Hard Rules by Lisa Renee Jones Review
4 Smooches
Synopsis
Wall Street meets the Sons of Anarchy in the smoldering, scorching first novel in the explosively sexy new Dirty Money series from New York Times bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones.
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
Review
‘I remind myself that she is completely wrong for how fucked up my life is right now, but the truth is that’s exactly what makes her appealing.’
Hard Rules is my VERY FIRST book by Lisa Renee Jones. I have been itching to try her out for a while now but wasn’t ready to start a new series. When I was asked to read an early copy of Hard Rules I was excited to finally get a chance to read her work and I am very glad I did. From the moment Shane meets Emily I completely felt their connection and I knew that no matter where this crazy, twisty and incredibly sexy story went that I would be happy I read it. Cliffhanger and all.
“You’re right. It’s none of my business. Yet. But I plan to change that.” “I don’t want you to change that.” “Yes. You do.”
I did very much enjoy the story and especially the dynamic between Shane and Emily it was not all smooth sailing for me. I found, mostly in the first half of the book, that often the dialogue felt forced for me. Now I do not know if I got used to her writing style or if the dialogue improved as the author got a feel for her characters. Either way, the second half of the book I found the dialogue to be much better. But as far as the story went, I am super intrigued by how everything will play out. While I am not sure at this point if I would say it is “Wall Street meets Sons Of Anarchy.” Maybe more will come but this first installment didn’t have an MC feel I would expect from that description at all. But for me this was not an issue since I very much enjoyed the drama and action of what we did get here.
“Trust has to be earned. Control can be taken and if you think control and trust are the same thing, you’ve been with the wrong men. I’m not the wrong man. At least, not tonight.”
I love Romantic Suspense and that is EXACTLY what this is and for me it was done quite well. Being the first in a series of stories, Hard Rules is setting up all kinds of deceit and lies to play out and I for one and tingling with anticipation at seeing how Shane and Emily will make it out of all of this mess.
~miranda
