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Author: Lexi Blake writing as Sophie Oak
Publication Date: 17 July 2018, 2nd Edition
Publisher: DLZ Entertainment
Series: Texas Sirens, book 4
Genre: Contemporary Erotic Romance, BDSM/Menage
Age Recommendation: 18 and UP
Rating: 5 Stars
~ I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review ~
Book Description:
Aidan O’Malley walked away from his fiancée, Lexi, and their best friend, Lucas, after a night of passion left him shaken to his core. Years later, Aidan returns home from Iraq haunted by all he has lost. The enemy broke his body, destroying his dreams of a career in music. Worse still, he lost Lexi and Lucas. That damage he’d done all by himself. While he can’t restore what combat took from him, he’s determined to reclaim the two loves of his life. Lucas Cameron is a changed man. After connecting with his brother, he found the discipline to get his life on track. His legal career is flourishing, but his love life is a train wreck. The woman he loves is spiraling out of control. After Aidan abandoned them, Lucas and Lexi clung together but no matter how hard he tries, Lucas can’t find a way to heal the wounds that Lexi carries. Lexi Moore feels like a jigsaw puzzle with too many missing pieces. Losing Aidan was hard, but the true reason for her shattered spirit is a secret she only shares with her beloved Lucas. She knows she is drowning and the time has come to heal, but the holes in her heart hold her back from moving on. Shedding the burden she carries is her only hope for a happy future, but she fears she will never have the strength to reveal her secret. When Aidan walks back into their lives, Lucas and Lexi know everything is about to change. But as they fight to reconcile their past and reclaim what they lost, a vicious predator stalks Lexi. In order to stop the killer, all three must confront the secrets they’ve carried…before they’re buried by them.
My Review:
If you have been reading the Texas Sirens Series from the first book then you know, this is the book we've all been waiting for. There has been so much build up between Lexi and Lucas and the mysterious Aidan and it all comes to a head in Siren Beloved.
First things first, Lucas! I feel like we have truly watched a transformation over the series with this young man. He goes from the lost boy who acts out for attention to a strong loving man who's true life goal is to care for the people he loves. I have to admit that this relationship with Lexi has puzzled me for some time, I never quite grasped what was going on between the two of them until this book, and I am sure that is just as Lexi Blake planned it. So many times I wondered what the heck those two were doing together, they both have a strong will and mind but are weak in their essentials as some might say and first think, but as it turns out they aren't near as weak as they have seemed, they are in fact incredibly emotionally strong. It seems that everything you may have thought isn't quite the truth of the matter when it comes to this trio.
Lexi, so I have had mixed feelings about Lexi Moore for a while. She has for sometime comes across as carless and self-centered. She has led Lucas through the hoops, relying on him to fix her mistakes and keep her in line, sadly he's too soft when it comes to Lexi and when we all would have said, tell her to straighten up or toss her out the door' he was soothing her and petting her trying to keep her happy and with him. While yes, Lexi had a lot of growing up to do, and she does in this book, she also has a lot that she has had to deal with, a lot that no one except Lucas has known about. Knowing what you will learn in this book, you can understand Lucas's 'soft hand' with her, but also we can truly see why she's acted out the way she has and why she's had so many of her family worried.
Now Aidan, you are going to fall in love with Aidan immediately. In fact you are going to wonder why Lexi just can't see the tree through the leaves and fall to her knees and profess her undying love right from the get go...but then where would the story be, haha. I will admit, Aidan went about everything all the wrong way, but he was scared of his feelings and scared of other people's opinions. It's kind of interesting that he ran because he was scared but he came back also because he was scared...scared of not ever being able to tell the people he loves most that he was wrong and that he needs them as much as they need him. I loved his strength, his strength to overcome, his physical strength, his strength as a Dom, and his strength to give his love to Lexi and Lucas in the ways that they both need it.
This was probably my favorite Texas Siren book to date. I just loved the way that Lexi Blake seamlessly ties in the romance, mystery, intrigued, angst, and 'sexy times'. One thing I love about Lexi Blake's writing and particularly in this book is that she is able to give us these highly erotic steamy moments (you will never look at a barn the same way) and they feel perfectly placed and not out of character. You know how sometimes you're reading a book and all the sudden the characters go from mad/sad/sleeping/working/whatever to in the throes of passion and all you can do is roll your eyes and say...wait, how did we get here? You won't feel/think that with this book. It all just works! I feel like that should be a tag line for Lexi Blake 'She just makes it work'!, Haha.
