MEMENTO MORI (Masters and Mercenaries: The Forgotten #1) by Lexi Blake- Review & Excerpt Tour
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 28, 2018
Six men with no memories of the past
One leader with no hope for the future
A man without a past
Jax woke up in a lab, his memories erased, and his mind reprogrammed to serve a mad woman’s will. After being liberated from his prison, he pledged himself to the only thing he truly knows-his team. Six men who lost everything they were. They must make certain no one else gets their hands on the drugs that stole their lives, all while hiding from every intelligence organization on the planet. The trail has led him to an unforgiving mountainside and a beautiful wilderness expert who may be his only hope of finding the truth.
A woman with a bright future
River Lee knows her way around the Colorado wilderness. She’s finally found a home in a place called Bliss after years lost in darkness. The nature guide prefers to show her clients the beauty found in the land, but she also knows the secrets the mountains hold. When she meets Jax, something about the troubled man calls to her. She agrees to lead him to the site of an abandoned government facility hidden deep in the forest. She never dreamed she was stepping into the middle of a battlefield.
A love that could heal a broken soul
Spending time with River, Jax discovers a peace he’s never known. Their passion unlocks a side of himself he didn’t even know he was missing. When an old enemy makes his first move, Jax and River find themselves fighting for their lives. But when his past is revealed, will River be caught in the crosshairs of a global conspiracy?
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REVIEW: MEMENTO MORI is the first instalment in Lexi Blake’s contemporary, adult MASTERS AND MERCENARIES: The Forgotten erotic, romantic suspense series focusing on six former military soldiers (Jax, Dante, Sasha, Tucker, Owen and Robert) whose minds and lives were eradicated and erased. This is Jax, and mountain tour guide River Lee’s story line. The Forgotten is a spin-off from the author’s Masters and Mercenaries series, and the characters were first introduced and play an important throughout the original series.
NOTE: If you have not read Lexi Blake’s original Masters and Mercenaries series, their may be some confusion as it pertains to the Lost Boys backstory.
SOME BACKGROUND: Several months earlier the mercenaries from the McKay-Taggart Black Ops group rescued, from an unauthorized military lab, six men they labelled the ‘Lost Boys’. With their memories wiped clean, no ID, and no traceable DNA, the Lost Boys were essentially ‘new born’ soldiers trained to kill and destroy.
Told from dual third person perspectives (Jax and River) MEMENTO MORI follows the building relationship between Jax, and tour guide River Lee. Jax, and his fellow Lost Boys are desperate to uncover the truth about their pasts, and the drugs used to control their lives, but without any memories of the who, how, or why, the where was a mystery until the probability of a secret government lab in the mountains near Bliss, Colorado. Enter mountain tour guide River Lee, a woman whose own life spiralled out of control with the death of her father, and the subsequent fraudulent marriage to a serial con-man. What ensues is the building relationship and love between Jax and River, and the potential fall-out as Jax must keep secret the truth about the mission that is about to go horribly wrong.
Jax is a man frustrated about his lack of a past. Along with the men he calls ‘brothers’ Jax is willing to risk it all to discover the whereabouts of the secret lab but risking the life of the woman he loves means going it alone. River Lee is unable to move past the her husband’s betrayal, and falling for a man like Jax meant another round of betrayal when the truth was revealed.
The relationship between Jax and River is one of immediate attraction but Jax’s handler ‘Big Tag’ has warned the Lost Boys that their mission must remain a secret; and affairs of the heart will only lead to heartbreak and pain. The $ex scenes are intimate and seductive without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.
There is a very large ensemble cast of secondary and supporting characters including the men that Jax calls brothers: Dante, Sasha, Tucker, Owen and Robert, as well as Big Tag; Heather aka Solo; Andy and Ty. The requisite evil has many faces, some of whom may be working for the same side. You may need a spread-sheet to keep track of all of the characters, and their relationships to one another. There is plenty of confusion as well, with the numerous names and aliases for all of the story line characters, which makes for a difficult time trying to keep track of the familial relationships, government departments and connections.
MEMENTO MORI is a story of family, friendship, betrayal and loss focusing on six men who have had to relearn the skills of life, as well as their struggle to move on from the evil that continues to permeate their minds. The premise is entertaining and engaging; the characters are broken, colorful, dynamic and lost; the romance is passionate and heated.
Copy supplied for review
Reviewed by Sandy
“This place is beautiful,” he said when she hesitated.
She nodded but didn’t move from her seat. “I love it here. I went to college in Denver, but I always missed this place. When I was younger, my dad had a house in Creede. He started the business there, but when he could, he moved us out of town. My dad was a loner, I suppose. Creede has a population of four hundred and Dad thought that was way too many people.”
“I know the feeling. I lived in London for a while. That was definitely too many people.” He kept his tone even. It was odd. Now that he was here, that hunger he always felt was tempered by her fear. He’d thought he would take anything offered to him, but he couldn’t having met her. If the blonde had offered herself up, he would have turned her down. Over the two hours they’d sat in the booth, eating fried food and drinking beer, he’d figured something out. Some people were more special than others. River was special. He should be more cynical. He could hear Damon Knight telling him to be cautious, but he couldn’t make himself do it. Perhaps it was the fact that he didn’t have a long well of history to draw from and to teach him that this was likely a mistake.
It didn’t feel like a mistake.
“Wow. I’ve never been farther than Kansas City.” She still wasn’t moving and her voice had taken on a tremulous tone.
His heart constricted, and it was surprisingly easy to not listen to his dick. His dick was pleading with him to get aggressive. His dick was trying to convince him that if he could get inside her, she would accept him.
Yeah, he wasn’t going to listen to his dick.
“If you’ve changed your mind, I can call my brother to pick me up. I have a phone and so does he. His number is programmed in. I don’t want to scare you. I had a good time talking to you tonight. It was one of the nicest nights I’ve had in a long time.” Ever. It was the best night ever. It was the first night he felt normal, though he wasn’t exactly sure what that word meant. Comfortable was a better one. That tight feeling in his chest had eased as he’d sat in the booth with River and Tucker and Heather.
Although he’d hated lying to her.
She finally turned, looking at him. Her eyes shone in the moonlight. “You mean that, don’t you?”
He wanted to touch her. He’d had to force his hands not to move toward her all night long. The most he’d allowed himself was to have their hips and shoulders touch as they’d sat next to each other. He’d decided it had been a good thing he’d sat next to her because he was fairly certain he had a case of Big Tag’s crazy eyes, and she would have seen them had he sat across from her.
“I do mean it. Please don’t get me wrong. I want you. I would like nothing more in the world than to take you into that cabin, lay you out, and make a feast of you. I want to kiss you and when I say that I don’t merely mean your lips. I want to put my mouth all over your body. But more than I want that, I want you to like me.” It was important somehow. He wouldn’t see her after tonight, but he couldn’t stand the idea that she was afraid of him.
Everyone was afraid of him. Everyone he knew was waiting for his powder keg to blow, but he’d sworn to himself earlier in the evening that it wouldn’t blow around her. He would protect her even if it was only for one night.
NY Times and USA Today bestselling author Lexi Blake lives in North Texas with her husband, three kids, and the laziest rescue dog in the world. She began writing at a young age, concentrating on plays and journalism. It wasn’t until she started writing romance and urban fantasy that she found the stories of her heart. She likes to find humor in the strangest places and believes in happy endings no matter how odd the couple, threesome, or foursome may seem.
