Pop Smoke by Giulia Lagomarsino
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I am the shadow that moves in the night, the one that has you constantly looking over your shoulder.
Pop Smoke
I work within the bounds of the law when it suits me, but make one wrong move and I’ll throw the rule book out the window to end you.
My job requires a certain level of deception, an ability to put aside feelings and relationships to get the job done. I can honestly say there’s not a single person alive I wouldn’t betray for the right reasons. It’s who I am and I can’t change. I won’t.
But there’s one woman that threatens to break me. I knew it the moment I met her four years ago. So young and naive, it’s easy to see how a woman like her could fall for a man like me. She doesn’t see through the lies and manipulations. She thinks she knows the man I am, but she only sees what I allow.
I’ve done everything in my power to keep her safe from me, but now I have to do something that could nearly gut me. I have to betray her. I know she’ll never forgive me, but this isn’t just about the job. Someone’s life is at stake, and unfortunately for her, his life is one I can’t allow to slip away.
She’ll never forgive me—that’s if she lives. And I’ll never forgive myself. But these defining moments in life are what make us who we are. I know I’ll always be the man that will get the job done. No matter the cost.
Rafe’s secrets revealed!
The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💙🖤💚💜
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙📘
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌍🌎
Character development: 😔😃😤🥰😘
The Hero: Rafe (a.k.a. Guy) – he works for the government, in the shadows, and only a few people have ever seen his face. He has known Cash Owens of Owen Protective Services for a long time, though none of Cash’s people know what exactly their relationship is or how they met. After the things that happened in In the Trenches and Nuclear Option, Rafe supplied Cash with their new office (in a remodeled nuclear missile site) and a mansion where the employees of OPS currently live, along with a fleet of vehicles, in exchange for help on certain missions. Though Rafe has shown in the past, that he can’t be trusted and will turn on his allies if he feels it is necessary.
The heroine: Libby – her name is Liberty West, and she is the daughter of Michael West, the governor of California’s right-hand man. The governor was arrested for misappropriating tax dollars, Heroine distribution and attempted murder among other things and Michael West is suspected of being involved in human trafficking. Libby disappeared in Cancun recently and Michael has hire OPS to find her. She was working for Rafe on the inside, getting information on her father when she was taken by the Cartels who were working with her father. She was sure Rafe would come for her.
The Story: Libby was stuck in a dingy cell for weeks, starved and beaten when her father finally came to torture her. He was angry at being duped by her, when she had been working with him to find the traitor in his organization, only to for him to find out that his own daughter was the traitor they sought. Libby had trained with Rafe’s men, the three Js, to withstand torture but was still a bit anxious of what was to come.
Suffice it to say, that Libby was not what I expected going into this book. She wasn’t afraid of much and she was well trained in defense by Rafe’s men. She could hold her own in a fight and was always watching for her opponents’ weaknesses. Though she was a bit cocky about her skills, I still liked her for the most part and she was perfect for Rafe. I didn’t like the fact that she smoked cigarettes.
This book very much followed the outline of the first two books in the series, in that it had a lot of action and hilarity. I just love all the characters at Owens Protective Services and their quirks. They are so funny and endearing. I think though that Libby was a bit too strong for me from the start. It’s not that I don’t like strong female characters, but I think I like them a bit more like Ava from the first two books, she started out to be a weaker character and just grew stronger as the story went on.
I was much more interested in finding out more about Rafe, including his association to Cash. Cash was acting very angry in the beginning of this book, so I couldn’t wait to find out what all was really going on. I have to say, I wasn’t disappointed. Though I did figure it all out early on due to the wild guess I made in my review of Nuclear Option, so don’t look back at that review if you don’t want a spoiler.
““Why do you stand by him?”
“Because he’s not a good guy. He’s deceitful, loyal to himself, and would kill anyone that stood in the way of him achieving his goals.”
“You make him sound like a monster.” That’s exactly the way Cash described him.
“He is, but he’s that way because he has to be. Making friends in this business won’t achieve the end goal. He’s always been ruthless since the day I met him. While Cash looks after the men that work for him and always does the right thing, Rafe is the opposite. They’re like night and day, and I tend to side more with night.”
So now that I know all about Rafe, my mind turns to my favorite character Fox, who up until now has played a major role in all the books in this series. In this one, Rafe though Fox might be the mole and traitor, because he often just ups and disappears for days at a time. I need to know where he goes and what he is doing. That is aside from going to the theatre to watch musicals. No, he isn’t gay, he just loves musical theatre. There is nothing wrong with that. Of course, he is psychotic as well, but that is just part of his charm.
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