Last Hope: A Hitman Novel (Hitman, #4)

by Jessica Clare and Jen Frederick

In the explosive new Hitman novel from the bestselling authors of Last Kiss and Last Hit a jungle mercenary and a female target find love on the run...
Mendoza: I grew up in the slums and lost everything I loved to poverty, illness, and death. I had only one skill to leverage myself out of my circumstances—violence. Being hired out as a mercenary hitman brought me money and built an empire. But all that I've fought for is in jeopardy. My next job: Steal secret information that could bring down world governments. Find my target. Destroy it. But then, I meet her.
 Ava: Karma hates me. When my best friend Rose is kidnapped, I have no choice but to take a job as a mule for a pair of criminals intent on selling top-secret information to the highest bidder. I should have known that bad luck tends to cling, because the plane I'm on goes down. That I survived a crash-landing was a miracle. And so was being rescued by Rafe Mendoza—hot, sexy, dangerous. The thing is, he wants the information that I need to free Rose. I can't let him have it, but I need his help. And I need to fight this crazy attraction for this mercenary with hungry eyes. Rose is depending on me, and I won't let her down, no matter how appealing Rafe is.

• ISBN10: 0425281531
• ISBN13: 9780425281536
• Publish Date: 29 September 2015
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Berkley Publishing Corporation,U.S.
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 336
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780425281536

Reviews

[Cocktails and Books]

This review was originally posted on Cocktails and Books

Here is a story about Rafe a mercenary who is following Ava who is in Peru trying to save her best friend. Ava’s friend was dating a known international criminal kidnapped her and now Ava is being blacked mailed into being a mole for the organization. Rafe is following Ava because a member of his team is being held by the US government until Rafe and his team find the information that Ava has. Rafe and Ava end up in a plane crash together and need each to survive the Amazon jungles with no rescue in sight and just each other.

Overall sounds like an interesting story and I was excited to read it, unfortunately I just didn’t find it so. I think that the story when it started had promise, alpha male hired to track beautiful girl one thing leads to another and things happen. There was some over the top concepts and implications both for Ava and especially for Rafe that just didn’t work for me. The writing was also over the top with the two main characters in compromising circumstances that just didn’t make sense to me as a reader. Everything from how they survive the jungle to how they were rescued to the ending of the book didn’t work. Also Rafe’s back story is unbelievable and unrealistic; I as a reviewer understand that there is a level of fantasy that comes with the types of books we read – but to have almost zero realism I have a hard time with. Especially when the hero is a 35 year old alpha male who’s job is to get the bad guys.

I don’t want to give anything away, you as the reader need to come to your own conclusions. As a reviewer I unfortunately cannot recommend this book, I wish I could.

Reviewer information can be found under the Tags section of the post on our site.

[thebookdisciple]

Hmmmm... This book is a bit difficult for me to really rate. But, overall, I did like it. Here's why:
1. The suspense in the book is AMAZING! The danger, the spy games, etc are all great and really keep the plot moving.
2. The book is violent and doesn't try to hide it. The men are mercenaries. Do they do it for some good reasons? Of course. But, Jen and Jessica don't sugar coat the fact that they kill people for money. Its refreshing and honest and made the book seem more realistic.
3. Ava is the right mix of insecure girl and tough badass. I don't care for my heroines to be just one or the other. That leads to a really flat character. Ava is both and it totally works.
4. Dual POV is awesome and it really works for this book since Ava and Rafe are strangers at the beginning of the book. You get to hear their doubts and insecurities along with their history. It really is well written.
So, why am I torn? His giant dick. Yep, they spend an EXTREME amount of time talking about 'godzilla'. I get it, his dick is as big as a baseball bat. And I understand Ava's morbid curiosity upon first discovering it. But, after awhile it was just weird to keep bringing it up. We get it: his dick is so huge. Move on. It just got weird for me. Maybe it won't bother other people though! I can be a bit of a prude!
So, in the end, I am sticking with 4 stars. I have enjoyed this series because I love good guys who do bad things for a living (mob, mafia, hit men, etc). Heat level is a 5 for sure!