Lost and Found (Masters and Mercenaries: The Forgotten #2) by Lexi Blake-Review & Excerpt Tour

Lost and Found (Masters and Mercenaries: The Forgotten #2) by Lexi Blake-Review and Excerpt Tour

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date February 26, 2019

Owen Shaw and his “brothers” lost everything, their entire existence erased. Science had robbed he and all the Lost Boys of their memories and their past, but not their future. Hunted by every intelligence agency in the world, they are focused on two goals: find a cure for what was done to them and ensure that the technology that ruined their lives doesn’t get out into the world. Rebecca Walsh might be the key to achieving both. Owen has been studying her closely, living in her building, and he cannot resolve how such a beautiful, giving woman could have helped design the evil process that destroyed his past.

Dr. Rebecca Walsh has dedicated her life to researching the secrets of the mind. Her atmospheric rise in her field was fueled by the horror of watching her mother’s agonizing journey into madness at the hands of a disease with no cure. She vowed to never rest until she finds it. But obsession takes a heavy toll, and when Owen moves into her building she realizes how much of her life she has missed out on. Owen opens her eyes to a whole new world, filled with joy, laughter, and possibly love.

Owen and Rebecca grow closer, unraveling more about each other and the mysteries surrounding her connection to Hope McDonald. As the sinister forces working against the Lost Boys descend on Toronto, secrets long buried are uncovered that could shatter the bonds holding the Lost Boys together and cost Rebecca her life.

•••••••••

REVIEW: LOST AND FOUND is the second instalment in Lexi Blake’s contemporary, adult MASTERS AND MERCENARIES: The Forgotten erotic, romantic suspense series focusing on six former military soldiers (Jax, Dante, Sasha, Tucker, Owen and Robert) whose minds and lives were eradicated and erased. This is Scotsman and former SAS soldier, Owen Shaw, and Dr. Rebecca Walsh’s story line. The Forgotten is a spin-off from the author’s Masters and Mercenaries series, and the characters were first introduced and play an important throughout the original series.

NOTE: If you have not read Lexi Blake’s original Masters and Mercenaries series, their may be some confusion as it pertains to the Lost Boys and their backstory.

SOME BACKGROUND: Several months earlier, the mercenaries from the McKay-Taggart Black Ops group rescued, from an unauthorized military lab, run by Dr. Hope McDonald, six men they labelled the ‘Lost Boys’. With their memories wiped clean, no ID, and no traceable DNA, the Lost Boys were essentially ‘new born’ soldiers trained to kill and destroy. The Forgotten are their stories.

Told from several third person perspectives including Owen and Rebecca LOST AND FOUND follows Owen Shaw as he is tasked with learning as much information about their target-Dr. Rebecca Walsh- a research scientist once known to have worked alongside Dr. Hope McDonald. Now working in Toronto Canada, Rebecca Walsh is unaware of the ramifications of her earlier research and tests, tests that may have included wiping the memories of innocent men. Hoping to have made a clean break from her past, Rebecca will soon discover that she has been targeted by more than one source including the man with whom she will fall in love. As the relationship between Owen and Rebecca continues to build, the truth will be revealed leaving Rebecca wondering if everything she knows and was told is a lie. What ensues is the building relationship and romance between Rebecca and Owen, and the fall-out as Rebecca and the ‘Lost Boys’ continue to be targeted for who they are and what they know.

Owen Shaw has no idea of the who and what of his previous life but suspects the truth may send all of the ‘Lost Boys’ spiralling out of control. With flashes of memory from his past, Owen struggles with the realization that he couldn’t save the people he loved, regardless of the promises made or the expectations met. Meeting Rebecca Walsh, an assignment and nothing more, gave Owen a hope for the future but a future with too many unanswered questions, secrets and lies. Rebecca Walsh had only ever wanted to discover a cure for Alzheimer’s and dementia, a disease that took the life of her beloved mother. But like all research there comes the good and the bad, and it is Rebecca’s knowledge of what was that makes her a target on so many levels.

The relationship between Owen and Rebecca begins as a lie. Owen is assigned to get up close with our story line heroine never expecting to fall in love. The $ex scenes are intimate and passionate with some scenes of light discipline and spanking.

There is a large ensemble cast of colorful secondary and supporting characters including Owen’s Lost Boy brothers: Jax and his significant other River: Dante, Sasha, Tucker, and Robert, as well as Big Tag; Theo Taggart and Erin Argent, Nick and Hayley, and Ezra Fain. The requisite evil has many faces including the continuing struggles with Levi Green. I have only touched the tip of the proverbial iceberg with the number of characters and familiar faces. Once again, there may be some confusion as it pertains to the names, nicknames and former names of several agents, soldiers and lost boys.

LOST AND FOUND is a story of betrayal, secrets and lies; family, friendship, hope and loss. The premise is intriguing and energetic; the characters are charismatic, strong, broken and hopeful; the romance is seductive and intense. LOST AND FOUND follows the lives of six men who against the odds, have survived to fight another day.

