Tag Archives: The Secret Life of Amy Bensen

Review: Unbroken (The Secret Life of Amy Bensen #4) by Lisa Renee Jones

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Title:  Unbroken
Author: Lisa Renee Jones
Publisher/Year: Gallery Books 9/7/15
Length:  123 pages
Series:  The Secret Life of Amy Bensen #4

Overview

From New York Times bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones comes the fourth and final part in the sexy, suspenseful The Secret Life of Amy Bensen series—finally revealing the long-awaited wedding between Amy and Liam. But with the explosive secret they’re hiding, will their enemies ever let them live happily ever after?

For six long years I lived on the run, in fear and devastated by loss. That began to change the day I met Liam Stone, who is so much more than his money and power, and even the protection he has offered me. He is passion. He is friendship. He is love and happiness, and the man who made my enemies his own. And now with his help, the secret that drove me into hiding is buried, our enemies contained. Liam and I can finally start our life and put this behind us. The nightmare is over. Unless…it’s not.

My Thoughts

After all the we’ve been through with this couple and the last installment that focused on Chad and Gia, i think that it’s about time that we get to see them having a happy ending, even if we know that it’s going to be a rocky road and too good to be true.

Where we left off in the last installment, Sheridan and Jared were taken away by the Chinese, and in theory that meant that things could start to settle and get back to normal for Amy and Liam.  The challenge of course is that Chad and Gia would still have to go into hiding for a bit since they had the cylinder to protect.  That’s something that we sort of continue to see play out and still don’t know what’s going to happen.

See we start this 4th book with the funeral for Chad – burying him all over again which is something that Amy knows is a farce, yet it still feels so real.  Liam’s forced to help Amy be strong but also sees it as a means to begin their new life together.  They’re able to go back to New York and go back to their lives – in the hopes that they can start their new chapter.

What’s quickly found out though is that what we expected – Meg is back to haunt them, and while we don’t know for sure who’s side she’s on, she’s back to causing trouble.  Jared as well – and he’s turned out to be a bit more complicated than we ever knew.  the 2 of them keep everyone off balance throughout the book, and you have to wonder who’s playing who and who can be trusted.

Liam and Tellar continue to build their own bit of security around their ‘family’.  they enlist the help of Josh who’s a business friend and amazing hacker to watch out for them like Jared was supposed to do.  They also hire Dante in the hopes that he can be the intel and keep any danger at bay.

Where we’re left here though is wondering if Liam and Amy will be safe for now or if they will continue to fend off attacks.  We know that Amy’s got a sense of when things aren’t right and she continues to get those feelings throughout the story.  We also wonder if there will ever be a time when Chad and Amy can be together without fear.  I don’t know that it’s possible since they are still trying to protect the cylinder and it’s power.

My question now becomes whether we’ll get a next installment and what that will include.  who it will focus on and all that.  We hear about the development of ‘The Circle’ who are supposed to protect the secrets of the cylinder, but that’s the extent of it.  i feel like we need to see that through a bit more.

There’s also the bit about Tellar and Coco’s history.  i feel like that could make for a great supplemental story since there’s a past and i feel like there’s a potential future.  I also don’t know that i trust Gia yet fully either – so we need to see that through.

While all this is going on though, we get what our lovely author is known for.  AMAZING chemistry, heat and anxiety.  What Liam and Amy share comes off the pages with such intensity that there’s no doubt that they will do whatever they can do make each other happy.

So on that note, i’m hopeful that we’ll get a book 5, and i hope you guys all have a nice weekend!

Review: Forsaken (The Secret Life of Amy Bensen #3) by Lisa Renee Jones

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No-Brainer

Title:  Forsaken
Author: Lisa Renee Jones
Publisher/Year: Gallery Books 8/8/15
Length:  234 pages
Series:  The Secret Life of Amy Bensen #3

Overview

n this third book in the sexy, suspenseful “The Secret Life of Amy Bensen” series from New York Times bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones, we meet Amy’s brother Chad—and the woman who either loves him or wants him dead.

