REVIEWED by Jen B.

TITLE: If I Ever

SERIES: Hell or High Water

AUTHOR: S.E. Jakes

PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing

LENGTH: 303 Pages

RELEASE DATE: January 21, 2019

BLURB: 

Some ghosts refuse to stay buried . . .

Prophet and Tom have been through the wringer more times than they can count, both as partners in the field and in life. Yet despite it all, they’ve built something great together. But now they need to protect it again: Prophet’s old nemesis, John Morse, is back and threatening everything he loves.

Prophet is driven enough to take John down alone, and with a chance to do exactly that on the table, he runs with it, risking himself in the process. But trusting Tom to help him is so much more than mission critical.

It’s the final stand, and with Tom and his team behind him, Prophet’s in for the fight of his life. Then a figure from his past goes missing, and the consequence of an old mission rears its head. As complications and destruction mount all around them, getting out alive becomes the most important mission of their lives.

To say this book was a long-time coming would be a gross understatement.  However, given the circumstances and what Ms. Jakes has been through for the past few years, I’m grateful she came through with this at all.

That said, it has been approximately five years since the previous book, and had I had more notice of when this was actually coming out, I would have liked to have gone back and re-read this series to freshen my memory. I highly recommend that plan of action. As I started this, there were many things that came right back to me, but for every memory awakened, there were twice as many lost. I found it difficult remembering who a lot of the players were (other than the main team, of course) and how things went down in the past. I kept going though, and the more I read, the more came back and cleared things up.

There are still a lot of things I don’t remember being quite the way they were depicted in this book, but without going back, I’ll just have to assume I have a fuzzy memory. For example, I thought Prophet and Tom had gotten past the most volatile aspects of their relationship, and while I do enjoy their way of settling arguments, it doesn’t seem like it could continue on that way forever, especially with a teenager living with them now. Cillian and Mal are heavily involved in this story as well, and I really wanted to go back and re-read their book as well.

As for this installment of the Prophet and Tommy saga, the blurb pretty much gives you an idea. Prophet’s past comes back to haunt everyone and the lines have been drawn. It’s time for Prophet to take care of things once and for all. He must keep everyone else safe though, and we all know taking orders or sitting things out is not a likely scenario for any of these guys. The banter and camaraderie is still rampant and everything I fell in love with about these guys is still there. This was long overdue and necessary for some closure on this series for these guys to get their solid HFN. I imagine we will get to see more of them in the EE Universe, and it will be nice to see how things progress in that regard.

I had the pleasure of re reading the series before digging into this one. I read the suggestion by Miss Jakes in her group that that was recommended.

And I was very glad that I did.

It was like puzzling to get everything together and that to me made this book absolutely fabulous.

Feeling like coming home to these men and their love and friendship despite the angst and drama.

For me, Miss Jakes did a wonderful job wrapping up things that were left unsaid or unspoken and I can only recommend like Jen mentioned to re read the other books before digging into this final piece.

Now it is waiting for the next books that will release because I cannot wait to read Mal and Cillian’s full story and I am seriously hoping desperately for Ren and King to have their story ….ooh and wait Doc and Nico…and well you get the picture 🙂