Tag Archives: Dirty Money

Review: End Game (Dirty Money #4) by Lisa Renee Jones

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Title: End Game
Author: Lisa Renee Jones
Publisher/Year:  St Martins Press 1/2/18
Length:   221 Pages
Series:  Dirty Money #4

Overview

How deep can you love?

Passion and danger collide in the explosive finale to Emily and Shane’s story.

After tragedy strikes, Shane hovers on the edge of being consumed by darkness. He will fight for the woman he loves. He will destroy his enemy. He will not back down. As shocking twists, dark secrets, and explosive betrayals within the Brandon family come to the light, Shane must fight harder than ever before.

Every thread weaves a dangerous web. Emily and Derek. Brandon Senior. Maggie and her affair. The leader of the dangerous cartel who’s wedged itself inside the Brandon Empire. It all comes to a head in the shattering conclusion to the Dirty Money series.

My Thoughts 

What we get here is a supposed conclusion to a series that is ended just how Ms Jones ends quite a few of hers.  Way too open ended for our liking and the opportunity to come back into the world of the main characters that we love so much at a later date in time.  All the while, setting up the story for a spinoff of sorts so that we know that we’re not done with all these folks just yet.

This has been a roller coaster of a series – we see Shane and Emily going from trust issues to love, from life to death and back again, and to major decisions needing to be made to not only make sure that professionally there’s something to come home to, but personally a home to go home to.

The dynamic between these two mains is classic Lisa Renee Jones.  We see two incredibly strong people who have their own baggage from their past to get over, and when they manage to work together for the greater good – only good will happen.  There’s a romance that some how manages to supersede it all and friendships that are developed on the side that prove to be something that’s important.

Add onto all of that some cartel folks that want them dead, and of course that means that some of those that we love die, a terminal illness still threatening to take the life of senior, a wife who wants more than what her husband is offering, and brothers who will never be on the same page no matter how hard they fight.  Like i said – roller coaster.

Interspersed along with all of that, we have a great romance, some really intense chemistry and a story that makes you really upset to see it over and done with.  We still have no idea who’s going to survive, who’s safe and who’s not.  Who’s really dead and what that means for business and life.  So on that note, i think that we get what we were hoping for in a jam packed finale, yet nothing that we wanted since it’s still way way too open.  I hope you guys share that sentiment, and check it out as well.  enjoy!

Review: Dirty Money (Roughneck Billionaires #1) by Jessica Clare

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Title: Dirty Money
Author: Jessica Clare
Publisher/Year:  Penguin Publishing 1/17/17
Length:   251 Pages
Series:  Roughneck Billionaires #1

Overview

Southern Texas heats up when four roughneck billionaires set their sights on love in the new series from New York Times bestselling author Jessica Clare.

Boone Price and his brothers know oil; at least, the dirty, backbreaking side of working an oil rig. But when their scrubby, worthless hunting land turns out to be sitting on top of one of the biggest oil wells in North America, they go from the rig to the boardroom and end up billionaires practically overnight.

Now with enough money to do whatever he wants, Boone is developing a taste for fine things. And the finest thing he’s ever seen is Ivy Smithfield, local realtor. Boone’s determined to win her affection and show the world that he’s more than just a dirty fool with a bit of money. Ivy’s classy and beautiful – she’ll make the perfect trophy wife. The fact that she’s sexy and funny is just a bonus.

There’s one tiny problem – Ivy’s as dirt poor as Boone was. Her carefully crafted veneer of luxury? All an act to promote her business. What’s Boone going to do when he finds out the woman he’s falling for is, well, in his league?

My Thoughts

Being a fan of the other series that Ms Clare has written, i was happy to stumble upon this one last night when i was looking for something to read.  Here we have another great example of how we have a family of brothers who are all so diverse from one another yet really quite the same, but we get to see how they figure out how to be happy in love and life.

