SAVAGE HEARTS (Queens and Monsters 3) by JT Geissinger-Review & Excerpt tour
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date November 19, 2021
Savage (adjective):
1) Not domesticated; wild and untamed
2) A brutal or vicious person
3) Malek Antonov
He’s a myth. A ghost. A legend.
A Bratva assassin so feared, some won’t even dare to speak his name.
He comes in search of vengeance for the death of his brother, but what he finds instead is me.
A girl he thinks is someone else.
Someone unrelated to the man who killed his brother.
Except I am.
And when he finds out my true identity, he decides to take me as repayment for what he lost.
Now, I’m a little bird trapped in a cage, and the only way to survive is to make friends with the monster who captured me.
Except friendship isn’t what the monster has in mind.
••••••••
REVIEW: SAVAGE HEARTS is the third instalment in JT Geissinger’s contemporary, adult QUEENS AND MONSTERS erotic, Mafia, romance series. This is thirty-three year old, Bratva assassin Malek Antonov, and twenty-four year old freelance editor Riley Keller’s story line. SAVAGE HEARTS can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story lines is revealed where necessary. Riley is Sloane Keller’s sisters (Carnal Urges 2). For fans of JT Geissinger, there is a character cross over with the author’s DANGEROUS BEAUTY, and BEAUTIFULLY CRUEL series.
NOTE: There are some scenes of sexual spanking and breath play that may be triggers for more sensitive readers.
Told from several first person perspectives including Malek, Riley, Declan and Kage, SAVAGE HEARTS focuses on Bratva assassin Malek Antonov’s need for revenge in the wake of his brother’s murder by the Irish Mob. Malek is a ghost, known as the ‘hangman’ in the criminal underworld but a man determined to right a wrong no matter the cost. Believing his target, head of the Boston Irish mob Declan O’Donnell, is possibly trafficking our story line heroine Malek offers to ‘free’ Riley Keller but quickly discovers Riley will be more useful as a pawn in his need for revenge. An attempt on Malek’s life finds Riley in the direct line of fire, and in the aftermath our heroine is whisked to places unknown, while Malek desperately tries to save the life of the woman with whom he will fall in love. What ensues is the building relationship between Malek and Riley, and the potential fall-out as Malek’s star is on the rise in the Russian Bratva, and Riley finds herself alone, wondering where everything went wrong.
Riley Keller is estranged from her sister Sloane but a surprise phone-call finds Riley a virtual prisoner more than a guest at her sister’s new home with the man that she loves but the Irish mob is at war with the Russian Bratva, and Riley will quickly discover that she is a pawn in a much larger game of betrayal and death. Malek Antonov doesn’t do relationships, as he is constantly on the go as an assassin for the Russian mob.Abducting Riley brings our hero up close and personal with a woman that pushes all of his buttons, buttons that haven’t been pushed in a very long while. Falling for his captive means placing our heroine in a dangerous position, a position that will bring our couple face to face with the man in charge.
The relationship between Malek and Riley begins as a need for revenge as Malek must avenge the death of his younger brother but kidnapping Riley forces Malek to reconsider his need for vengeance, a vengeance that is often guided by the heart and not the head. Time spent together finds Riley falling for her sexy abductor, a man who stirs something deep within our story line heroine. The $ex scenes are intimate, erotic and passionate.
We are reintroduced to Riley’s sister Sloane and her fiance Declan O’Donnell’s, Declan’s right-hand men Kieran, and Spider aka Homer; head of the Russian Bratva in New York Kazimir ‘Kage’ Porter and Natalie Peterson (Beautiful Creatures), Killian Black, and the King of the Bratva Pakhan. Spider’s story is next in BRUTAL VOWS.
SAVAGE HEARTS is a story of betrayal and revenge, power and control, family and blood, acceptance and love. The premise is haunting, gritty and twisted; the romance is provocative and spirited but I am not a fan of the male lead called ‘daddy’; the characters are energetic, controversial, animated and intense-the back and forth between Riley, and most of the other story line characters is often humorous, quirky, frenetic and fun.
