ARC Review: Black Heart (Black's Bandits #5)

Black Heart (Black's Bandits #5)

By Lynn Raye Harris

Blurb:

He’s untouchable. Unbreakable.

She plans to destroy him.

Former CIA agent Ian Black has done terrible deeds. Sacrificed his honor and reputation for God and country. He’s a fighter and a survivor. His mission is to rid the world of scumbags who prey on innocent people.

No price is too high, and no one crosses him. Not for long, anyway.

But then Natasha Oliver walks in, threatening to expose the one thing Ian thought dead and buried: his heart.

Natasha’s innocence was ripped away years ago when she was thrown into prison for crimes her parents committed. Now, as the assassin Calypso, she intends to hunt down those responsible for what happened to her.

Including Ian Black. Getting involved with him is madness, but she made a vow - and she will do whatever it takes to keep it.

Until she discovers that the line between hate and love often stands on a razor’s edge...

Themes:  Contemporary

Rating: 4.75 stars

Heat Rating: 

Review:

We have waited so long for this story that honestly I expected it to be anticlimactic as so often happens when a story is so long anticipated, but I can report honestly that was the furthest thing from the truth. Ian and Natasha’s story has been building since the beginning when she burst into his life and her true identity was uncovered, but I don’t think anyone realized just what would be coming for these two. I have never read a story by Lynn Raye Harris that didn’t surprise me in at least one way, but I can surely say I never expected what was coming, nor the full truth of Calypso’s motivations for her deeds all these years.  This story is truly filled with betrayals, sadness, fears, and ultimately the most terrifying trust that is needed to keep two people in love alive and together. I loved every moment of this story even when these two remained on opposite sides, but once they came together in a common goal and finally admitted their connection the love that built between Ian and Tasha was so deep and complex that it took my breath.  I am dying to read the next story in the series and see Tyler find his own chance at an HEA and a woman that will rock his world and lower his shields with an ultimate love.

Ian Black hardened his heart long ago to any chance at a woman of his own, but he can’t deny that the inescapable draw between him and Natasha Oliver is likely to one day get him killed.  When she arrives in the middle of one of the team’s biggest undercover operations he doesn’t know if she’s been sent to kill him, as a member of the dark underbelly he’s investigating, or arrived of her own free will to tempt him, but either way he’s not letting her escape him.  Calypso has made a name for herself as one of the deadliest assassins in the world, bought and paid for by the criminal syndicate that pulls her strings, but the pull she feels toward Ian Black keeps her coming back into contact with him, despite her superiors’ wishes.  After a night of passion leads to some very permanent consequences for her, Natasha is finally ordered to do the one thing she never imagined she’d have to do and she has to make a choice between the two loves of her life and the chance at her future.  But Ian discovers her subterfuge and takes the choice out of her hands and now the two of them have to decide if they can trust one another enough to have a chance at a future together, because if not one or both of them might not survive the battle to come.

I can honestly say I have never met two more ruthless and deadly characters and it was riveting to watch these two going against one another again and again, until they finally found the ability to trust in one another and work together instead of against one another. Ian lives in the shadows and the world of grey, having left black and white behind long ago, but the passion that Natasha evokes any time he even thinks about her is not something he can easily dismiss.  I loved watching him struggle to understand his feeling for her and work through the feelings she aroused in him, not to mention the lines he crossed in order to try to make her happy.  His strength and commanding personality has always intrigued me, but seeing the thoughtful and caring ways he treated her, even when she was lying to him, showed us that he could never really bring himself to hurt her in any way.  Doing everything in his power to make her happy and give her the future that was ripped from her as a young girl seems to be his only goal once he finally gets her in his grasp and I loved watching the team also come to love her and those that come with her. Natasha has been forced to serve her masters for a long time, indoctrinated as a young girl, but even still she has always found small ways to rebel without giving them a reason to hurt those she loves the most.  When push comes to shove, Natasha will do whatever it takes to protect those under her care, even if it means tearing out her own heart or risking her own death because she will never give up on those she loves.  She has lived a very difficult life to be sure and it amazed me just how soft and loving she could be when she allowed herself to lower her shields with those she deemed trustworthy.  I mean really who could have predicted the hobbies this international assassin had acquired not to mention her love for her friends and family and even for the simple celebrating of Christmas.  Once she began to open her heart and mind to the possibility of a future, any future much less one with Ian and those she loved free from her bosses, we finally get to see the woman she has had to hide deep in her soul all these years in order to survive and she’s sassy, sweet, caring and loving, even if she maintains her edge when she needs it. I really relished finally getting to know Natasha, her full story, and seeing her drop her armor so that she could be the woman she always should have had the chance to grow up to be with the man of her dreams.

Black Heart is a misnomer for sure as neither Ian nor Natasha truly has a black heart, but it certainly took each of them to show the other that fact and allow Natasha to earn the Black heart she wanted.  I cried through at least half this book and laughed through a good bit of the rest when I wasn’t sitting on the edge of my seat in dramatic fear of what was coming. Harris as always has a way of bringing you right into the story and making you feel like you are living it along with the characters, leaving you invested in their lives and the outcome of their story as you root for the lovers to get their happy ending.  Ian has tried for so long to resist the draw of the deadly assassin that could kill him entirely too easily, but once he finally has her in his clutches nothing but earning her full trust and love will satisfy him—and he sets out with a single-minded mission to do just that.  Natasha knows her time is coming to an end and she will have to make the ultimate choice, but she tries to grab for the tiniest bit of happiness and thankfully it leads to the ultimate gift for both her and Ian and that chance for a life together neither of them ever imagined was possible.  I loved watching these two come to terms with the passion that has roared their them since their eyes met (whatever color those eyes were at that time 😉 ) and understanding that the chance they have at love only comes once in a lifetime and is not to be squandered.  The story races quickly as always and you find yourself unable to put it down so I suggest having plenty of drinks, snacks, and tissues handy and finding a comfortable spot to plant yourself as you will get lost in Black Heart and won’t escape until the very end.  We also get the special treat of TWO epilogues to enjoy as we get glimpses into the continuation of Ian and Natasha’s love story, and they are worth every second to read, but I am dying to get to see them in future novels.  This series just continues to grip my heart and pull me deeper under its spell and I can’t imagine it ever letting me loose.  The magic never fails as Lynn Raye Harris and her Black’s Bandits tear through the world defeating evil and keeping the helpless safe.

*eARC provided by Author for the purpose of an honest and unbiased review.  No compensation was provided.