Title: Damage Control
Author: Lisa Renee Jones
Publisher/Year: St Martins Press 2/21/17
Length:   263 Pages
Series:  Dirty Money #2

Overview

The only thing more dangerous than a dark secret is a damaged heart…

Shane Brandon has been pushed to the brink, torn between his corrupt family and his explosive, all-consuming desire for Emily Stevens, who he now knows is not who, and what, she seems. Has he trusted the wrong person? Will she, not his brother Derek, be the ultimate destruction of his family Empire.
Emily tries to run from Shane, but he will stop her, confront her, force her to reveal all – one hot touch and kiss, at a time, under every intimate detail of who this woman is, and what she wants, is exposed. But as he tears away the dangers of the unknowns with the woman in his bed, and in his heart, The Martina Cartel, has set their sites on his company, his family, and the one piece of leverage they believe he won’t gamble with: Emily.

My Thoughts

It’s been a while since we’ve been in the world of Shane and Emily and i had to remind myself where we were left off.  the great thing with this 2nd book though is that Ms Jones, our brilliant author assumed that some of us may need a refresher and gave us that quick summary of things before we jumped back in.

In this second installment, we find ourselves in the midst of who knows what with these two. We know that Emily’s got quite a few secrets that are yet to be revealed and that Shane’s business is in a  bit of trouble because of some deals that his brother has been making with some less than savory folks.

What’s interesting here and kind of expected since we see it a lot in this genre is that the secrets between these two bring them closer together – and we see that what was potentially something good but fleeting turns really serious really fast.  Shane is willing to trust Emily from the moment go and that means that he’s going to give her protection from whatever it is that she’s hiding from as well as move her into his home as a permanent fixture in his life.

If that made his life easier we would be great but unfortunately that’s not even the tip of the iceberg of what he has to deal with.  In true form of our author, we have a lot going on at once.  We have the story line of which brother will get control over the company once Senior passes away from Cancer.  We also have Senior making shady deals with people that we don’t quite know their motivation.  Then we have Derek, Shane’s brother who’s literally in bed with the mafia and helping traffic illegal drugs.  So you know that things are going to keep getting exciting throughout this story.

If that weren’t enough, we have some really great chemistry between Shane and Emily and i think that they are a great match for one another.  Lisa Renee Jones does a fantastic job of writing women who are beyond capable of handling themselves in all situations and it’s not just Emily that we see it from.  Jessica, Shane’s secretary is just as amazing and i think that there’s definitely a spin off in the works for her.  or there should be.

As we go through this second book, there’s a lot that’s resolved but even more questions that are left for us to answer.  there’s still no idea how Shane’s going to clean up his company and what role his brother, father and even mother will have in it all.  then there’s the question around Emily’s family and what their deal is.  there’s something going on there that’s going to make for a great twist in book 3.  I’m bummed that we have to wait so long for it but i can’t wait to see how it all ends.  enjoy!