RAVAGED WITH YOU (Stark Security 7) by J. Kenner
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date September 7, 2021
Retired from the military and finally free of the demons of past missions, former Special Forces soldier Charlie “Red” Cooper leads a blissfully calm life running his successful distillery. At least until the day he finds his partner and best friend drowned in one of their best barrels of whiskey. Now he must dredge up old skills and memories to not only avenge his friend’s death, but to protect the one woman who has always made his pulse race—his friend’s grieving widow.
Shocked by her husband’s death, Josephine Swift should be mourning, but instead she’s terrified and pissed. Turns out the husband she’d fallen out of love with was into some seriously bad business. Even worse, he’s dragged her and his partner into his web of deceit and danger. Now his mistakes could get them both killed.
Jo is glad to have the benefit of Red’s skills to keep them safe. She shouldn’t be interested in him—especially not now—but there’s no denying the white-hot attraction that smolders between them. Red’s far too honorable to sully his best friend’s memory by giving in to his desire for Jo. But when their lives hang in the balance, all bets are off. And as the depth of their passion grows, Jo dares to hope for a future. First, though, they have to survive…
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REVIEW: RAVAGED WITH YOU is the seventh instalment in J. Kenner’s contemporary, adult STARK SECURITY erotic, romantic suspense series-a spin off from and interconnected with the author’s STARK WORLD series. This is former US Special Forces solider Charlie ‘Red’ Cooper, and business owner/paralegal Josephine Swift’s story line. RAVAGED WITH YOU can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary. Charlie aka Red is Renly Cooper’s twin brother (Memories of You) and was first introduced in CHERISH ME.
WARNING: Due to the nature of the story line premise, there may be triggers for more sensitive readers.
Told from first person (Jo Swift) and third person (Red Cooper) RAVAGED WITH YOU follows in the aftermath of the apparent ‘suicide’ of Red Cooper’s business partner, and Josephine Swift’s husband Mel, a suicide that is quickly deemed a murder. A mysterious phone call, men in black, and the subsequent threat against our story line couple, Charlie ‘Red’ Cooper calls in the team from Stark Security but not before he and Jo do some investigating of their own. What ensues is the building romance and relationship between Jo and Red, and the potential fall-out as Red’s past is determined to destroy everyone he loves.
Charlie ‘Red’ Cooper left the Special Forces after an assignment that went all to h*ll. Suffering with PTSD and the memories of the darkest time in his life, Red struggled to move forward, desperate to protect the woman he has always loved but Jo married his best friend, as Red watched from afar, only to partner with Jo and Mel in new distillery that would become ground zero for the next chapter of their lives. Josephine Swift had thought one day she would marry her best friend Charlie Cooper but as Charlie began to pull back, Jo found herself pulled towards Mel Swift. A tumultuous marriage would end in an apparent murder disguised as a suicide, leaving Mel wondering where everything went wrong.
The relationship between Jo and Red is a friends to lovers, friends who have loved one another from afar but Red’s time in Special Forces changed the man who would one day find himself guardian and protector of the woman he love. The $ex scenes are intimate, erotic and intense without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.
The colorful secondary and supporting characters include Red’ brother Renly and his fiancée Abby, as well as Damien Stark, Stark Security chief Ryan Hunter, IT specialist Mario, and security consultant Simon Barre, The requisite evil has many faces.
RAVAGED WITH YOU is a quick read; a fast paced story of power and control, grief and loss, murder and espionage, relationships and love. The premise is intriguing and captivating; the romance is seductive and spicy; the characters are energetic, dynamic and lost.
Reading Order and Previous Reviews
Shadows of You .5
Shattered with You
Broken with You
Ruined With You
Wrecked with You
Destroyed with You
Memories of You
Copy supplied for review
Reviewed by Sandy
J. Kenner (aka Julie Kenner) is the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Wall Street Journal and #1 International bestselling author of over seventy novels, novellas and short stories in a variety of genres.
Though known primarily for her award-winning and international bestselling erotic romances (including the Stark and Most Wanted series) that have reached as high as #2 on the New York Times bestseller list, JK has been writing full time for over a decade in a variety of genres including paranormal and contemporary romance, “chicklit” suspense, urban fantasy, and paranormal mommy lit.
JK has been praised by Publishers Weekly as an author with a “flair for dialogue and eccentric characterizations” and by RT Bookclub for having “cornered the market on sinfully attractive, dominant antiheroes and the women who swoon for them.” A five time finalist for Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA award, JK took home the first RITA trophy awarded in the category of erotic romance in 2014 for her novel, Claim Me (book 2 of her Stark Trilogy). Her Demon Hunting Soccer Mom series (as Julie Kenner) is currently in development with AwesomenessTV/Awestruck.
Her books have sold over three million copies and are published in over twenty languages.
In her previous career as an attorney, JK worked as a clerk on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and practiced primarily civil, entertainment and First Amendment litigation in Los Angeles and Irvine, California, as well as in Austin, Texas. She currently lives in Central Texas, with her husband, two daughters, and two rather spastic cats.
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