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“Gracie C. McKeever (c) October 2009
Jim Heron is a secretive and keep-to-himself kind of guy and there’s a very good reason for that. If he told you what he used to do for a living, he’d have to kill you. He’s settled in Caldwell for a fresh start working construction for the diPietro Group. Enter the mysterious and beautiful woman in the blue dress from the Iron Mask. Model gorgeous, she’s as much out of place in the Iron Mask as Jim would be at a fancy art gallery opening. He’s just out for a couple of beers with two friends from work who couldn’t be more different from each other and makes Jim wonder how they ever get along well enough to be roommates. One’s a chatterbox and the other’s the complete opposite. It’s the chatterbox that gets Jim in a world of trouble, starting with pointing out the woman in the blue dress to Jim—over and over again. Jim just wants to get home and forget that it’s his fortieth birthday. But best laid plans get laid aside when Blue Dress follows him out to his truck and seduces him in the parking lot. Of course it doesn’t take much work on her part. Things wouldn’t be so bad if Blue Dress could have remained nameless and a one-night-stand he could forget about, but she turns out to be much more than even Jim could imagine, someone who could ruin his life, such as it is, in more ways than one.
Vin diPietro worked his way up from poverty and a dark past with abusive alcoholic parents who didn’t think anything of using him like a punching bag the same way they used each other. School and friends would have been an escape, except Vin doesn’t have any of the latter mainly because he has these visions of death that always come true. Peers mainly keep their distance, calling him a freak and the teachers and parents are outright afraid of him.
By seventeen, Vin has had enough and takes drastic measures to get his life in control and get rid of the visions. It’s a fateful move he may just live to regret.
Marie-Therese is a single Mom working as a “dancer” in the Iron Mask to pay off a debt. On the run and in hiding, she’s doing the only thing she can think of to keep her son safe and herself under the radar in Caldwell. Thanks to the owner/manager of the Iron Mask, she has a modicum of protection and piece of mind, but not even Trez can save her from her past…or her inevitable future.
When Jim and Vin wind up at the Iron Mask with Blue Dress and Vin and Marie-Therese get a look at each other, the world finally falls into place for the pair. Only thing is, there are forces among them ready to rip their worlds apart—forces both of this world and not.
Wow! What a great start to a new series. I was instantly hooked. Love the carry over-setting of the Iron Mask and Trez the symphath from Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood and some other name-dropping of familiar characters along the way. Vin and Marie-Therese are an engaging hero and heroine, each with deep dark secrets and believable motivations. I love their characters and love them as a couple and seeing them together. And what can I say about Jim and the other fallen angels except I can’t wait to read more and see how their next missions turn out. ”
