Ricochet
(Vigilantes #1)
by Keri Lake
Publisher: Self-published
Publication date: July 9, 2015
Genre: Dark Romance
Rating:
The only sure way to destroy a man is to take what he cannot live without.
Three years ago, I had everything.
A beautiful wife.
A son.
A reason for living.Until a ruthless task force, assembled under Mayor Michael Culling, with a brutal strategy to make the streets of Detroit ‘safe’, ripped away everything I loved in a deadly hunt called The Culling.
They tried to kill me, too. I wish they had. Now I’m cursed by the memories of that night, and the words I whispered to my dying wife.
A promise—to avenge the wrong and set it right.
I’m no longer Nick Ryder. I’m a masked vigilante. Faceless. Loveless. Fearless. A man with nothing left to lose—one who’s seen the dark and violent truth behind the city’s flawless veneer.
Michael Culling doesn’t know who I am. Or what I want. All he knows is that I’ve kidnapped his beautiful wife.
An eye for an eye—isn’t that how the saying goes? And Aubree Culling is the perfect pawn to destroy him.
If she doesn’t destroy me first.
The synopsis of the book and all the raving 5 star reviews had me clamoring to read this story. I mean, a vigilante style romance? Sign me up! However, while I liked a lot of things from the story, there was also quite a bit I didn’t care for.
This story started off pretty good. I mean, you get Aubree and Nick’s POV as well as some of the bad guys’ POV as well. It made for a well rounded story. Between Aubree’s situation with her husband, and her kidnapping, to Nick’s internal battle while he seeks revenge, to a corrupt cop. There was a lot going on in the story. It was enjoyable to read the way that Nick sought out his vengeance, and would then come back to to tend to Aubree.
However, there were a lot of things I had a problem with when it came to the story. First of all, all the rape. I’m not talking about Aubree’s domestic rape with her husband, but the rape scenes that Nick relives over and over with the death of his wife, all the rape of small children, because apparently Nick is targeting a sex trafficking ring. Rape that pops up throughout the story as if it’s a customary “hello”. I just, it was TOO much. Too freaking much.
Another thing that really bothered me was all the sex. Not just the rape, but once Nick and Aubree bone each other, that’s all the second half of the story seems to be. Just very detailed chapters worth of sex. Aubree has been abused and sexually raped for years at the hands of her husband. Nick lost his wife and son to a brutal murder not a few years prior. Yet, here we are, doing the nasty over and over again like nothing is wrong. Aubree never really showed signs of her abuse. I guess because she trusted this guy who kidnapped her but didn’t harm her. Then for Nick to seek all this vengeance for his wife and son, and while doing so, “falls in love” with the woman he kidnapped within a week. I just, I wasn’t buying it.
I had high hopes for this one. However, it did not work for me. The first half held my interest, but it quickly went downhill at the halfway mark, and that’s when I found myself skimming through pages. Not even the random curve ball that the author tried to throw in at the end as a “WOAH” tactic could reel me back into the story.
Favorite quote
“You’re a fighter. Your scars aren’t’ about the rounds you’ve lost. They’re about the ones you walked away from. The ones you survived.”