Thank you to Victory Editing and NetGalley for this ARC. I'm placing my honest thoughts below.

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This book is the second book in Shana's series that follows the Bratva mafia boys, with our FMC being Ivy Kelley. After a rough upbringing, she is brought up to be a killer for hire, with her friend, Elise, being her handler.

Her path crosses with the Bratva "Colonel", Nikolai Savin, and it changes her life forever without her knowing the full depth of that at first. As she falls in love with the man brought in to kill her target, she is left face to face with the thought of losing it all.

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I couldn't stand Elise and Ivy at the very beginning and thought Ivy was a huge grump. Not that I thought Elise was any better. I thought Elise was so uppity and my thoughts on her didn't change at the end of the novel.

This was the first book in this series that I dove into but I wish I had read the first book before I started this one. I think that's my biggest regret. I know the book said I could read this one as a standalone but I have a feeling that reading the first book would have helped me.

I did end up liking Ivy in the end and thought she was my favorite character at the end of the book. She reminds me a lot of the FMC from Den of Vipers, honestly, though I can't remember that FMC's name off the top of my head at the moment.

I was hoping she would go back to Nikolai by the end of the book and I'm so glad she did. I couldn't have asked for more than that, I think. I'm glad she got the happy ending she needed, though I'm curious if I'll be interested enough in the third book when it comes out to read it. I might.

I normally don't DNF a book because of how a character acts but I almost did because of Elise, honestly. I still think she's a bit of a [REDACTED] but we'll see what they do with her in subsequent books.

Yeah, I don't want to swear in this review because I want to add it to Amazon. lol I still don't like Elise, though. I don't want my entire review of this book to be complaining about Elise but I came pretty close. lol

A decent read. Plenty of spice & characters were fun. Wanted to know more about the other characters mentioned too. Did have a “cliff hanger” ending. However it was abrupt & in the middle of the scene so just felt as though it finished before it was meant to.

I love how this story had several twists thrown in. Ivy is a very strong woman who won’t take crap from nobody, including the Savin’s. She never expected to run into them while keep a promise to a friend. Things start to get dicey and develop that at times leaves Ivy a little lost. When things start to unravel she is left stunned by the truth. Will she decide to run away or stay and fight for what she wants? It does end in a semi cliffhanger. It was an enjoyable read and I can say it has plenty of spice.