VENGEANCE ROAD (Torpedo Ink #2) by Christine Feehan-Dual Review, Excerpt and Giveaway
VENGEANCE ROAD
Torpedo Ink #2
by Christine Feehan
Genre: adult,contemprary, erotic, MC, slightly paranormal, romance
Release Date: January 29, 2019
Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Chapters Indigo / Google Play
ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date January 29, 2019
Breezy Simmons was born into a ruthless motorcycle club—and now that she’s out, she’s never going to be that girl again. But when her past catches up with her, Breezy must go to Sea Haven to seek out the man who almost destroyed her. The man who chose his club over her and left her feeling used and alone.
As vice president of Torpedo Ink, Steele is ride or die for the brothers he lived through hell with. He never thought he’d find something as pure as his feelings for Breezy, or that keeping her safe would mean driving her away with cruel words that turned her love for him to ash.
Now, Steele won’t let her walk away twice. He’ll do whatever it takes to make Breezy his woman again—especially when he learns the real reason she came to him for help, and that the stakes are higher than he ever could have imagined
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Sandy’s REVIEW: VENGEANCE ROAD is the second instalment in Christine Feehan’s contemporary, adult TORPEDO INK slighty-paranormal, erotic romance series focusing on the men and women of the Torpedo Ink MC. This is Breezy Simmons, and Torpedo Ink MC vice president Lyov ‘Steele’ Russak’s story line. VENGEANCE ROAD can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous instalment is revealed where necessary. The TORPEDO INK series is a spin-off from the author’s SEA HAVEN SERIES but you do not have to have read the original series to follow Torpedo Ink.
NOTE: Most of the characters including Torpedo Ink club president Victor ‘Czar’ Prakenski, and his wife Blythe Daniels were introduced in the final instalment of the author’s Sea Haven Series BOUND TOGETHER.
WARNING: VENGEANCE ROAD contains scenes, and makes reference to graphic violence, rape, murder, torture, child prostitution, and abuse against children, women and men, and therefore, may not be suitable for all readers.
SOME BACKGROUND: At the tender age of ten years old, Victor ‘Czar’ Prakenski set about to save and rescue over three hundred children from one of four Russian child sex-slave operations but in the end only eighteen survived. The Torpedo Ink series focuses on the survivors: their stories, their history, and their happily ever afters.
Told from dual third person perspectives (Steele and Breezy) VENGEANCE ROAD follows the second chance romance between Breezy Simmons, and Torpedo Ink MC vice president Lyov ‘Steele’ Russak. Four years earlier Lyov ‘Steele’ Russak went undercover with the Swords MC where he met and fell for Breezy Simmons, the daughter of the Swords MC President. Things went from bad to worse when secrets were revealed, and Steele maliciously pushed Breezy out of his life. Fast forward to present day wherein Breezy is desperate for Steele and Torpedo Ink MC help, help she knows will permanently bring Steele back into her life. What ensues is the rebuilding relationship and romance between Steele and Breezy, and the potential fall-out as Breezy is unable to come to terms between the man that she loves, and the man who pushed her out of his life.
Steele is a natural healer but like all of the Russian sex-slave survivors, Steele is a trained assassin; a stone-cold killer who isn’t afraid of protecting the people he loves. When Breezy’s past begins to spiral out of control threatening everything and everyone she loves, Steele and his Torpedo Ink family make it their priority to save one of their own.
The relationship between Breezy and Steele is one of second chances; a rekindling romance that struggles with sins of the past, and Steele’s treatment of our heroine three years earlier. Steele struggles with the memories of his time spent as a child sex-slave for the Russian mob, memories that continue to haunt our story line (anti) hero. The $ex scenes are intimate, erotic, aggressive and intense.
There is a large ensemble cast of colorful and charismatic secondary and supporting characters-Steele’s Torpedo Ink family- a family of survivors who have endured years of torture, rape, abuse and an education in the world of the deviant and sick.
The world building continues to focus on the years of abuse suffered at the hands of the Russian mob: the recovery and revenge; the betrayal and ramifications; the heart break, and damage caused to a group of children (now adults) and their struggle to accept, grieve and move forward with lives. As I have stated before in many of my reviews, I have remarked on the author’s increasing violent story lines and abuse against women and children but in the case of the Torpedo Ink series, the violence is part of their history and lives-ingrained and imbedded –into their very existence. The story line heroes are not the perpetrators of the violence and abuse against the women they love but are the saviors and salvation of those who suffered years before.
VENGEANCE ROAD is a heart breaking, painful and graphic story line of abuse and betrayal; vengeance and retribution. The characters are animated, broken but recovering; the romance is hard and impassioned. Christine Feehan pulls the reader into the dark and gritty world of Torpedo Ink.
Barb’s REVIEW:
Vengeance Road by Christine Feehan is the 2nd book in her Torpedo Ink series. Just a brief refresher for this series: Blythe marrying Viktor (Czar) was the end of the Sea Haven series. Czar is the president of Torpedo Ink, and together with the men and women he brought with him to Sea Haven and Blythe, they have built their Torpedo Ink MC club in Casper, which is close to Sea Haven. Each of these members have suffered terrible abuse in their childhoods in Russia, being forced to all become lethal assassins; each still very much trying to find the light inside their darkness. They are all determined to protect each other, and also work secretly to save children they have become part of human trafficking, as well as pedophiles.
