Phoenix Rising is book 16 in the Reed Security Series and it is suggested they be read in order.The men and women of Reed Security are back, but after all the turmoil of the past year, how do they adapt and move forward. For some, it’s easy, but others, the past year is only the beginning of what they will have to deal with. Some of them were shot and almost died. Morgan and Chance were taken and … were taken and tortured in their own respects and now must deal with the after affects. Payton was torn from her mother and spent a year and a half without her. The wives lost their jobs and many had to run from their families and friends to keep them safe. But one thing remained the same through all of this, they are each others’ family and will do anything to help each other through. They are Reed Security, and they will rise from the ashes.
“Alexa, play Sam Tinnesz.”
I waited as it was searching and cringed when Mmm Bop by Hanson came on.
“What the f@$k? Alexa, play Legends Are Made by Sam Tinnesz.”
Alexa searched again, this time playing John Legend.
“You’ve got to be f@$king kidding me. I just want something good to listen to. Alexa, play Hold On For Your Life by Sam Tinnesz,” I said slowly, accentuating every word.
“Searching….”
And then the opening strands of Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On started to play.
“F@$k it.” I sloshed back down in the water, trying to ignore the girly song that was playing while I was trying to relax. I actually found that it was working. The soothing melody had me sinking into such a relaxed state that I didn’t even notice the door opening.
“What the hell are you listening to?” My eyes flew open in surprise. Chris was standing in the doorway with a smirk on his face. “Want me to get you a cocktail?”
“Actually, I’d love one,” I retorted. “I tried to get the f@$king thing to play something else, but like any woman, she just did whatever the f@$k she wanted.”
“Alright, let’s see what we got here.” He walked over to a mini-fridge in the corner. I had expected to find water, but instead saw some kind of girly cooler.
“Toss me one.”
Chris popped the top and handed one to me and then got one for himself. After draining half of it, he got undressed and got in with me. “Is this weird?” he asked as he settled in.
“Sitting in the hot tub together?”
“Yeah. You know, it’s kind of like bathing together. You’re sweaty. I’m sweaty….”
I nodded. “I gotcha.” I reached over to the ledge and grabbed a bottle of body wash, pouring in a generous amount. Bubbles filled the tub and I grinned, pleased with myself.
“Yeah, that’s not at all weird,” Chris muttered. “Now we’re taking a bubble bath together.”
“But we’ll be clean,” I pointed out. “What’s worse? Sitting around in each other’s filth or sitting in soap together?”
“Soap is only clean as long as it’s in the bottle. Once it’s in the water, it’s just dirty soap.”
“It’s self-cleaning.”
“Oh, God.” Chris and I turned to see Jules standing in the doorway with Alec and Rocco. “Are you two taking a bubble bath?”
“It’s a hot tub,” I corrected. “The bubbles are just to get us clean.”
“That’s what a shower is for,” Jules pointed out.
“Hot tubs are very good for the muscles,” Rocco said as he yanked off his shirt. “I’m in.”
more
From the Ashes!
The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance:
Heat/Steam:
Story/Plot:
World building:
Character development:
“A little warning would be nice,” Storm muttered. “Hey, before you join our crew, you should know that we very rarely take on regular jobs and someone’s always getting kidnapped.”
The employees at Reed Security and their wives are back at it again. This time they are trying to recover and rebuild after being on the run for a year from a groups of kidnappers and sex traffickers. In this book, the entire crew is represented and many of them are trying through their own issues as a result of the last year.
Chance and Morgan are both suffering from PTSD after their time in captivity and Chance, being the alpha male that he is, is determined to work through his issues on his own. Of course his issues stem from a year of being held in the filthiest most deplorable conditions and being brutally tortured nearly to death over and over in different ways. Suffice it to say he isn’t handling things too well.
Ice is still recovering from being shot in the chest, not to mention he is not the spring chicken he once was and is afraid that if he can’t get back to the man he was before the shooting, Cap might put him out to pasture or confine him to a desk. If there is one thing none of the guys at Reed Security wants, it is to stop doing field work or to be shown up by younger guys.
Those are just two of the many storylines in this book. The Reed Security wives are on top of their game in this book. Some of them have decided to start up an online sex toy/sex party business and their first foray into this is pretty spectacular. These girls give their hubby’s a run for their money when it comes to kicking butt and taking names!