Click HERE for Sandy’s review of book one -MEMENTO MORI

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

“Becca.” Owen’s voice was low. “Concentrate on me, on our conversation. You’ve done incredibly well. You’ve been able to hold it off, but this has gone on far longer than you ever should have been expected to handle it. This elevator is tight. I feel it, too, but we can hold off the anxiety together.”
She doubted very much the man in front of her was anxious. He looked solid, like the kind of man who took whatever came his way and simply dealt with it. He wouldn’t have needed two freaking years to figure out what he wanted. He would have signed his divorce papers and moved on, not hiding in his work.
It struck her forcibly that she might never have met a man like Owen Shaw. Her childhood had been fairly sheltered. She’d constantly been surrounded by intellectuals, men and women who were far more concerned with their work than anything else.
The ground beneath her shifted and the elevator dropped what felt like ten feet, but she knew in her head it was mere inches. Her heart rate tripled, and she grabbed on to the closest thing she could—him.
His arms went around her, holding her up, and she heard it. He was so tall that her head naturally rested on his chest, and she could hear his heart beating in rapid time.
He was nervous.
The phone rang and Owen cursed, reaching out to grab it. The shaft was so small, he didn’t have to let her go to grasp it.
“What the bloody hell is happening, Colin?”
She could hear his voice over the line. “Sorry. So sorry. We had to lower the shaft the tiniest bit. I should have warned you. It’s not going to fall. Just needed to reposition to get to the problem. Not long now. Another half an hour or so and I’ll have you right out of there.”
“If you do that again, do you know what I’m going to do to you, Colin?”
There was a pause over the line and she could practically hear Colin’s gulp. “Write my father a tersely worded letter of complaint?”
“No, I’m going to pull your heart out through your throat and then I’ll shove it back up your arse.”
“You sound very much like Liam Neeson in that movie.”
“Liam Neeson is Irish. I’m a Scot. I assure you what I’ll do to you will make you run into Liam Neeson’s arms and beg him to save you.” He reached back and hung up the phone with a resounding clang.
His arm went back around her. “It’s going to be all right. They’ll move faster now. So you’ve taken a sabbatical from men.”
She breathed him in, loving how he smelled. Were men supposed to smell so good?
She could feel herself relax as he held her. She’d known him for three hours. She shouldn’t let him hold her like this.
And why the fuck not? Because it wasn’t smart? Because he might think she wanted something she shouldn’t?
She was human. Why shouldn’t she want him? Because society told her that good girls didn’t make out with guys they’d just met in an elevator?
Society sucked, and she wasn’t a good girl. When her husband had tried to put his name on her work, she’d told him to fuck off and write his own paper. When he’d cheated on her, she’d walked away.
She was single.
God, was he single?
She stepped back.
“What’s wrong?” Owen asked.
“Do you have a girlfriend?”
His lips curled up in the sweetest grin, as though he knew exactly why she was asking that question. “No, love. I don’t have a girlfriend and I don’t have a wife.”
He was single. She was single.
The moment lengthened between them.
He stepped back. “I’m sorry. I’m coming on way too strong.”
He wasn’t. He’d been gentlemanly, friendly. Up until the last couple of moments, he hadn’t put a hand on her or leered. She could feel his attraction. It was there in the warm way he looked at her, in the set of his shoulders, relaxed earlier and tense now that he’d touched her. He was thinking about the same thing she was.
“I’m very nervous, Owen. My logical mind knows that it’s far more likely for me to die getting hit by lightning than in an elevator, even one that’s stuck.” Unfortunately, her logical mind was slowly losing control of her dumbass lizard brain.
“Will talking help?” Owen asked. “Because I’m willing to do that. Or whatever you need to take your mind off things.”
There was a wealth of promise in those words. Dirty and sweet at the same time. They’d shared her wine, passing it back and forth between them, her lips touching the same place his had been moments before. When she’d drank after him, she’d thought about kissing him.
It had been too long. Two years was way too long to go without sex.
They had a half an hour or so. At least that’s what Colin—who might be murdered soon by Owen Shaw—said. She even thought his name was sexy.
What exactly would it hurt if she did kiss him? If she touched him and let him touch her? Hell, what would it hurt if she fucked him? They were both single, both a little needy. They had some time to kill. They’d done everything else.
“I would like to kiss you.” If he didn’t want her to, he could say no and they could find something else to do. She wasn’t going to be embarrassed because some guy didn’t want her. Some stunningly gorgeous guy. Some really funny, sexy guy. After all, she wouldn’t see him after this. She’d never seen him before. He’d told her he was moving in, but she went into work early and came home late. He was a bodyguard, so he likely worked odd hours and traveled a lot.
He was safe. She could open that door, enjoy herself, and then close it again. Owen Shaw could be her first really good memory in a long time, the start of many because it was time to get serious about finding some joy and balance in her life.
But only if he wanted some joy, too.
He moved back, placing his back against the elevator wall, the sweetest smile lighting up his face. “You have no idea how much I want you to kiss me. I’m right here, love. Do your worst.”
He was letting her make the first move. And probably the second. And the third. He was obviously a careful man. It would be easier if he took over, but he was right. This needed to be her choice, and she had to make the move.
She’d been the girl who’d told her parents at the age of five that kindergarten was boring and she wanted to move through the grades until she found something challenging. When they’d told her they wanted her to slow down and enjoy her childhood, she’d gone on strike until the teachers at her school begged her parents to let them move her up.
She was the girl who’d put it all on hold to take care of her mother, too.
She wasn’t the girl who didn’t take what she wanted, and she wanted Owen Shaw.
“It’s been a long time since I did this.” But her body was already heating up. Her body remembered. Her marriage might have sucked, but the sex had been fairly good. It had been the reason she’d married him. She’d gotten used to regular, good sex.
She’d get used to it again, just on her terms this time.
“Somehow, I think you’ll remember,” he said. “You play all you like. Stop when you want to.”
She’d been right about him. He was a careful man. “And if I don’t want to stop?”
“Then you should be happy I’m a man who believes in being prepared.”

NY Times and USA Today bestselling author Lexi Blake lives in North Texas with her husband, three kids, and the laziest rescue dog in the world. She began writing at a young age, concentrating on plays and journalism. It wasn’t until she started writing romance and urban fantasy that she found the stories of her heart. She likes to find humor in the strangest places and believes in happy endings no matter how odd the couple, threesome, or foursome may seem.

FACEBOOK / TWITTER / WEBSITE / AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE

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