“Witty, dangerous, fun, and smoking hot.”—CINDY DEES, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author for I Am JusticeWho can you trustWhen family, truth, and love are all on the line?Gracie Parish knows the true cost of trust. Rescued as a child by the infamous Parish family, she became a member of their covert sisterhood of vigilantes. Gracie saw her most precious relationships destroyed by … sisterhood of vigilantes. Gracie saw her most precious relationships destroyed by secrecy. She learned long ago to protect her heart as well as her family’s secrets.
Special Agent Leif “Dusty” McAllister will do anything to uncover the truth about the Parish family’s covert operations. Dusty knows Gracie is his ticket in. He’ll use everything he’s got—fair, unfair, and just plain wrong—to break through her defenses. But the more he gets to know Gracie and her family’s mission, the harder he starts to fall. Neither one is sure they’ll get out of this with their lives—or their hearts—intact.
Black Ops Confidential series:
I Am Justice (Book 1)
The Price of Grace (Book 2)
The Cost of Honor (Book 3)
Readers are raving about the Black Ops Confidential series:
“A high-octane…satisfying roller-coaster ride. Stewart’s talent shines.”—Publishers Weekly for The Price of Grace
“Spellbinding, sizzling. Unsurpassed romantic suspense.”—Patricia Gussin, New York Times bestselling author for I Am Justice
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Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team
Avid Reader –
3.5 stars
M/F Mystery, Romance
Gracie is trying to recover from a bad op in Mexico. The family member that was lost is a hole in her heart. But things need to get back to normal and after her mistake, she knows that she has to make up for what she did.
Dusty is still trying to figure out how to get to the mastermind behind Gracie’s family of vigilantes. He knows that there is more to it but getting an invite into the inner circle is proving harder than he anticipated.
This is not as clear cut as the previous book. I found myself sometimes wondering where the characters were going. There was a lot to take in during this story and it wasn’t always very clear.
I did like that there was a lot of mystery within the story, as well as the slow build of a relationship between the two main characters. Dusty had to work for it and Gracie had to learn to trust herself and those around her.
The next book is going to be even better with the answers coming. I am looking forward to seeing it pan out.
Potential Triggers: Blackmail, Murder
Sarah –
3.5 stars
In the best possible way, this strange series gets even more odd with this second book. Gracie is another of the children adopted by Mukta Parish and trained to be a vigilante warrior fighting for oppressed women everywhere. Dusty is an FBI agent sent undercover to investigate the illegal aspects of Mukta’s vigilante empire. It’s a complicated relationship from the start and it’s further complicated when neither Gracie or Dusty’s identities are quite what they seem – and when both of them work with shades of grey rather than black and white.
While Gracie and Dusty both try to unravel the layers of her identity, someone who knows more about Gracie’s identity than she does herself is trying to kill her. The story is a game of cat and mouse with Gracie’s would be assassin employing cyber warfare alongside more conventional weapons. Dusty doesn’t know whether to protect Gracie or dig deeper into her family’s vigilante activity. I like the complexity of the storyline (though it is very complex and I found myself going back and re-reading passages to make sense of some of the plot twists) and I enjoyed the blurry morality surrounding Gracie’s family.
I’m still not sure I ever fully invested in the romance aspect of this story. As readers, we know Dusty is investigating Gracie and using her to get to her family from the start. Gracie knows this pretty quickly, but it isn’t easy to like or trust Dusty for most of the story. I liked the sexual chemistry between Dusty and Gracie but I’m not sure I completely bought into the romance or relationship.
After this second book, my reaction to the series is just as muddled as it was before. The morality in this book is strange. I agree with many of Mukta’s aims and principles, but I struggle with the idea of adopting and grooming an army of warrior women prepared to stop the exploitation of other women. It’s a violent solution to a violent problem and it doesn’t sit easily with me. I’ve always enjoyed living in more socialist societies and these books pose politically difficult ideas for me. The exploitation of women is an important leftist cause, but Mukta Parish’s solution is a uniquely violent, far-right American solution. I’m glad that both Gracie and Dusty wrestle with the complexity of these issues more than the characters in the first book did but I’m still not sure I quite understand where this series is going.
Reviewers received a free copy of this book to read and review for Wicked Reads.
Black Ops Confidential #2, this was so worth waiting a year for especially since the next one comes out next month (11-26-19). I really enjoyed this, it was non stop action packed romance. There is quite a bit that goes on but it all comes together in the end. Third person POV that jumps from certain people. You don’t need to read the first one to be able to follow this one but it might help just to get the established characters down and the whole idea of the Family’s true business.
When Gracie was younger she fell in love and had a baby but she believed Momma, the woman who adopted her when she was born, forced her to make the decision between her child and the Family. Grace has always resented that so she wrote a letter. After the events of the last book Gracie distanced herself from her family concentrating on her night club, Club When?, and keeping and keeping an eye on her, now, teenage son from, not so, afar.
SA Leif MacAllister, aka Dusty, has been trying to get inside the Parish Family for a while his first attempt didn’t pan out but iti did introduce him to Gracie Parish. The only reason the FBI has any idea as to the Parish Family’s true action is a letter written years ago. Using his attraction to Gracie as his new in now seems wrong, especially since the information his SAC is giving him doesn’t sit right with him.
It isn’t until after Gracie’s biological father puts in his bid to run for president do the first assassination attempts on Gracie’s life happen. Gracie is determined to get down to the bottom of it whether it truly is her father’s doing or someone else entirely and the timing is just a coincidence. Someone is out to get Gracie and Dusty will stop at nothing to protect her even if that means turning against the FBI to do so.
Overall, I loved this book. I enjoyed the writing, the plot I’m not usually one for political type drama in my books but this was so good. I love the characters, Grace and Dusty of hot together the sexual attraction is undeniable for them even when she thinks she can’t trust him she’s still hot for him. Off topic this is one of three books I have read in the last three weeks where a red headed woman falls for a guy with a southern accent. I had no problem picturing Dusty as a buff Timothy Olyphant-ish type with a Kentucky accent. The book did leave with one heck of a tease, not a cliffhanger per say because everything with Grace and Dusty was settled this was a giant tease about The Cost of Honor.
I’ve never read anything by this author before so I didn’t know what to expect. The book starts out promising but just fell short for me. Grace is a club owner and a member of a vigilante family. She has lots of secrets and someone is trying to harm her. Dusty is a FBI agent investigating her family.He is drawn to her. There is a lot going on sometimes to much. I didn’t love this book but I didn’t hate it. I’m just somewhere in the middle.
She is a member of the infamous Parrish maybe not by birth but by upbringing and she is struggling with it. She owns a club but her on the side activity is to rescue abused woman and exact revenge on their behalf. She is trying to distance herself from he family as she just wants to be Gracie for a while not just a member of the Parrish family but can you ever walk away from family Then she meets FBI agent Dusty he is investigating her family and has she looks at them through his eyes she has to reevaluate how she feels about them and realise that things are not always cut and dried and there isn’t always a right and a wrong but plenty of shades of grey in between
There are a lot of story threads to keep track of but I enjoyed this read. There was one small story plot that I was confused over regarding Tony, the brother, that was not tidily dealt with. I had to read the beginning again to see if I had missed something. Told in multi POV, this was a face paced action romance with some rare and mildly steamy scenes along with some intense family drama. This is the second of a series but it is not necessary to have read the first. Strong characters – I love a kickass h! It’s got me interested in more from this author.
I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley. This review was posted voluntarily.