The team is broken but he knows he would do the same thing again even though the women blame him. He must find a way to bring the team back together. Can he bond the team again? Can the women ever forgive him? See if the team can be a strong team again
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
The stories never disappoint. Always Captivating. Always feel like I’m with the characters as they walk thru their story. Couldn’t put book down and had many short sleep nights to finish the story.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
The more I read about these guys the more I love them. And this book didn’t disappoint in the slightest. It still had all the drama and wit that we have come to love in this series. I read this in one go and loved the glimpses from everyone’s perspective. It was so good.
This is another great installment in the Reed Security series. As usual a lot happens in this book and it’s an emotional rollercoaster. It’s well written and a great read.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I have read all the series so far and I can honestly say there is not one book that has disappointed me, and I would recommend everyone to start reading them, from “The love of a good woman” series then onto “Reed Security” series. This one is fantastic and deals with the aftermath of Chance and Morgan’s kidnapping and the troubles the Reed Security men and women have gone through in order to get them home. As with all of Giulia Lagomarsino books there’s plenty of laughter but there is also a serious side to the story as well and this one deals with PTSD and I think she deals with this subject really well, she gets the point across on how so many people have this and don’t realise, or are too proud to admit it thinking it’s weak to ask for help, plus having a good network of people around you will get you through. A real page turner and certainly worth reading.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
In this book, we get chapters devoted to each of the Reed security employees and/or their significant others. We get a really good feel for how things are going after the blowing up of the office previously! We get to touch base with what is going on with each of them, having some laughs and some tears. We get some really hard looks at the depth of what people are going through after the various traumas that have been experienced and how they are or are not dealing with them. I could not stop laughing about Knight’s present for Evie. For me, as much as I laughed at parts of this story, I cried just as much as my heart cracked in places, threatening to break.
RECEIVED THIS BOOK AS A GIFT FOR A FAIR/HONEST REVIEW and REVIEWER FOR Bloggin’ With M. Brennan.
I really like this book. It shows the problems the men and women of Reed Security are having, from PTSD, to feeling capable of getting the job done and being the men they were. It’s them rising from the ashes starting again.
The Reed Security series, has provided me hours and hours of wonderful entertainment. The variety continues. How the author can keep her readers coming back for more in this 16th of the series, amazes me, but doesn’t. Ms. Lagomarsino has a formula and this reader is hoping she keeps going and going and going! I only found her recently, but she definitely has a fan! The Reed Security family has each other’s six! Love that!
What a fantastic book and an appropriate title for this story! After a year on the run, the whole Reed team and their families are rebuilding their lives and reorganizing the business. This is an emotionally charged book and we get an insight to all the team members and the struggles they are dealing with.—anger, hurt, mental and physical anguish, PTSD, doubt and frustration; But through it all there’s love and support from all of the team members. Also some very humorous antics that help with the readers emotions. Well developed characters and storylines. I LOVE this series and this author’s style of writing. This is a must read series, you really don’t want to miss a single one. Can’t wait for the next one!!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
It is hard to say I enjoyed this story, because there was so much pain and stuff the Reed Security crew worked their way through. I hurt along with Chance and Morgan as they plodded through PTSD, which never really goes away. Those who had been injured had a rough time getting back into shape and dealing with age. There still was humor throughout to lighten the mood. I enjoyed that the women had a larger part, especially with their new business idea. I do recommend keeping up with the Reed Security team.
I received a copy of this story through Enticing Journey Book Reviews, and this is my unsolicited review.
I love this series. I love the alpha men and their strong woman. I love their banter, I laugh out loud at what comes out of their mouths. I love that this book comes back to one of the most damaged couples, Chance and Morgan. Although the whole book isn’t about hem, we get a huge insight into how they are still rebuilding their lives and their relations after the last 3 books. And Reed Security is rebuilding as well. These folks are not just a team, they are truly family. It’s hard to after 16 books I am still anxious for the next!! Great Series
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving an honest review
I received a free copy of this book however all thoughts and opinions are 100% my own, and given completely voluntarily.
This is different to what Giulia has done in the other books in the Reed Security Series, in that it comes from more than just a dual POV – almost everyone in the company gets a look in at some point within this book. Of course some things stay the same; hot alpha males, sassy female heroines and completely outrageous LOL moments (in this case look out for the hot tubs! ).
