KING OF EVANSTON (Kings of the Castle #3) by J.L. Campbell-a review

ebook only 99¢ Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date December 3, 2019

Shaz Bostwick’s personal views and business ethics collide when Camilla Gibson walks into his office, seeking his help.The treatment her daughter needs is available in Chicago, but Camilla is almost out of time and has several issues working against her. Raised as an immigrant, Shaz knows the heartache of family separation firsthand. In a race against the clock and the authorities, he calls in favors but receives a disturbing offer. Let baby Ayanna slip through the cracks in exchange for a handsome reward. Fed up with politicians and businessmen with too much money and too little scruples, Shaz and his fellow Kings of the Castle band together to stem the flow of illegal adoptions, while they solve the mystery of who wants their mentor dead.

Camilla Gibson has traveled the world in her capacity as an adventurer, sometime model, and blogging celebrity. In her eyes, the charming, but tough lawyer is her last resort before deportation. Shaz is smart and tenacious, with renowned negotiating skills and a reputation for making a way when there seems to be none. If she can get past the biggest crisis in her life, then maybe the spark of attraction that sizzles between them will develop into something magical.

•••••••

REVIEW: KING OF EVANSTON by J.L. Campbell is the third instalment in the multi-authored/ multi-cultural contemporary, adult KINGS OF THE CASTLE, erotic, romantic suspense series focusing on nine ‘brothers’ from the streets of Chicago (Vikkas, Reno, Shaz, Jai, Daron, Kaleb, Grant, Dro and Dwayne) mentored and taught by the mysterious Khalil Germaine at the exclusive Macro International Magnet School in Chicago. This is attorney Shastra ‘Shaz’ Bostwick, and single mother Camilla Gibson’s story line. KING OF EVANSTON can be read as a stand alone but I recommend reading book one KINGS OF THE CASTLE for backstory and history between Shaz and Camilla.

SOME BACKGROUND: Nine men, all ‘brother’s in arms’ from the mean streets of Chicago, have been called together by their former mentor Khalil Germaine in an effort to re-make and reclaim the restrictive and exclusionary THE CASTLE, an institution now involved with illegal activities including drug trafficking, human sexual slavery and more.

Told from third person perspective (Shaz Bostwick) KING OF EVANSTON focuses on the search for an illegal adoption and child slavery ring. Four years earlier, while on vacation in America, Jamaican born Camilla Gibson got pregnant by a man who wanted nothing to do with our story line heroine. Fast forward to present day wherein Camilla has returned to the States, along with her daughter Ayanna, who needs emergency surgery to correct a heart defect but all does not go according to plan when the child’s father offers up his estranged young daughter to the highest bidder. Enter attorney and King of Evanston Shastra ‘Shaz’ Bostwick, and the man with whom Camilla will fall in love. What ensues is the building relationship between Shaz and Camilla, and the potential fall-out as numerous attempts to abduct Ayanna place the child in dangerous and precarious position.

KING OF EVANSTON focuses on the imprisonment of young women, and the illegal procurement and adoption of their newborn children. As the nine Kings of the Castle begin an investigation of their own, all clues lead back to The Castle, and the previous and current members who operated a series of illegal endeavors.

The relationship between Shaz and Camilla begins as a business association that soon turns into something more. Shaz finds himself attracted to a woman whose time in the States is coming to an end, an end that places Ayanna between the two worlds of her mother and her nefarious father. Camilla Gibson is drawn to the enigmatic and powerful attorney Shastra Bostwick but Camilla’s first priority is the protection and safety of her ailing daughter. The $ex scenes are intmate, passionate and limited but saying that I did not feel any palpable sexual heat or attraction, in fact, I felt little to nothing in the way of love or romance, and in this, I struggled to enjoy the overall story.

KING OF EVANSTON is a dramatic story of family, betrayal, illegal activities and tragic circumstances that fulfills another happily ever after for one of the Kings of the Castle.

Previous reviews and reading order
KINGS OF THE CASTLE
King of Chatham
King of Evanston
King of Devon
King of Morgan Park
King of South Shore
King of Lincoln Park
King of Hyde Park
King of Lawndale

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy