Dagger's Edge

Lora Leigh is amazing with her brand of edge of your seat suspenseful romance. Her books are so spellbinding & scorching that she leaves you breathless. The topics she chooses are riveting, as is the topic of this series, kidnaping of young girls & women for sale into sexual slavery & torture. Ivan & Syn’s (aka Journey) story is definitely my favourite out of all of her books I’ve read so far. Their chemistry is a definite explosion waiting to happen & when it does the pieces scattered create a new reality for the both of them. They’ve belonged to one another even before they actually did, despite the difference in their age. When Syn’s (Journey) life explodes around her she has no idea who she can trust anymore & befriends Ivan's daughter using a different name hoping that he might be able to help her, though she’s not exactly sure what to expect. What she doesn’t realize is that Ivan knows exactly who she is & that she’s been the object of his obsession for many years. With her running from a prearranged marriage & family members who would be happy to see her dead or handed over to the sex slave ring, she runs right into the arms of Ivan the man her family has tried to destroy for years. The fight for her life continues but with Ivan by her side Syn’s chances are greatly improved, as are her chance for finding love for the first time in her life. Unexpected surprises greet them along the way, good & bad but Ivan & Syn are determined to meet any & all head on. Definitely recommend this book!!! I voluntarily reviewed this book from Net Galley.

3.5 stars--DAGGER’S EDGE is the second instalment in Lora Leigh’s contemporary, adult BRUTE FORCE erotic, romantic suspense series – a spin off from the author’s Elite Ops series. This is thirty-nine year old, Russian businessman and mob boss Ivan Resnova, and twenty-six year old Crimsyn ‘Syn’ Delaney aka Journey Taite’s story line. DAGGER’S EDGE can be read as a stand alone but some of the backstory was previously revealed in the Elite Ops series. I also recommend reading Collision Point (Brute Force #1) as it concerns Ivan’s relationship with his daughter Amara-a relationship that directly affects his relationship with Journey.

Told from dual third person perspectives (Ivan and Journey) DAGGER’S EDGE follows the forbidden relationship between thirty-nine year old, Russian businessman and mob boss Ivan Resnova, and twenty-six year old Crimsyn ‘Syn’ Delaney aka Journey Taite. Four years earlier, Journey Taite, along with her cousin Tehya, was imprisoned and held hostage by someone close to our story line heroine. Rescued by the group calling themselves Elite Ops, but now on the run, Journey finds herself a virtual prisoner of Russian mob boss Ivan Resnova, a man who has starred in her fantasies and dreams for close to a decade. What ensues is the building relationship and love between Ivan and Journey, and the potential fall-out as the people from her past, are determined to finish the job started years before.

Ivan Resnova knows betrayal and disappointment including the betrayal by the people who should have loved him the most but growing up as part of the Russian crime world Ivan forged ahead into a powerful, alpha male willing to do anything to protect the woman he loves. Crimsyn ‘Syn’ Delaney aka Journey Taite never felt more hurt than to discover the truth about the depth of betrayal perpetrated by her own family. Trusting her father’s number one enemy meant placing her heart and her life into the hands of a man who could easily kill Journey without a second thought. With most of the men who instigated her abduction in prison for trafficking a child sex ring, Journey intends to set out on her own but someone is desperate to end our heroine’s life.

The relationship between Ivan and Journey is one of forbidden love between warring factions of the US, British and Russian mobs. Journey’s attraction to Ivan began years before when a then sixteen year old Journey felt the palpable sexual need of a young woman just blossoming into her own but a woman ‘sold’ to one of her father’s business partners in return for fealty and power. The $ex scenes are intimate, erotic and passionate, as per Lora Leigh’s usual style of romance writing.

The colorful and energetic secondary and supporting characters include Ivan’s right-hand man Ilya; Jordan and Tehya Malone (Live Wire / Elite Ops 6.5); as well as Journey’s former fiancé Beauregard Grant, a man with secrets of his own. The requisite evil has many faces but read like caricatures of cartoon villains.

DAGGER’S EDGE is an entertaining and intriguing story line but there are some questionable and cringe-worthy bits of information and plot points that seem almost incomprehensible –cue the eye rolling. The premise is engaging but primarily focuses on the sexual nature of Ivan and Journey’s relationship; the romance is steamy and hot. I will admit, I have not read the Elite Ops series, and thusly some confusion as to the history was not unexpected.