Shattered King (Lawless Kings, #1)

by Sherilee Gray

[Eve1972]

This cover is OK. a good representation of the hero. The composition is ok. I probably would have centered the photo of the model. The typography is eye-catching.

I really rather enjoyed this one. It reminded me a lot of my all time favorite series ROCK CHICK. It had the same type of vibe to it. I found it to be well-written and nicely paced. It had angst. It had no OW drama. It had some OM drama. It had adorable hero-kid action. It had an excellent cast of secondary characters. Who doesn't love hot alpha men with guns? That said I am a little on the fence about the next book (Neco & Ruby's). I am not really a fan when one-half of the potential couple wants the other and has to sit around watching him sleep with OW. Fingers crossed at least Ruby got herself some as well and wasn't sitting around pining.

It also had two very likable main characters. The first 30% of this one will make it hard for you to like Hunter. He took his anger too far (IMO) with Lulu. I also found it hard to buy into that in all those three years he sat in prison it never ONCE crossed his mind that MAYBE just MAYBE all wasn't as it appeared. If I had been Lulu, I would have never given him a second chance. NOW, when he does finally pull his head out of his ass he is very much an impressive, smokin' hot, alpha male. The likes of which I eat up by the spoonful. Lulu was also extremely likable. I felt for her. She had a lot of shit happen to her and kept moving forward.



So this would have been a total 5-Stars read had it not been for two things. One, he was way TOO over the top mean and cruel to her for the first 30% of this book. I get he was angry and hurt and thought she screwed him over but causing physical injuries and treating her like a whore especially in light of what we learn happened to her three years prior, turned me off of him. The author took it a bit too far for my liking.

Second, was the unnecessary mentions of her hooking up in a bathroom once with OM during the three years he was in prison and the whole OW scene with a stripper where we find out he was screwing her off and on since he got out of jail. We find this out at 65% and by that point, I was harboring the belief that they both hadn't been with others since before he got sent to prison. I failed to see why that needed to be added to the story as it causes ZERO issues with the couple. And it being introduced that late into the book had the unfortunate effect of cheapening the romance these two shared. I was quite happy thinking they had both remained celibate and I would have rated the book a half star more had that been left out.

So ya, like I said I enjoyed it a lot. It wasn't perfect and I wish the author had used a lighter hand in the beginning and left out the seemingly unnecessary details about them hooking up with others, but it still gets a two thumbs up from yours truly.