This first installment and introduction to the series gives us a glimpse into the world of the oldest brother Boone.  Their father was killed in a rig accident when they were young, and Boone had to become somewhat of the authority figure for his younger brothers.  Figuring out how to make a living for them, and then striking it INCREDIBLY rich on the highest producing rig in the country – well we see how life can change really quickly.

Like we often see in these types of stories, what you see isn’t always what you get.  Boon is the kind of guy who does what he wants and how he wants it – but he truly just wants respect.  Because he’s not willing to conform, that respect is often out of his reach, and so through the direction of his brothers, he figures that maybe he needs to improve his image, clean himself up a bit and that would get him the respect in the business world that he deserves.

Enter Ivy – a realtor who Boone sees on a brochure, and by appearances is the classy woman that he needs, not only to find him a suitable house, but to be on his arm.  Little does he know that her life is far from ideal, and that’s the journey that we go on in this story.

Ivy has her own troubled past.  Her mom left, her dad is in jail, she’s living in a trailer trying to make enough money to give her younger sister the life that she never had.  It’s a struggle, and she’s in a job where she’s not respected at all, she’s just the low hanging fruit – the pretty girl who can’t ever do anything because her bosses suck.  So when Boone walks into her office, her life changes – both professionally and personally.

True to form of what we always see from Jessica Clare, we get a sweet story of a slow build to romance, but when it actually happens, it combusts.  It’s not easy and there’s so much that gets in the way, both in life and in secrets that you really have to wonder what’s going to come out first and what the damage will be.

It’s sweet and romantic all the same to see how Boone tries to woo her – makes me wish for that sometimes in my own relationship but oh well.  We also get to see some of the personalities of Boone’s brothers which will tease the coming installments which is also great.  I can’t wait to see how their stories go.  If they are as sweet, entertaining and hot/sexy as this one – then i think that we’ve got yet another great series on our hands.  Have a great day all!

Review: Bad Deeds (Dirty Money #3) by Lisa Renee Jones

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Title: Bad Deeds
Author: Lisa Renee Jones
Publisher/Year:  St Martin’s Press 8/8/17
Length:   228 Pages
Series:  Dirty Money #3

Overview

Would you bleed for the one you love?

To save his family empire from the grip of the drug cartel, Shane is pushed to the edge of darkness, forced to make choices he might never make. His father is dying. His brother is desperate to rule the empire and this means war and all gloves are off. His brother only thought he knew what dirty meant. Shane is about to give it new meaning. There is another war brewing though, and that one, is inside him, his battle between right and wrong, light and dark, and in the heat of the night, it is Emily he turns to for escape. Driving her to new limits, pushing her to accept a part of him that even he cannot.

In every one of Shane’s seductive demands, Emily can taste and feel, his torment, his struggle to save his family and not lose himself. But he is losing himself, and that is a problem just as dangerous as her secret, that still lurk in the shadows, a threat to the Brandon Family waiting to erupt. No matter where she and Shane have traveled, or will travel in the future, she can’t just sit back and watch him become everything he hates, everything he never wanted to become, everything she tried to save him from when she tried to run. It could be their undoing, the end. His end.

This is war, blood will spill, and someone in the heart of the Brandon family will not survive….

Wall Street meets the Sons of Anarchy in Damage Control, the smoldering, scorching next novel in the explosively sexy Dirty Money series from New York Times bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones.
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

This series is getting intense and while we’re making progress in the story – there’s something intense and insane around each corner that throws us back a few steps.  We’re still in the middle of the Brandon Family life of chaos – Brandon Sr is still fighting for his life and Derek and Shane are fighting for control of the company.  Every time Shane things that he’s able to make a step toward the positive and clean up the operation of the company, something comes up that makes it impossible.

Add in all the women, their mother – who’s having an affair with Sr’s best friend, Emily who we know some of her past but not quite enough to get how things truly are, and Theresa – the daughter of a cartel king  and who’s finding herself intertwined in a love situation with Derek.

