Review: Killer Heart by Eva Chance & Harlow King

Killer Heart by Eva Chance & Harlow King

Series: The Chaos Crew #3

Publication date: February 19th, 2022

Pages: 312

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Synopsis:

Sins of the father... or the daughter?

I've discovered the family I was stolen from in the most unexpected place possible.

It's hard to believe I belong with them. A lifelong assassin mixing with people who campaign against criminals? There's no way in hell they'd accept the real me, let alone the brutal men who've welcomed me into their lives and their beds.

There has to be some way to make this work. I can't help craving a real home after so long without one.

And now that my enemies are targeting my birth family as well, they might need all the skills I can bring to bear.

But the farther I venture down this path, the harder it's becoming to tell who's really villain or victim here. When even more horrifying secrets come to light, will I choose the right side?

*Killer Heart is the third book in a new gritty contemporary romance series from bestselling author Eva Chase (Writing as Eva Chance) and Harlow King. No major triggers, just hot murderously-inclined men, a deadly heroine out for revenge, and an enemies-to-lovers romance where the girl gets all the guys. Prepare for total bloody chaos!*

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Review:

Dess may have finally discovered the benefits of having a big family who are devoted and cherish every moment they get. After a life of having nobody care about her well-being outside of the scope of completing a mission, she was embracing the fact that she suddenly had parents, a brother, grandparents, uncles and aunts, and even cousins. A big family of law-abiding citizens who crack down on crime at any chance they get. There in lies the rub. Dess is far from a model citizen. She's an assassin who has been killing people since she was old enough to hold a knife. How does she hope to fit in with a family that would sooner she had remained missing and presumed dead and turn out to be one of the shady people they despise. Add to that the fact that she has an undercover police officer pushing her towards family secrets that may be better left buried. What happens when Dess realizes that her picture perfect family is not everything she had thought they'd be? And what if they are even bigger monsters than the ones who are hunting her and her crew down to snuff them out?

This installment was trippy. I had a feeling there was something monumentally wrong with that family. I couldn't figure out what that something was but had a lot of theories. None of them came even remotely close to what those family secrets actually were. Poor Dess finally gets her family and now she has to figure out what is wrong with them and where to insert herself into the mix. I was kind of weary of her brother most of all. He just seemed to have this vibe about him that he knew exactly what was going on with her and that she was hiding something about herself from the family. 

I did like seeing the relationship between Dess and her men finally reaching that realization of "love" pivotal moment. One by one they all started to succumb to the fact that their relationship with Dess may be a bit more than just admiration and really hot sex. But then again none of them every gave off the impression that that was all they were looking for. Except maybe Garrison a bit, but that's because the poor man masks his every feeling. But boy when he takes that thing off he quickly becomes my absolute favorite of the men. 

I think with romance books that have a suspenseful feel to them it's very hard to figure out how much to lean either way. Either you lean into the mystery and give a few cameos of romance or you go the other way. I think this book was heavily focused on the mystery over the romance. There were very little pitfalls in the romance overall. There was one instance where they got a little ticked over her being with all of them but that got fixed monumentally quickly and then it just seemed they had zero issues afterwards. I would have liked to see at least a bit drama and resistance from at least one of the men to the whole sharing idea being as I think Julius and Talon were the only ones to have ever shared women together before. I felt like the romance got a little lost in all the action sometimes.

I think this was a great addition to the series. It brushed up and cemented the relationships between Dess and her men as well as through a bit of intrigue into the mix when it came to Dess's unusual family. Who are thoroughly messed up...