Reading Order and Previous Reviews
Ruthless Creatures
Carnal Urges
Copy supplied for review
Reviewed by Sandy
Malek stares at me in disbelief.
“Sorry. Is that asking too much? It’s just that I’d never get over it if they got hurt because of me. They’re only trying to do their jobs.”
After a moment, he says angrily, “You know who I am. You know what I do. Correct?”
“Yes. I’ve been filled in on the particulars.”
“And you’re lying there with my hand around your neck asking me not to hurt your bodyguards.”
He says it like my sanity is in question.
“I know it’s maybe a little unorthodox.”
“No,” he says flatly.
“Please?”
He growls, “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“There’s no need to get testy.”
“Testy?”
“I’m just saying. You don’t have to get all mad about it.”
Furious again, he glares at me, grinding his jaw and probably calculating how much pressure it will take to snap the brittle bird bones in my neck.
Before he does, I say, “I also want to thank you for the rose you left me. That was really nice. I’ve never had a man bring me flowers before. I know it was only the one, and also you thought I was a captive prostitute at the time, but still. It was thoughtful. So thank you.”
He stares at me with an expression somewhere between confusion and amazement, with a healthy dose of disgust on the side.
“Now is probably a good time to remind you that I’m still the same person you left the rose for. So if you did kill me, you’d be killing her, too. Just a thought.”
“Are you on drugs?”
“Not at the moment, no. Why, do you have any?”
“There’s something wrong with you. Mentally. Right?”
That makes me laugh. “Oh, totally. I’ve got more than a few screws loose. At least that’s what my dad tells me. But he’s super uptight, zero imagination, so his opinion doesn’t really count. Not that he’s wrong, because he isn’t, but normies shouldn’t judge creatives. They just have no idea how we’re wired. Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I’ve never had a conversation with an insane person before.”
“Very funny.”
“It wasn’t a joke.”
“Ouch.”
We stare at each other in silence. His hostile, mine hopeful. He still hasn’t murdered me, so things are looking up.
“Malek?”
“What.” He says it flatly. With dread.
“Thank you for not killing me.”
He says emphatically, “Don’t thank me yet.”
“You’re still deciding?”
“If only to get you to shut up, yes.”
“In that case…” I make a zipper motion across my lips.
He watches with outrage, astonishment, and absolute disbelief.
“Actually, before I shut up, I also want to say that it was really sweet that you tried to save me from being a sex worker. I mean, what a gentleman! A gentleman killer who gives strangers big wads of cash in restrooms. You’re quite the puzzle, Mr. Ghost. Or is it just Ghost? I’m never sure how the nickname thing works, except between me and my sister, but that doesn’t count because my whole family is a little weird. I’ll just call you Malek, if that’s all right. Or Mal for short, since we’re such buds now, what with you breaking into my various bedrooms for midnight visits and all. Okay, I’m shutting up now. Here I go.”
I press my lips together and gaze up at him, watching him struggle with dueling urges to cut off my air supply or break something over my head.
Maybe he’s right about me being insane, because rather than terrifying, I find his indecision understandable.
He’s not the first man I’ve driven to the brink of murder. He’s just the most capable of actually going through with it.
“Oh, one more thing—”
“I know a way to keep that mouth quiet,” he snaps.
Then he kisses me.
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A former headhunter, J.T. Geissinger is the author of more than a dozen novels in contemporary romance, paranormal romance, and romantic suspense.
She is the recipient of the Prism Award for Best First Book, the Golden Quill Award for Best Paranormal/Urban Fantasy, and is a two-time finalist for the RITA® Award from the Romance Writers of America®. Her work has also finaled in the Booksellers’ Best, National Readers’ Choice, and Daphne du Maurier Awards.
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