Now I can't wait to get my hands on Bo's book. Bo is Aidan's little brother and I adored him. He is (seemingly) a blend of Aidan and Lucas and I just want more! This has been a really fun series to read. I did not read it when it first released so it has been really enjoyable getting a look into this new word while also watching the growth of what would become Masters and Mercenaries. Knowing what I know now about that group it is fun to see where they began. You can read this book as a stand-alone with in this series but I highly recommend reading the first three books, just so you have that background about who Lexi and Lucas are. It won't lessen your enjoyment if you don't but it will enhance it if you do, if that makes sense at all. You will love the character development for all three characters in this book as well as the development of their triad. I so look forward to seeing a little of them in future books and discovering where there story will take them in the future.
~ HAPPY READING ~
Excerpt:
Lexi realized she was in serious trouble the minute the words left Lucas’s mouth. Hell, she’d realized she was in trouble the minute she opened her mouth. What was she thinking? She knew damn well how to behave in a dungeon, but something about this Master made her want to push him. Damn it. She’d been this way all of her life. She had to push. She thought about taking a step back, but before she could make her feet move, Master A had her in a fireman’s hold.
“Hey!” She shouted as her world upended. She turned her head up to throw a desperate look Lucas’s way.
Lucas stood there, a stony cold look on his face. In that moment, he was all Dom, and she’d never seen him look hotter. There was a confidence about him she had rarely seen when he was around her. Lucas was utterly in command at work, but his surety faltered when she walked into the room. Even when he performed a scene with her, she knew he worried about her comfort. He didn’t look worried now. He looked ready.
Her heart started to pound as Master A turned, and she lost sight of Lucas.
“I need a chair, Lucas.” The words came out of the Master’s mouth like a judge delivering a sentence.
“Yes, Sir.” Lucas’s words were silky smooth. There was not a hint of hesitation now. She could hear him moving to do Master A’s bidding.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked, though she was a bit less hostile now. She’d fucked up. She was glad Julian wasn’t around to witness it, though Leo would probably tell him. Tears pricked her eyes. Damn, she was proving to Leo she couldn’t handle the lifestyle. “Look, Sir, I’m sorry. It was wrong of me to be rude to you, but I was merely pointing out that Lucas and I had a plan for tonight.”
Reason. She could reason with him, surely. It worked on all the men in her life. Of course, usually she was looking at them instead of trying to plead her case to a group of back muscles. The muscles were unbelievably tight, but his skin—oh, his skin had been decimated in his lower back. It was a mess of white, puckered flesh, and she could see both neat, surgical lines, and jagged edges. She reached out to touch the mass of scars, but she was jerked back over his shoulder and set on her feet before she could make it. She wobbled on her heels, but Master A’s big hands held her shoulders.
“I don’t think you understand how this is going to go, sub. I am the Master, and you are the one being punished. I won’t put up with a spoiled princess telling me how her punishment will go. It will go the way I say it will go. First, you will pay for the insult to me, and then we’ll proceed to the sawhorse.”
“I don’t like the sawhorse.” The words came out breathy and small, because she was beginning to understand that this was serious.
Master A didn’t look like he was planning on giving in. And she hated being called a spoiled princess, but a part of her worried that he was right. The last few years, she’d allowed herself to become spoiled and dependent. She’d fled from everything that hurt her. She’d hidden. She’d let her stepfathers and Lucas coddle and provide for her so she didn’t have to face the truth.
Master A didn’t flinch. “I don’t care. Lucas has done the best he can, but the truth is he wasn’t trained to be a Dom. He might enjoy it from time to time, but he prefers bottoming. You require a firm hand. If you don’t want it, then you’re free to leave. No one is holding you against your will. This is all about consensual play, so you have to make the choice. Do you want the session to continue?”
She hated this part. This was the part that she’d never understood. She had to make the choice, and she couldn’t put it off on anyone else. She wanted for him to simply do it. Then she could blame him later, but that wasn’t what The Club was about. She’d been coming here for over a year, and she finally had to decide to make the choice—stay and put herself in the hands of a stranger, or go and never know what it was like. And then there was the fact that Master A was right. Lucas needed something she couldn’t give him.
She cast her eyes down submissively. How bad could it be? “Yes, Sir.”
“Then strip.”
NY Times and USA Today bestselling author Lexi Blake lives in North Texas with her husband, three kids, and the laziest rescue dog in the world. She began writing at a young age, concentrating on plays and journalism. It wasn’t until she started writing romance and urban fantasy that she found the stories of her heart. She likes to find humor in the strangest places and believes in happy endings no matter how odd the couple, threesome, or foursome may seem.