In Vengeance Road, we meet our heroine, Breezy (Bree) Simmons, who is desperate to find the man who broke her heart three years ago. She grew up in a MC club, being treated badly by her father and brother; and now three years after she left, the past has come back to rear its ugly head. Steele, our hero, is the Vice President of Torpedo Ink, and when he sees Breezy come to their club, leaving an envelope, he is determined to get her back, and this time keep her. He and his teammates, who are loyal to each other, find and bring Breezy back, and the information she brings alerts the whole team, especially Steele, as he has never stopped loving Bree, and now he has a son. A son who has been kidnapped by Bree’s evil father, who is leader of the local Swords MC.
Bree is desperate to get her son back, but she is a mess, since she wants nothing to do with MC gangs. Steele, at first angry about her not telling him about their son, knows that it was his fault that she left, since he was the one who pushed her away. He wanted to save her from the abuse she took from her father, and the Swords gang, but in doing so, realized he loved her and wanted her back.
What follows is an exciting adventure with Steele, Bree and the team working together to find their son, and eliminate the evil Swords. In a short time, especially with Steele determined to win Bree back, the romance between them rekindles and the chemistry is sizzling. Steele is very dominant, and unbending, but he begins to see that Bree is now a stronger person, and he eventually will confront his demons by telling her about his horrific childhood. Bree knows she still loves Steele, but is afraid to get back into the club life, even though she learns over time that Torpedo Ink is not like other clubs. They take care and protect their own, and work toward helping others who has suffered.
It is important to note that this is a very violent story, as well as being very exciting. The men of Torpedo Ink will do anything they can to find information to help find the boy, which means excessive torture; but we do know how much they suffered, and live with those dark memories. I love all the members of the Torpedo Ink family, including the female members(Lana & Alena), and the ladies who become part of them (Blythe, Anya and now Bree)
The story does have a lot of sex scenes, as Bree and Steele were very steamy and great together .
Vengeance Road is a dark romantic story, that is also very emotional, as we continue to learn through the eyes of the members what they had to endure in Russia. I look forward to future books in this series, where we will get to meet the other members of the team, as they find their way out of the darkness to the light of love. Despite the dark violent story, Vengeance Road was a great read, exciting, sexy, with a fabulous group of secondary characters.
Copy supplied by the publisher through Netgalley
Excerpt courtesy of the publisher Berkley Romance
Breezy Simmons leaned against her pickup for a moment, staring at the large building that housed the Torpedo Ink Motorcycle Club. Her heart beat so hard in her chest she was afraid she might vomit. The world spun uncontrollably, and she quickly leaned down, putting her head between her legs, drawing in great gulps of air. She caught a glimpse of two men on the other side of the compound as her head went toward the asphalt, and she didn’t recognize either of them. That made her pounding heart sink.
She couldn’t possibly have the wrong club. This had to be them. She was running out of time and options. She slowly righted herself and took another cautious look around. The two men stared at her from across the parking lot. She was careful not to look at them too long. She didn’t want them coming anywhere near her. She needed to get in and out very fast.
The Torpedo Ink compound was extremely large and had a high chain-link fence surrounding it. There was even razor wire up on top of the fence, making the place look like a fortress. The rolling gates were wide open, and she’d driven her truck right inside, parking as close to the clubhouse as possible. She deliberately left the door to her beat-up pickup open and the engine running. Hopefully, no one recognized her, and she could get in and out of the building quickly, once she asserted these were the right people, the ones she was looking for.
In the early morning hours, the club was just beginning to stir. Clearly, they’d partied hard over the weekend. In the enormous side yard, the one with the beautiful ocean view, she could see embers in fire pits glowing as the breeze stirred them up. A man with his back to her watered them down with a hose. He wore a tight tee and jeans, but no colors. Still, she knew this was the home of the club that called itself Torpedo Ink. She sent up a silent prayer that this was the one she’d been looking for.
There were empty bottles strewn around the grass and on the ground to the side of the building in the wide expanse of open field. Cars, motorcycles and trucks were scattered around the parking lot, although no one parked where the club did. Their motorcycles were lined up neatly and a prospect watched over them. He sat on the curb looking at her. She was parked too close to the precious bikes, but she didn’t care—other than it had drawn the attention of the prospect.
Another long line of motorcycles was parked a short distance down from the clubhouse and a prospect watched over those bikes as well. He looked at her without much interest, which indicated to her that these bikes belonged to a visiting club. He wasn’t as interested in protecting the grounds as the one closest to the clubhouse.
She had to get this over with. Just being in such close proximity to an MC made her sick. The fact that she knew what went on at the party made her even sicker. That this might be his club, and she had to risk running into him, made all that far worse.
Breezy squared her shoulders, dragged the envelope off the seat and turned all in one motion. The prospect was on his feet. If she knew for certain this was the right club, she would have thrust the letter into his hands and left, but she was guessing from a process of elimination.
She purposely hadn’t kept track of him, especially when she’d heard, a year after she’d left, that eighteen members of the Swords had set up the international president for assassination and had, allegedly, wiped out a number of members and then disappeared. She knew who those eighteen members were immediately and knowing them, she knew it was possible when others said it wasn’t. She’d run as far from the life as she could and now she was pulled right back in.
Christine Feehan is a #1 New York Times bestselling author multiple times over with her portfolio including over 70 published novels, including five series; Dark Series, Ghostwalker Series, Leopard Series, Drake Sisters Series, the Sisters of the Heart Series and Torpedo Ink. All of her series have hit the #1 spot on the New York Times bestselling list as well. Her debut novel Dark Prince received 3 of the 9 Paranormal Excellence Awards in Romantic Literature (PEARL) in 1999. Since then she has been published by various publishing houses including Leisure Books, Pocket Books, and currently is writing for Berkley/Jove. She also has earned 7 more PEARL awards since Dark Prince.
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