Rating: 3 Stars - Liked It
Hard Rules by Lisa Renee Jones
Series: Dirty Money #1
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Pubisher: St. Martin's Griffin on August 9, 2016
Pages: 304
Format: Kindle
Source: Bought
Wall Street meets the Sons of Anarchy in Hard Rules, the smoldering, scorching first novel in the explosively sexy new Dirty Money series from New York Times bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones.
How bad do you want it?
The only man within the Brandon empire with a moral compass, Shane Brandon is ready to take his family’s business dealings legitimate. His reckless and ruthless brother, Derek wants to keep Brandon Enterprises cemented in lies, deceit, and corruption. But the harder Shane fights to pull the company back into the light, the darker he has to become. Then he meets Emily Stevens, a woman who not only stirs a voracious sexual need in him, but becomes the only thing anchoring him between good and evil.
Emily is consumed by Shane, pushed sexually in ways she never dreamed of, falling deeper into the all-encompassing passion that is this man. She trusts him. He trusts her, but therein lies the danger. Emily has a secret, the very thing that brought her to him in the first place, and that secret could destroy them both.
This is book ONE of FOUR in Shane and Emily's story.
Thoughts: "Wall Street meets the Sons Of Anarchy" grabbed my attention. Sadly Hard Rules over all did not do that. I was all ready to meet this messed up Brandon family and get sucked into their crazy family drama. Everybody in the family business as their own agenda and not sure who to trust. I did enjoy the family and Shane's secretary more than the couple. I would get excited anytime any of the other family members had any page time. Even though I did enjoy the family I still feel like the plot with them was missing something.
The beginning was a slow start but I was still able to enjoy getting to see how Shane and Emily met and get a little of the bickering with the family. But from there nothing really moved forward except the relationship with Shane and Emily. As I connected with them in the beginning I was losing that connection as the story moved along. There were no ups and downs or no wow moments with them.
Emily is still a mysterious character. There are hints here and there that she is up to something or running away from someone or something. I did feel like both characters had the same tone of voice and no personalities. There were at times I thought I would see a different side of Shane a more darker side but he would revert quickly to himself. I feel like she made him more at ease with what is happening with his family. I really do not know why they like each other or what attracts them to each other.
Readers get to get the scoop on what is going on with the family business and have to say it was boring and long at times. I enjoyed getting the info but for me less would of been enough.
Written in dual 1st POV and loved that it was not repetitive. The last 20% was amazing and felt like a whole different tone with the characters that I wanted through out. This did feel like a set up with lots of fillers for the series. Lots of unsolved answers and more questions which I am sure will be solved in book 2. Nothing I am axcious to read right away but I am sure as time goes by if I get curious I can see me reading book 2 for my answers.