Six years ago, Chad’s hunt for a dangerous treasure turned deadly when his family home was set on fire, his parents killed. Faking his and his sister Amy’s death to protect her from further retaliation, he set her up in a new life with a friend’s help, letting her believe he’d died.

But now the men who hired Chad to find the treasure have found him, imprisoning and torturing him to learn where it’s hidden. A dark-haired beauty named Gia helps him escape, promising him access to his worst enemy. And as he tries to unravel the deep secrets of the past, he starts falling for her…only to discover she’s not what she seems.

Unable to trust anyone, Chad focuses on only two things: protecting his sister Amy and getting revenge. Is love even possible in the midst of heartache?

My Thoughts

it’s been a while since i’ve been immersed in this series, and i’m thrilled that we got a third installment, and the lead into a 4th and potentially final installment soon.  When we left off in book 2, Amy sort of found out that her brother Chad was actually alive – after thinking that he died in the fire six years before.

Well, of course things HAVE to get complicated – since this is Chad’s story, and we know that as a treasure hunter and the treasure being the reason for the deaths and having to go into hiding – things are going to get dicey.  The underlying issue here is trust – who can you trust, and what makes you feel like you can or can’t trust those people.  We find that there was mislaid trust in a few places,and quite a bit of fear and skepticism in others – but overall, we see that there’s a great dynamic for the characters that we meet and the ones that we ‘fall in love with’

At the onset, Chad meets Gia – who’s his captor of sorts, but who quickly complicates things when she creates a diversion and helps him escape.  As the overview tells us, we can’t quite figure out which side she’s playing and as the story unfurls, we see that there’s so much more there – throughout the whole thing, even to the last page, i’m not sure who’s side she’s really on.  She does a great job at convincing us that she’s on Chad’s side, that she’s against Sheridan, but i don’t know – something just doesn’t feel right.

Jared comes back into the picture – we had met him when he provided information and coverage for Amy, and now he’s helping Chad out again.  He’s the one guy that Chad’s felt that he could trust, and i guess that’s the question right?  When and if he’s captured – how far will that trust go.  Will he be turned?  has he been turned already?  that’s something that we find out.  We can only hope that his loyalty to his close friend and the fact that Chad will always protect him and compensate him will mean something.  \

There’s a lot going on in this story.  the budding romance between Chad and Gia which i;m not sure if it’s right or not.  There’s definitely chemistry, but not the sort of heat and passion that i’m used to from Ms Jones.  I feel like it’s more about the story with them than the passion, but that’s just my opinion.  We also see Amy and Liam pop back into this installment and those 2 are a couple that i love and adore.  I’ve always wanted to believe that Liam is a good guy, and while Chad’s trying to poke holes in him, i feel like we get to see the man shine through.  and the love and adoration between him and Amy – well that’s still something that we can feel and is truly tangible.

Then there’s the story about the cylinder that’s being hunted – who’s hands will it be in at the end of all this and will they ever be safe?  I hope that we get to see something good happen for these folks – although my guess is that we’re not going to get an easy go at it.  We’ve been waiting for Meg to pop back up again and she hasn’t so my guess is that’s going to happen in book 4.  we’re going to see Amy and Liam’s relationship field some hardship i’m sure – and i guess we’ll see if Gia and Chad are on the same team after all.  All in all, a great set up to the next book.  Happy Tuesday all and enjoy!

Review: Infinite Possibilities (The Secret Life of Amy Bensen #2) by Lisa Renee Jones

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Title:  Infinite Possibilities
Author: Lisa Renee Jones
Publisher/Year:  Lisa Renee Jones 11/10/13
Length:  240 pages
Series: The Secret Life of Amy Bensen #2

Overview

Secrets and lies. They are everywhere: haunting her, tormenting her. In the midst of it all, he’d been her escape, her passion. The only person she’d trusted in six years. And then he’d made her doubt that trust, cutting her deeply. But as she’d once told him, she was damaged, not broken. She is ready to fight and not just for survival. She is fighting for the truth and she won’t stop until she has it, not even for…him.

