TREVOR’S REDEMPTION (Arresting Onyx 3.5) by Amber Daulton-review

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Google Play /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 22, 2023

The danger and lies are more than she can handle.

Shea O’Bannon feels like a fifth wheel around her romantically paired-off friends, but there’s too much slime in the dating pool for her to bother with it. Then she sees her two-timing ex, Trevor Madero, serenading the mostly female crowd at a live-music bar. God knows trouble follows him around, but her desire for him rushes back in anyway. After he rescues her from a handsy drunk, temptation takes over.

Determined to prove he never stepped out on Shea, Trevor slides back into her life—and her heart—with forever in mind. Even with the wall he keeps up to protect her, his secret criminal life weighs heavy on his soul and drives a wedge between them.

When the truth comes out and his enemies target them both, they’ll have to fight for their love, or kiss it goodbye.

•••••

REVIEW: TREVOR’S REDEMPTION is the fifth instalment (book 3.5) in Amber Daulton’s contemporary, adult ARRESTING ONYX erotic, romantic suspense series focusing on the men and women of a criminal organization known as Onyx. This is thirty year olds, construction worker/musician/ enforcer Trevor Madero, and television station employee Shea O’Bannon’s story line. TREVOR’S REDEMPTION can be read as a stand alone but for back story and cohesion I recommend reading the series in order. Trevor was first introduced as a secondary character in the previous story lines.

Told from dual omniscient third person perspectives (Trevor and Shea) TREVOR’S REDEMPTION follows the second chance romance and relationship between our story line couple. Several months earlier, Shea caught her boyfriend Trevor an embrace with another woman. Fast forward to present day wherein, a drink with a co-worker at a local bar, finds Shea face to face with the man who broke her heart. Enter Trevor Madero, a man with many secrets that are about to be exposed. From work place harassment and assault, to drug running, take downs and bribes, Shea will discover she has more connections to the criminal organization than she could have ever imagined. What ensues is the rebuilding romance and relationship between Shea and Trevor, and the potential fall-out as our couple become the target of a very powerful man.

The world building follows the seedier side of organized crime. The enforcement of rules, payment for protection, dysfunctional family dynamics, and the power of a brotherhood connected by secrets and crimes.

The relationship between Trevor and Shea is one of second chances. Trevor’s reputation with the women becomes an issue for our story line heroine, especially when a past ex refuses to let go but all is not as it appears to be when Trevor’s lies threaten our story line heroine. The $ex scenes are intimate and passionate.

There is a large ensemble cast of colorful and charismatic secondary and supporting characters, most of whom have connections to the criminal organization known as Onyx, many of whom were introduced in the previous instalments.

TREVOR’S REDEMPTION is a story of secrets and lies, power and control, betrayal and vengeance, love and loss, forgiveness and acceptance. The fast paced premise is intriguing and entertaining but reads like the final chapter in the series. The romance is seductive; the characters are determined and dynamic.

This was my introduction to, and first book in the Arresting Onyx series, therefore I felt a little lost having limited to no background knowledge of, or reference about Onyx or any of the previous story line events and characters. I had hoped for a little more background or history, especially as it pertained to the criminal organization Onyx as many of the secondary characters had direct involvement and history.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy