Review: Killer Reign by Eva Chance & Harlow King

Killer Reign by Eva Chance & Harlow King

Series: The Chaos Crew #4

Publication date: April 16th, 2022

Pages: 302

Spice: 🌶️🌶️

Synopsis:

This puppet has cut her strings...

I had to do the unthinkable--and now I've discovered that every move I've made has been part of a villain's maniacal plan. All this time I believed I'd found my freedom, I've still had someone pulling my strings.

Those days are over.

The man who considers himself my master is the worst monster I've ever known. My crew and I won't let him get away with his manipulations or the even more disturbing crimes we uncover.

But no matter how talented we are in our killer skills, we're just five people up against a crime lord with more connections than I can count. As he pushes us closer and closer to the brink, how much will we lose trying to end his reign?

*Killer Reign is the fourth and final 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's family is not the perfect picture of a crime fighting group but a bunch of individuals who believe kidnapping, torturing and killing the children of low level criminals is the way to stop the influx of crime in the world. They actually believe that the children are sacrifices they have to make for the greater good and that Dess should join them or be excommunicated from the family by way of death. Clearly they underestimated her. When Dess kills her family in cold blood she finds out that it had all gone according to someone else's plan. Someone has been using her as their tool for her entire life and she is just now realizing that she played right into their hands. They wanted revenge on her family so they kidnapped her, trained her to be a killing machine, and let her loose to take back the pound of flesh her family had cost them. Even if they manipulated her for revenge, Dess may have been able to move past it if the dirty dealings of this person didn't come to light which made them on the same plain as her evil family. Now Dess has a new enemy to bring down and this one is going to be the most complicated of all.

This book was definitely a means of wrapping up all the loose ends of Dess's life and the mysteries that surrounded it. The men were still there, fighting by her side but they seemed to really take a backseat to everything else. There were no more realizations of feelings other than Dess finally catching up with the rest of the class so it was just an flat experience where the romance was concerned. Of course they found time to be together sexually even while chronically on the run but other than that... it was mainly about Dess finally reclaiming her life for herself. Don't get me wrong, it was a good ending, but I wish that the romance would not have plateaued in book three. 

I found Dess's brother to be the most annoying brat I have ever had the misfortune of reading about. Granted, I know he was going through a lot losing his entire family and being kidnapped by his sister who murdered them, but... he had to know what they were doing was wrong on some level so why did he fight so long to remain in denial? It's a good thing Dess has a heart because I was kind of waiting for her to just cut her losses and off him as well. 

I think that with the drawbacks of the romance becoming a bit stagnant and the brother being annoying as hell, it was still a middle-of-the-road book that I am glad I read. The series overall was a good one and I would recommend it to anyone who likes romantic suspense with a bit more heat but that doesn't skimp on the actual storyline to do so.