This series just gets better, look forward to the next one…
You have to read each one from the start of the series and the men and women within it. I started with Sinner and went on from there. You can’t just read one and move on to another book, oh no, you need to read the next one and the one after that, so on as you find out all the little bits of each character you begin to see the whole story of the series and those behind it. Each character brings their own bit to and and you want to know more. Don’t forget to read the series For the Love of a Good Woman with the other men involved in the series. I can’t wait for the next book to come out.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Once again this author blew me away with this latest taste of the Reed family. This story gave you a little bit of each character in this family and even updated us on how they are surviving in the after math of the storm these men and women faced. The PTSD in this story was beyond painful to read and yet I couldn’t stop reading. Poor Chance and Morgan broke my heart with every painful page I read. I needed to know that everyone one would be ok… this story was so realistic and so tough to read. I was very happy that these men and women always have each others back no matter what. I can not wait to continue reading more stories and being wowed by this author. Now after all that serious stuff gotta love the laugh out loud moments with these guys and lately the women have been in the spot light with their own crazy antics and it is a beautiful thing to read!!!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
The author writes a special note to her readers – please take the time to read it. It gives you a brief insight into what went into this story as well as touching your heart. You may want to keep tissue close at hand because you’ll find that it may become an emotional rollercoaster ride.
This story seems to show that sometimes the past doesn’t stay in the past. Sometimes it comes back to haunt and taunt. I liked that the author lets her readers catch up with some of the men of Reed Security and their extended family. I almost thought that she was building things until we got to the heart of the story but changed my mind. The whole book is the heart of the men and women who put things on the line for each other. This may be the toughest read to date of the series because of all the pain and I’m not talking physical. And someone feels that he has to handle it alone.
There’s so much emotion – anger, sadness, anxiety, frustration but fighting through all of that is love. With all those emotions flowing through the story, it won’t be hard for your heart to get involved. Even though you get to see where the men of Reed Security are at, Morgan and Chance’s story continues here. With all these stories going on here, you don’t want to try and start the series here. It would be too much like reading the ending of a story first. You need to read these people’s stories first to really see how they all got to this point.
This is one book where I could see it being a trigger for some. Chance went through a lot, both physically and emotionally, in his book. Here he’s still trying to deal with things and some may understand what Morgan’s going through both mentally and physically. So this part of their relationship may be hard to read. It also shows how the title of the book comes into play. The author’s very good at not letting her story get too dark. She knows just the right moment to turn it around and to give her readers a chuckle. But don’t expect a happy ending – just an ending that has you wondering, what next.
I was not compensated nor was I required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
Excellent transition
I loved this part, both dramatic and humorous. There are all the characters of “Reed Security” saga, after the attack that almost destroyed the entire company with its men and women. And that’s what I loved: the characters are not supermen and after their last war, they have to rebuild physically or psychologically in the group. They must find their place in their two families, (with their companions and children and in the enterprise), in spite of the major traumas suffered, while rebuilding the company materially, with few money, and a maximum need of security for all of them)
The situations are also often humorous with female characters who are always crazy and copy more and more the behavior of their men, and men, who still do not understand women (Craig’s scene at the coffee shop is a good example , or Hunter’s shopping).
Each couple has a piece of their life written, but it is mostly the relationship between Chance and Morgan that is explained because of the injuries and tortures they suffered previously. Their story is very moving and a bit hard to read.
In the end, the title is perfect as to what is happening, with the addition of new characters
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book
I absolutely loved this book and was honored to have been able to read and review. It was such a phenomenal read and had amazing characters as well as an amazing story line. I just could not get enough of it and once I started reading it I could not put it down. I recommend that you read it.
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book
Semper Fi! From the ashes! Reed Security has lost everything from the last battle. Dependents have lost jobs, homes, everything. Time to rebuild. Continuously Improve. Bigger, badder, better! Chance is suffering from Severe PTSD after a year long torture. We hear from all the team as they struggle to cope with all that happened. They live together oin one bunker as they rebuild. There is no one story, there are several. We get an up close and personal look at the group. Fantastic series. Each story adds to the awesomeness of the people of RS! I received and ARC from booksprout for a review.
I really enjoyed this book that was a peek behind the curtain of the characters lives after the previous three books in this series. We were able to see them struggle to overcome the events of the previous books. It is told from multiple points of view, which can be a little confusing but all in all loved getting to catch up with the whole Reed Security crew.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.