Throughout this third book we start to think that things will work out – Shane begins to out maneuver Adrian – the son of the cartel leader – and hopefully figure out how to get his company clean and keep everyone alive.  The challenge becomes the fact that a man in the organization with Adrian has gone rogue – always goes rogue and leaves us on a cliffhanger where people are either dying or dead at the end of this third book.

In true fashion of Ms Jones, we get to see some really intriguing and sexy relationships form.  What Emily and Shane have is something of a fantasy – they are so well suited for each other that it’s no surprise that she’s able to keep him in check when all he wants to do is protect her.  Their chemistry is off the charts and the way that their scenes are written make you feel all the sparks and passion between them.

What’s nice about this story though is that we see a few of the characters come into their own – really figure out how to be the best version of themself, regardless of what that means for everyone else.  There are tough decisions being made, and new businesses being formed that you have to wonder who’s going to be left standing at the end of book 4 to enjoy it.

I’m hopeful that there will be happy endings for everyone, but this isn’t a fantasy world they live in, so i know that we’ll have to suffer and say goodbye to some of them.  I can’t say for sure what i’m expecting since we never get exactly what i’m thinking from Lisa Renee Jones, but that’s a great quality to keep me on my toes.  Now i’m just bummed that i have to wait for the 4th book to come out.  On that note – have a nice weekend everyone!

Review: Hard Rules (Dirty Money #1) by Lisa Renee Jones

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No-Brainer

Title: Hard Rules
Author: Lisa Renee Jones
Publisher/Year:  St Martin Press 8/9/16
Length:   304 Pages
Series:  Dirty Money #1

Overview

How bad do you want it?

The only man within the Brandon empire with a moral compass, Shane Brandon is ready to take his family’s business dealings legitimate. His reckless and ruthless brother, Derek wants to keep Brandon Enterprises cemented in lies, deceit, and corruption. But the harder Shane fights to pull the company back into the light, the darker he has to become. Then he meets Emily Stevens, a woman who not only stirs a voracious sexual need in him, but becomes the only thing anchoring him between good and evil.

Emily is consumed by Shane, pushed sexually in ways she never dreamed of, falling deeper into the all-encompassing passion that is this man. She trusts him. He trusts her, but therein lies the danger. Emily has a secret, the very thing that brought her to him in the first place, and that secret that could that destroy them both.

My Thoughts

I always love getting into new series by Ms Jones because there’s always such amazing character dynamic and story line to fulfill your every need.  In this story – we’re quickly diving deep into a family war through Shane and his family while really not knowing much of anything about Emily’s life.

The interesting set up with this story is that the first chapter that we get isn’t directly related to the story that we have, yet it’s clear as you read through this first installment that it’s intertwined more than you knew.  who the characters are though – well we’ll have to wait and see.

So with Emily – she’s our strong female who’s got a past to hide from, which we still don’t learn much about, but we see that she’s independent, strong, sexy and a force to be reckoned with.  Shane on the other hand is a typical leading man from what we get from our amazing author.  He’s powerful, controlling and intensely sexy.  Their connection is off the charts from the moment they meet in a coffee store.

Where we go in this first book is a journey of still not finding out much, but wanting to know more.  We know that Shane’s trying to clean up his family’s dirty business all in the hopes to do so before his father dies from cancer, or to do it enough to get control of the business before it happens.  There’s so much more going on than anyone knows, and we meet characters along the way that find themselves mixed into things beyond their control.

On top of this compelling story line, there’s the expected sexual chemistry between these 2 that means that they can’t stay away from each other, no matter how much Shane tries to make that happen.  All he wants is to protect Emily but she’s not having it.

So – when Seth (Shane’s security dude) finds out some interesting things about Emily – all hell breaks loose and this is where we are left off at the end of this story.  Amazing intro to the series and i honestly and bummed that we have to wait until Feb to get the next book.

Have a great weekend everyone!