THE BASTARD (Filthy Duet #1) by Lisa Renee Jones-Review and Excerpt Tour
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ABOUT THE BOOK : Release Date November 14, 2018
ERIC MITCHELL’S STORY
I’m the bastard child, son to the mistress, my father’s backup heir to the Mitchell empire. He sent me to Harvard. I left and became a Navy SEAL, but I’m back now, and I finished school on my own dime. I’m now the right hand man to Grayson Bennett, the billionaire who runs the Bennett Empire. I’m now a few months from being a billionaire myself. I don’t need my father’s company or his love. My “brother” can have it. I will never go back there. I will never be the mistake my father made, the way he was the mistake my mother made.
And then she walks in the door, the princess I’d once wanted more than I’d wanted my father’s love. She wants me to come back. She says my father needs to be saved. I don’t want to save my father but I do want her. Deeply. Passionately. More than I want anything else.
But she’s The Princess and I’m The Bastard. We don’t fit. We don’t belong together and yet she says he needs me, that she needs me. We’re like sugar and spice, we don’t mix, but I really crave a taste. Just one. What harm can just one taste do?
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REVIEW: THE BASTARD is the first instalment in Lisa Renee Jones’ contemporary, adult FILTHY DUET erotic, romantic suspense duology focusing on billionaire/ Navy SEAL and second in command to Grayson Bennett, Eric Mitchell, and heiress Harper Evans’ story line. Eric was first introduced in the author’s DIRTY RICH BETRAYAL (Dirty Rich #4) but you do not have to have read the previous release to understand or follow the story. As per most of Lisa’s series, there is a slight cross-over with inclusion of some of the characters from the author’s Walker Security series including Blake Walker.
Told from dual first person perspectives THE BASTARD follows the building but forbidden relationship between billionaire / Navy SEAL and second in command to Grayson Bennett, Eric Mitchell, and heiress Harper Evans. Six years earlier, Eric Mitchell, the bastard son of Kingston Motors CEO Jeff Kingston met his father’s new step-daughter Harper Evans, a woman Eric dubbed The Princess, but a woman that stirred something deep within our story line hero. A one-night stand followed by the realization of who and what Harper Evans represented further pushed Eric away from his birth right, as the spare to the heir of Kingston Motors. Fast forward to present day wherein Harper Evans is in desperate need of Eric’s help, help Eric isn’t willing to give without a price. What ensues is the acrimonious relationship but growing romance between Eric and Harper, and the fall-out as Eric believes Harper is setting him up to be destroyed by the family who have rejected him from birth.
Eric Mitchell knows the pain of betrayal; the heartbreak of rejection; and the loss of someone close but Eric has never forgotten the woman who currently works for the family who all but ignores his existence, a family he is hoping to take down, and destroy. Harper Evans is trying to save what’s left of her father’s legacy, a legacy ‘stolen’ through betrayal but a legacy she no longer controls. Asking Eric Mitchell for help is all kinds of wrong knowing his relationship with the Kingston’s is dangerous and dark, a relationship that continues to fester with secrets and lies.
The relationship between Eric and Harper is one of second chances; a forbidden romance, of a sorts, between two people connected by marriage, and the mutual betrayal by someone close. Eric’s distrust of Harper goes beyond their one-night stand, mistrust that continues to build as secrets are revealed. The $ex scenes are passionate, intimate and intense, without the use of over the top, sexually graphic, language and text. The palpable sexual attraction is heavy and real.
The world building follows the tempestuous and caustic relationship between Eric Mitchell, and the family thast refuses to acknowledge his existence. As the bastard son of Jeff Kingston, Eric’s presence is unwelcome but it is his relationship with Harper Evans that forces a show down between brothers, and father and son. As Harper and Eric begin an investigation into Kingston Motors, our couple are targeted from both inside and outside the family.
We are introduced to Harper’s mother; Eric’s grandmother Gigi; his half-brother Isaac, and father Jeff Kingston. The dysfunctional family dynamics are incredulous-trust is absent; doubt and uncertainty, secrets and lies are facts of life.
THE BASTARD is an intriguing, engaging and intelligent story line. The premise is imaginative and energetic; the characters are sassy, spirited and strong; the romance is sensual and provocative. Lisa Renee Jones pulls the reader into a thrilling, impassioned and suspenseful story of family, power and greed. THE BASTARD ends on a cliff hanger-you have been warned.
Copy supplied for review
Reviewed by Sandy
NOTE: Excerpt is intended for mature readers 18+ due to content and strong language
I kiss her, a quick brush of lips, and a lick that has the heat between us damn near explosive. “Still think it’s a bad idea?”
Her hands flatten on my chest but they flex rather than push. “We both know this is wrong.”
“And yet you followed me here.”
“You said that already,”
“You knew what would happen,” I accuse.
“I was angry.”
I certainly know where anger and family collide, in ways I won’t explain to anyone. My jaw sets hard and I release her, putting a wide step between us. “Stay or go, but if you stay, you’re going to end up naked.”
“I know your father’s an asshole, but my mother loves him and my father’s company is now a part of this one.”