My Thoughts

When we last left Amy, she had overheard a conversation between Liam (her boyfriend? lover, protector?) and Derek, his best friend/almost brother where it sounded like they were watching her, via a camera on her computer and she felt betrayed.  The whole premise of  book 1 as you’ll remember is that she’s running from her past – her family was killed in a  fire, and what complicates things is that her father was a very well known, very successful archaeologist, so she feels that it’s all tied together.  Amy had been on the run for 6 years now, and had just been directed to flee to Denver for her safety – which is where she met Liam.  She had been trained to ‘trust no one’ but some how had let him in, and that’s where things ended up badly.  She felt like everything that she thought she had known and trusted about him was wrong.

So in the beginning of book 2, Amy figures a plan on how to get out of Denver, with the ultimate goal of going to Texas since that’s where she’s from and where she needs to face things.  While she’s making her way elsewhere, she hitchhikes through truck stops, gets jobs at diners to make her way and tries to fly under the radar.  of course – easier said than done because some how Liam finds her at a diner in New Mexico and tells her that if he found her, the people looking for her could.  She decides to listen to him after a bit of a struggle, and ends up trusting what he’s saying to be true and goes with him back to NYC to be ‘protected’.  Complications don’t end there – we learn that Liam knows the truth about who Amy is (aka her real name and past) and has done some digging and investigating on his own.  He also tries to track down the people who were hunting her, only to find that they have also been murdered which makes things worse.  Liam devises a plan to escape since they’ve realized that it’s not safe for them to stay in NYC for the time being – all of which is complicated because…..Amy is preggo.

we’ll get back to that – or maybe not.  In any event, the morning that they are going to leave New York for Taiwan, a fire alarm is triggered at Liam;’s ‘secure’ home and they evacuate.  While Amy is getting evaluated by the EMT, she gets a note from ‘her brother’ which ultimately turns out to be from Meg (yes, meg the woman from the office in Denver) who says that she’s married to Amy’s brother – and that he’s actually alive.  The story from there gets much more complex…but we start to learn a bit more from her, from Amy’s continued flashbacks and from various folks that re-aoppear.

Meg plays an interesting role.

Jared comes back

We learn more about Chad and what he was doing and what he tried to set up as a safety precaution

And we don’t know what this all means for Amy and Liam in the end.  We know that it’s a struggle for them, and we know that even with all the money that Liam has, who ever they are up against has more.

At the end of this story – we get a peak of a next installment from someone else’s POV which i think is interesting, but i’m not sure what that means for the continuation of the story for the other folks.  There wasn’t a hint of a real 3rd installment yet that i’m aware of yet i don’t have any closure to the whole story.  i’ll have to keep my eyes open because i’m really interested to see what happens.

What Lisa Renne Jones does that’s really great is that she gives us a great story that’s wrought with tension and fear of kidnapping and murder – which is always needed in a story like this.  all at the same time that we see a great romance develop and blossom not without it’s own problems.  i want to see things happen in a certain way but so far, things have not resolved which is nice in a way if there is another installment in the works.   I hope you guys enjoy this one!

Review: Escaping Reality (The Secret Life of Amy Bensen #1) by Lisa Renee Jones

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Title:  Escaping Reality
Author:  Lisa Renee Jones
Publisher/Year:  Lisa R Jones 7/12/13
Length:  214 Pages
Series: The Secret Life of Amy Benson #1

Overview

Book 1 of THE SECRET LIFE OF AMY BENSEN Series
ESCAPING REALITY
***Infinite possibilities….
Infinite passion…..
Infinite danger….

His touch spirals through me, warm and sweet, wicked and hot. I shouldn’t trust him. I shouldn’t tell him my secrets. But how do I not when he is the reason I breathe? He is what I need.

