Reviewed by Becca
TITLE: Matthias
SERIES: Order of the Black Knights #2
AUTHOR: Alexis Duran
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 240 pages
RELEASE DATE: November 2, 2016
BLURB:
From Louisiana swamp rat to revivalist huckster to skilled con artist, Matthias Krall clawed his way out of poverty using his natural gifts of grift and manipulation to become the leader of an exclusive retreat center. Exploiting the guise of spiritual guru, Matthias seduces the rich and powerful into turning over their lives and fortunes to his control. But wealth and a small cadre of loyal followers can’t protect Matthias from the betrayal he knows is imminent. Everyone wants what Matthias has, except for one man who wants to destroy it. Dylan Connelly is a reporter who’s determined to prove the charismatic recluse is not only a fraud but a murderer.
Irresistibly drawn to Dylan despite the warnings in his gut, Matthias lures Dylan to his island retreat, determined to destroy his enemy once and for all.
REVIEW:
This is the second book of the series and im kinda having a hard time with them. I’m not sure what to think to be honest. The book as a whole isn’t bad but I definitely have some issues. I have an issue like I did with the first one. If you despise or hate someone so bad, why would you sleep with them? I understand chemistry and being turned on and yada yada, but if I hated someone that much, I’d be running away. Not running to their arms and screwing their brains out. And the ending left things…I don’t know. I was not happy with the ending. When you deal with a subject like hypnosis and manipulation in order to get rich, a con, it can be very touchy. And the way it ended just really made me upset.
Matthias was raised in a small town in Louisiana, by his mom and her many men. He was a poor boy. He hated it. Seemed like in all his lives he started out poor, but he was determined in all of them to become rich. Never having to beg or anything again. He had a gift he learned early on, to hypnotize in a way. He had a gift to manipulate and set a con and he expanded on that turning himself into a multimillionaire ‘guru’ with a ‘retreat’ everyone wanted to get into. Especially since no one but the invited had a way to even see the place. But people around him are trying to gain more power and things are starting to unravel around him. Especially when Dylan comes back to haunt him. Having not seen Dylan in ten years, he still knew it would be trouble. Dylan had the nose of a bloodhound in the form of a journalist, and for years he’s been on Matthias’s trail. After one explosive night of sex, Matthias shut Dylan out of his life to try to keep him out of his business. But when an ex of Matthias’s starts talking about the retreat as a cult and other things, Dylan knew he had to get to the bottom of things. Especially when said ex ends up dead. Now Dylan has to find out what’s going on to avenge the death of his so called friend and to see Matthias crumble.
Yet again, sex seems to be the thing here. Dylan set out with a goal in mind and I was all for it. Not that I’m bent on revenge or anything, but sometimes people need a little karma in their lives. What irritates me is Dylan becomes like a dog in heat. Instead of focusing on the job he needed to do to expose Matthias, he hops in bed with him as soon as he can. Heck the first time they don’t even make it to a bed. It takes away from Dylan’s character somewhat to me. And I loved Dylan. He had such fire and passion. He cares. He wants to do what is right no matter what it takes. Like I said, I understand chemistry. I understand the pull of someone. The draw. But knowing that the person may be responsible for the death of another, knowing that you hate him, why give in to that pull? And even if you couldn’t resist once, why keep going back? Knowing after you’ve done it that it was so wrong. I’m glad that Matthias was willing to finally give up what he has been doing for the sake of Dylan, but to me he should have to pay for what he’s done. Instead of riding of into the sunset with a happily ever after. Ugh.
I’m not happy with this book. I’m not complaining about there being sex in the book, don’t get me wrong, I just think that with the amount of stuff going on, maybe it needed to be more focused on that? Maybe it’s just me.
RATING: 
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