Kane (Ghost Ops #4)
Lynn Raye Harris
Blurb:
Dead to their pasts. Ghosts. No family ties. No connections.
Six men with a
top-secret mission move to a small town where they have to navigate local life,
protect their secret, and, above all, stay single.
Notorious charmer
Kane “Demon” Fox learned the hard way that love is a liability. Since losing
his wife, he's built walls no one can breach—keeping his focus on the mission
and his team. Feelings are a risk he can't afford to take ever again.
Until a stranded
beauty with haunted eyes makes him question everything.
Daphne Bryant
thought Sutton's Creek was far enough to outrun her past. With forged papers
and a fabricated history, she's desperate for a fresh start in a small town
where people are decent and life is uncomplicated. She’s joined a book club,
found friends, and landed a job working for six gorgeous men who run the local
gun range.
She’s safe and
thriving—until someone breaks into her apartment and leaves a calling card she
recognizes all too well.
Trusting the
wrong person could be fatal, but Daphne’s running out of time—and Kane is a
friend, even if she wants him to be more. As danger circles closer, the
attraction between them becomes impossible to deny. Vows break, hearts and
bodies tangle, and secrets implode.
If Kane’s going
to save the woman he desperately doesn’t want to love, he’ll have to realize
that the past doesn’t control the future. Because some ghosts aren't meant to
stay buried. And some hearts are worth fighting for.
Themes: Contemporary
Rating: 4.5 stars
Review:
Ok
so I did NOT see that one coming… and I loved it! So let’s be honest we all
knew that Kane and Daphne’s story was going to be explosive, because the passion
between these two was just undeniable in every previous interaction, but I could
not have imagined just where Ms. Harris was going to take this story or the
paces she was going to be putting these lovers through before she finally let
them have their fun. For any long-time fans of this series and its connected
HOT series, I think you can agree with me that Ms. Harris always finds a new
and interesting way to blow our minds when she sends us a new story, but sometimes
even I am amazed with where she comes up with this stuff. We have all wondered
about Daphne’s true past and what led her to the small town of Sutton’s Creek
and the dire circumstances the Ghost Ops guys found her in, but the truth is
truly stranger than fiction. When her past rears its ugly head, Daphne is in
danger and while she knows she should run for safety, Kane and the guys might
truly be the only ones that can protect her and keep her alive. I am dying for
the next story in this series, because of course Lynn gave us just enough of a
hint to blow our minds and now Ethan will have his chance to blow our minds and
we have to wonder if he has met his match in a quiet and secretive librarian named
Paisley that has arrived in their little town with a young daughter and a past
inexplicably linked to Ethan’s in some way.
The wild adventure of the Ghost Ops team is only beginning I think and
with two books still to go I predict we are in for a crazy ride.
Kane
“Demon” Fox has a reputation as a womanizer of the first order, but his past
and mad him leery of relationship and love, he refuses to allow himself to open
his heart again. But the sweet receptionist for their gun range certainly pulls
all the heartstrings he forgot he had, and the more he is around her the harder
it is to deny that he wants her, despite the roadblocks he erects. Daphne
Bryant is on the run from a past that not only shames her, it puts her life in
danger ever moment she lives. She gave up her past in order to escape the truth
of families dark business and when she landed in Sutton’s Creek she never meant
to stay as long as she did, much less to make the connections she has. Now she
has not only friends she loves, she has lost her heart to a man that doesn’t want
it or her, but her past has come back to haunt her in a big way and she has to protect
her new friends. When Kane learns she is in danger he immediately tried to protect
her, despite her wanting to run, but she fears her past will be too much for
him and will take away any chance she has to convince him to open his heart. Now
Kane and the guys have to keep her alive because she holds the key to their
latest investigation, but she also has to convince Kane and herself that their
relationship is real and worth giving a chance so they might have a future—if they
can survive the killers out to end her life.
I
loved the intensity of both of these characters, each of them dealing with
their own fears and baggage from their pasts that shaped their ability to love
and connection with one another. Kane’s past is dark and painful, his marriage having
ended in tragedy and treachery has left him unable and unwilling to open
himself to the possibility of love, even when he feels deeply for Daphne. His protectiveness,
intensity, passion, and determination all mixed together to confuse him more
than once, pushing him to say and do hurtful things until he finally pulled his
head out of his ass and admit how much he cared for Daphne. It was obvious to
everyone else how different he was with Daphne, especially when she was in
danger, but he continuously tried to keep her at arm’s length to protect his
heart until she finally forced him to get over himself. Only once she finally came
clean, offering up her past, her vulnerabilities, and her fears did he finally
accept that she was the only woman he could ever love again and truly open his
heart making him the hero we always knew he could be. Daphne was a fabulous character,
brave, smart, sweet, and bold (as any good Irish redhead should be). She might
have had a sketchy past, but she knew when she hit her own moral line that she needed
to get the hell away from her family and build a new future for herself. Landing
in Sutton’s Creek, with the One Shot guys, she knows she is safe and finally
lets herself start to believe in a chance at life again. Her brash and
take-charge ability to show the guys that she can run with the big dogs was
powerful and I loved watching her show them that they underestimate her at
their own risk more than once. It is easy to see that she plays for keeps, especially
when it comes to her fight for her future and Kane’s heart, and once she is in
the fight she won’t give up until she wins. Even when she is terrified she never
loses her head and always stand up for the innocent, making it clear that no
one is going to bring her low without a serious fight on their hands.
Kane
is a story of two people that have lived through fire and find their way to one
another, even as they fight their need for each other and try to deny their
feelings. Kane’s past has led him to keep his heart encased in steel, refusing
to allow another woman too close and get his heart broken. But Daphne has
pulled at him from the very beginning, despite all the walls he’s tried to
throw between them and when she is in trouble he will pull out all the stops to
keep her safe, even if it means he loses his heart to the sassy redhead. Daphne
never imagined she’d find her best friend, much less the love of her life while
on the run from her past, having landed in a small town in rural Alabama. She
is determined to protect that love, especially from the psychopathic monsters
in her past when they come after her, but Kane is just as determined to protect
her, so maybe the answer is that they need one another to survive. I loved the
way both Kane and Daphne had push and pull moments with one another, the
intensity of their chemistry moving between fighting and *ahem* loving equally
as they came to terms with their needs. That fire they found for each other is once
in a lifetime and once they accepted that, it made it so much easier for them
to give into their hearts’ desires. I am dying for Ethan because that
story is bound to be even more crazy as he and Paisley (re)connect and we hopefully
get to see more of Ghost and Diana before their book as well. I truly don’t know
how she does it, but once again Lynn Raye Harris has dazzled me and I am
thrilled I got to read this story.
*eARC provided by author for the
purpose of an honest and unbiased review. No compensation was provided.
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