At the young age of eighteen, tragedy and a dark secret force Lara to flee all she has known and loved to start a new life. Now years later, with a new identity as Amy, she’s finally dared to believe she is forgotten-even if she cannot forget. But just when she lets her guard down, the ghosts of her past are quick to punish her, forcing her back on the run.

On a plane, struggling to face the devastation of losing everything again and starting over, Amy meets Liam Stone, a darkly entrancing recluse billionaire, who is also a brilliant, and famous, prodigy architect. A man who knows what he wants and goes after it. And what he wants is Amy. Refusing to take “no” as an answer, he sweeps her into a passionate affair, pushing her to her erotic limits. He wants to possess her. He makes her want to be possessed. Liam demands everything from her, accepting nothing less. But what if she is too devastated by tragedy to know when he wants more than she should give? And what if there is more to Liam than meets the eyes?

My Thoughts

Interestingly enough, i didn’t put 2 and 2 together when i started reading this book that the author was the same as one of my favs lately, the author of the Inside Out Trilogy.  In any event, i quickly picked up on that fault because of the writing style and the way that the story unfolded for us.   What i really like about Ms. Jones’ style is that we are quickly brought into a story that’s full of anxiety and fear and it’s woven throughout the entire story so that you’re not left feeling a bit short changed.  This story is no exception because the opening chapter has our leading lading running for her life from something that keeps coming up in her past.

We first meet ‘Amy’ when she’s working an event at the museum, a job that we soon learn she feels she shouldn’t have taken because it’s too public in nature for what she’s supposed to be doing with herself.  She goes to the restroom and finds an envelope taped to the mirror telling her that she’s not safe and has to run.  so that’s what she does…apparently for the 2nd or 3rd time in her life.

This is where the story of Amy and Liam takes shape since she sees him from across the way in the airport as she’s trying to run…catching a flight that her ‘handler’ has told her that she needs to be on.  Of course nothing is ever smooth – she’s trapped in Liam’s gaze, finds out that her flight is overbooked and that she might not make it on it, he boards the plane, and then some how a first class seat is found for her, right next to him.

Where they go from here – well we of course assumed that he was quite successful and dominating since that’s what Ms. Jones does best, and of course we weren’t disappointed.  He’s a billionaire, recluse (haha) and a very successful prodigy architect.  He can ‘sense’ that Amy is running from something and makes it his goal to protect her and make her feel safe, all at the same time fulfilling both of their chemical needs.  They are of course wildly attracted to one another.

What i love about this story as well is that it’s categorized as erotica, which it certainly is, since there’s quite a bit of steamy passion shared between these 2.  And there’s a 3rd person thrown into the mix in the form of Jared, her next door neighbor.

The question that continuously comes up here in the first installment which we know will pull us through the rest is who can she trust, what’s real and what’s just not safe.  Since the death of her family in a fire (which is just about all we know), Amy was saved by someone that she calls her ‘handler’ who has this unique tattoo on the inside of her wrist, and who continues to protect her.  he seems to know when she’s no longer safe and moves her to another city to keep her out of harms way.  What Amy begins to question though is how he knows where she is, how he gets messages to her and really who is he?  For a moment, she thinks that Liam is her handler because of references that he makes, but then he says things to put her off that train of thought.  She also feels like Jared is ‘familiar’ somehow but doesn’t know how.

Through the length of this story, Amy begins to question things more and more.  The notes that she’s received since she arrived in Denver are not signed with the symbol that she’s been told to trust.  The money that she was promised to be deposited into her account until she’s settled doesn’t come.  Her job is more curious than real, and too many things there don’t match up.  She can’t get in touch with her boss or the person who is supposed to know her boss.

so….this leads us down a very curious path, and that’s what makes this an amazing book.  I really can’t wait until the next installment comes out, and what’s painful to me is that i can’t seem to find the release date anywhere!

At least i have the great underlying story here that’s topped off with the right amount of heat and then the right level of complexity.  All making for the next great series.  Enjoy!