight whoever got in his way or blocked his path to the top. Even the blue-eyed blonde who seemed to have more mouth than sense. His actions were about to shake up the whole town again, and Drew didn’t care whether that came with or without consequences, or what the hell that meant for the likes of Ayda Hanagan.
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