REVIEWED by Jen B.
TITLE: Sinners
AUTHOR: S.E. Jakes
PUBLISHER: Stephanie Tyler LLC
LENGTH: 310 Pages
RELEASE DATE: March 13, 2019
BLURB:
Sometimes a broken man ends up stronger than he ever was—and far more dangerous…
Travis Smith is a grifter who’s wanted by both the Russian Mob and the FBI. He’s got the means and motive to stay hidden—until he’s picked up by Lochlan “Loch” Black, a CIA operative who threatens to unravel all Travis’s secrets.
Loch has enough secrets of his own, and they all lead back to the man he and the CIA have been hunting for years. And when Loch realizes Travis might be the key to that op, he and longtime friend and fellow agent, Tarquin “Tar” Simons, have no choice but to keep Travis under their protection.
But no one’s able to protect them all from the man who’s been hunting them back for years. Jabez Snow is a former CIA operative who didn’t stop his experiments when he disappeared.
And when Travis, Loch and Tar get involved, it triggers a chain of events none of them could foresee, and it threatens all their futures, unless they can hunt down Snow…before he finds them.
Looking for an interesting, gritty, low on fluff, menage story? Ms. Jakes brings it with this one. I had no idea from the blurb that this would take the interesting turn that it did, or that it would have so many little twists. I love when books do that!
So, this story centers around a psychopath who used to work for the CIA but has long-since gone rogue. Snow became a sort of cult leader where he basically nurtured the type of individuals he would later use to further his larger plan. He chose people who had family issues or were easily manipulated into split personalities. Those dual personalities would then be trained as assassins, one personality covering up for the actions of the other, often unknowingly, as the one pushed aside is unaware of what happens while the other is in charge.
That brings us to our main guys. Tar and Loch are current “operatives” for the CIA helping to eradicate traffickers and other baddies. Tar was one of Snow’s subjects who managed to escape and in doing so, freed Loch (who is connected in a different way). They have been helped by a few people along the way, their superior and another doctor, with their ultimate goal to take down Snow once and for all. They happen across Travis, and in the process, determine they will not turn them in but will try to help him on their own instead.
Tar and Loch have a bit of an unsteady past. They are or were best friends who used to share guys until one managed to come between and force them apart. They still work together, and there is clearly a deeper connection. Travis awakens that again and starts to repair their relationship. But secrets come out, trust issues abound, and before the three of these guys can make it work, they have to go through some pretty bad stuff reliving and dealing with their pasts being front and center.
So, there is not a lot of fluff here, which I loved. But there is smoking hot sex, interesting storylines and page-turning excitement as the details unfold. I was fully engaged throughout though I wish there had been more along time with the threesome once the waters settled for them. Regardless, this keeps Ms. Jakes/Tyler on my auto read list, and I can’t wait to see what she brings to the table next.
RATING: