Review: Poison Kisses by Lisa Renee Jones (Poison Kisses #1-#3)
Note: This ARC was provided by St. Martin's Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Told in three parts, Poison Kisses is a spin-off of bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones's Dirty Money series. This can be read as a standalone, but if you're familiar with the aforementioned series, then you'll easily recall Seth Cage, one of the very few people Shane Brandon trusted in the Dirty Money books. We finally get to know more about the man who made it his mission to protect Brandon Enterprises in general but Shane and the woman he loved, Emily Stevens, in particular. His story is a second-chance romance with a heavy dose of enemies-to-lovers to it, and it's one that he shares with Amanda Skye, the woman he met and fell in love with three years prior--the very same woman who turned her back on him, resulting in a betrayal that cost a man Seth considered a brother his very life.
The first part of Poison Kisses has the erstwhile lovers and government agents crossing paths. There's a great deal of animosity and distrust. Seth would love nothing more than to have an excuse to kill her, and Amanda wouldn't mind giving the man she loved a noxious dose of his own medicine. Whether they like it or not, they need to focus on a common goal and that's to locate and put a stop to the evil-doings of Franklin Ross. She needs to create an antidote to combat Franklin's toxin, but there's a whole lot of tension going on with these two. How do you put your life in the hands of the very person who broke both your heart and your trust? The thing is, even with all the negative emotions, the connection between Seth and Amanda was undeniable, and I immediately wanted more.
I jumped straight into the second part of Poison Kisses because I desperately needed answers after that cliffhanger of an ending in part one. Who betrayed who? The Assassin and the Poison Princess are done tiptoeing around what happened three years ago, but even when answers are offered up, there are still unresolved issues to contend with. Could Seth and Amanda be victims of a setup, and if they are, who can they trust? Like in the first book, the flashbacks offer up a look-see as to what was happening to both their operation and their relationship back then. Seth is intent on proving that Amanda can trust him, but if evidence points out his guilt rather than his innocence, will it spell the end of their fledgling reconciliation--and their lives--or could there a bigger conspiracy?
Yep. I headed for the third part of Poison Kisses as soon as that second cliffhanger was dangled in front of me. Was there even a possibility of a happy ending for Seth and Amanda? Well, Suffice it to say that these two had no choice but to untangle one heck of a wicked web of deceit and lies. Did it cost more than the life of their former handler who was killed three years ago? Could they trust their current handler or was he part of the plan to take them both down? I'm fully invested in Seth and Amanda's story and while I admit that I was a wee bit confident that these two were going to end up together, there were moments in this final installment that I was worried about the damage certain revelations would do them. But do they have a happy ending? Well... read the novellas.
I loved Lisa Renee Jones's Dirty Money series. The series starter was what introduced me to her writing (thank you, St. Martin's Press publicists!) and I devoured all four books as soon as I had them in my greedy hands. Seth Cage is one of those supporting characters who simply demands to have their story told, and it was one hell of a story. He found his perfect foil in the person of Amanda Skye, and these two together brought with them all sorts of tension and suspense. You don't necessarily have to read Dirty Money to enjoy Poison Kisses, but hey, if you're into well-written romantic suspense novels, you can't go wrong with the former. As far as the latter is concerned, the first two parts do end in cliffhangers, but the wait between all three parts isn't too shabby! Poison Kisses gets five stars. ♥
The first part of Poison Kisses has the erstwhile lovers and government agents crossing paths. There's a great deal of animosity and distrust. Seth would love nothing more than to have an excuse to kill her, and Amanda wouldn't mind giving the man she loved a noxious dose of his own medicine. Whether they like it or not, they need to focus on a common goal and that's to locate and put a stop to the evil-doings of Franklin Ross. She needs to create an antidote to combat Franklin's toxin, but there's a whole lot of tension going on with these two. How do you put your life in the hands of the very person who broke both your heart and your trust? The thing is, even with all the negative emotions, the connection between Seth and Amanda was undeniable, and I immediately wanted more.
I jumped straight into the second part of Poison Kisses because I desperately needed answers after that cliffhanger of an ending in part one. Who betrayed who? The Assassin and the Poison Princess are done tiptoeing around what happened three years ago, but even when answers are offered up, there are still unresolved issues to contend with. Could Seth and Amanda be victims of a setup, and if they are, who can they trust? Like in the first book, the flashbacks offer up a look-see as to what was happening to both their operation and their relationship back then. Seth is intent on proving that Amanda can trust him, but if evidence points out his guilt rather than his innocence, will it spell the end of their fledgling reconciliation--and their lives--or could there a bigger conspiracy?
Yep. I headed for the third part of Poison Kisses as soon as that second cliffhanger was dangled in front of me. Was there even a possibility of a happy ending for Seth and Amanda? Well, Suffice it to say that these two had no choice but to untangle one heck of a wicked web of deceit and lies. Did it cost more than the life of their former handler who was killed three years ago? Could they trust their current handler or was he part of the plan to take them both down? I'm fully invested in Seth and Amanda's story and while I admit that I was a wee bit confident that these two were going to end up together, there were moments in this final installment that I was worried about the damage certain revelations would do them. But do they have a happy ending? Well... read the novellas.
I loved Lisa Renee Jones's Dirty Money series. The series starter was what introduced me to her writing (thank you, St. Martin's Press publicists!) and I devoured all four books as soon as I had them in my greedy hands. Seth Cage is one of those supporting characters who simply demands to have their story told, and it was one hell of a story. He found his perfect foil in the person of Amanda Skye, and these two together brought with them all sorts of tension and suspense. You don't necessarily have to read Dirty Money to enjoy Poison Kisses, but hey, if you're into well-written romantic suspense novels, you can't go wrong with the former. As far as the latter is concerned, the first two parts do end in cliffhangers, but the wait between all three parts isn't too shabby! Poison Kisses gets five stars. ♥
Release Dates:
Part One - 06 February 2018
Part Two - 13 February 2018
Part Three - 20 February 2018
Date Read: 06-07 February 2018
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