“The part where I said that if you stayed, you’d end up naked.” I reach for her and pull her to me. “You did understand that, correct?”
“I don’t scare off that easily. If I did, I wouldn’t be working for your father and under your brother.”
“It’s me I want you under,” I say, molding her close, my hands sliding up her back.
“I’m too young and stupid for business, but I’m just right to fuck?” she challenges.
“I’m warning you, Harper, not talking down to you. And if you’re young and stupid, so was I.”
“You wanted to be here,” she says.
“Yes,” I say, tangling my fingers into her hair. “I wanted to be here, just like I want to be right here, right now, with you.” My mouth closes down on hers once more, a deep thrust of tongue that’s as unforgiving as my father would be if it came down to choosing her or Isaac. It’s all about demand and I expect her to push back, to give me the rejection that sends her to the door and me to the fucking airport. That’s not what I get.
Her hand on my chest doesn’t push me away. She moans and her elbow softens, those perfect curves I’d admired from a distance now pressed nice and close, right up to the moment she jerks back. “My God. What are we doing? You’re my stepbrother.”
I walk her back against the wall, my hands caressing up her ribcage to cup her breasts. “I told you,” I say, stroking my thumbs over her nipples. “I’m not your fucking brother. Not now. Not ever.” I cup her face, lean in and my mouth finds her mouth, and if she thought my tongue unforgiving before now, she was wrong. This is unforgiving. It’s in my blood. It’s who I am, who I was born to be. A bastard who wants her.
I have this sudden need that consumes me. I shove my hand into the top of her dress, fingering her nipple. She makes this soft, sexy sound that has my cock twitching, expanding beneath my zipper. As if she knows, she presses her hand to my crotch and holy fuck, I need inside this woman. I push off the wall and shrug out of my jacket, my gaze raking over the tops of her breasts. Her teeth scrape her bottom lip, and I want that mouth on my body. I want my mouth on her body.
I toss the jacket, rip away my tie, and she doesn’t run away as I half expect she will. She closes the space between us, her fingers on my buttons, working them down my shirt, but when one hand slides down to my crotch, I react. I slow things down before I fuck her and this is over, and when it is, I’m gone. Suddenly I’m not ready to leave, which is why I turn her to the wall, and force her hands to its surface, yanking down her zipper before I pull my shirt over my head. I step into her, my erection at her backside, my lips at her ear.
“You saw me watching you across the pool,” I say, my fingers catching the straps at her shoulders.
“Of course I saw you. You wanted me to see you.”
“Yes. I did. I wanted you to know I wanted to fuck you.” I shove the straps of her dress down her arms. “I wanted you to know I wanted you naked.” I pull the dress down, and with no bra to contend with I have it down her hips and to her feet. I lift her and kick it away, taking a moment to appreciate just how perfect her heart-shaped ass is before I turn her to face me.
My fingers tangle in her hair and I pull her to me. “And since you’re here,” I add, “I will assume you got that message loud and clear.”
“I’m still angry and you’re still an arrogant asshole, but apparently it doesn’t matter, so fuck me before I come to my senses.”
I press my cheek to hers, my hand on her cheek, lips by her ear. “I promise to use my tongue in all the right places to make sure you have no regrets.”
She pants out a breath that tells me my words affect her and I’m right there when she does, kissing her again, drinking her in, and damn she tastes good; one part innocence, one part a drug that knows how good it feels. And she does feel so fucking good.
I scoop her up and carry her through the living area to the bedroom, because hell, I don’t know, it just feels like I should fuck her on the bed, though I could have easily kept her right there by the door. I want this woman. I want her in a bad way and I wanted her from the moment I saw her by that pool. I set her on her feet and I pull her close. “This is where I lick and you come on my tongue.”
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New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones is the author of the highly acclaimed INSIDE OUT series.
In addition to the success of Lisa’s INSIDE OUT series, she has published many successful titles. The TALL, DARK AND DEADLY series and THE SECRET LIFE OF AMY BENSEN series, both spent several months on a combination of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling lists. Lisa is also the author of the bestselling the bestselling DIRTY MONEY and WHITE LIES series. And will be publishing the first book in her Lilah Love suspense series with Amazon Publishing in March 2018.
Prior to publishing Lisa owned multi-state staffing agency that was recognized many times by The Austin Business Journal and also praised by the Dallas Women’s Magazine. In 1998 Lisa was listed as the #7 growing women owned business in Entrepreneur Magazine.
Lisa loves to hear from her readers. You can reach her at www.lisareneejones.com and she is active on Twitter and Facebook daily.
Excellent review, thanks Sandy. Congratulations to Lisa on the new release.
Wonderful review, Sandy. Looks like a great story line.
Thanks for the wonderful review and excerpt. Looks great.
Another great review, thanks Sandy.Congratulations to Lisa Renee Jones on the new release.
Great review and excerpt. Looks like an intriguing story line.
Thanks for the excellent review and excerpt. Congrats to Lisa.
Fantastic review and excerpt. Love the premise of the story.
Terrific review, Sandy. Looks like a must read.
Great review, Sandy. Sounds very good.