Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: Lies & Deception
AUTHOR: Nic Starr
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 200 Pages
RELEASE DATE: June 26, 2018
BLURB:
Detective Mitch O’Neill is the ideal man to infiltrate the Soldiers of Fury Motorcycle Club. His ex-boyfriend, Peter, is pledged with the club, which provides Mitch with the perfect cover. Despite the relationship ending badly, he’s come to terms with Peter’s drug addiction and his inability to help. All Mitch wants now is to bring down the Soldiers and the club president, Rocky Cummings, once and for all.
Finn Cummings hates everything the motorcycle club stands for, but he’s unable to escape his brother’s clutches. When Mitch is assigned as Finn’s driver, they spend countless hours together, and the saying proves true—opposites do attract. Finn agonizes over his feelings for Mitch—the last thing he wants is to involve himself further with criminals, not when he wants to leave that world. Mitch tries to come to terms with falling for a member of the outlaw club he’s determined to destroy.
If they can survive the fallout from Rocky’s violence and the investigation, they might discover it’s not a case of opposites attract after all.
REVIEW:
If those tattoos on the book cover didn’t tempt you to read this story then I don’t know if my review is going to convince you. But I’ll give a my best shot.
Finn has lived his whole life surrounded by the Soldiers of Fury Motorcycle Club. Throughout his childhood his father was the club president, and when he died Finn’s eldest brother, Carl took on the role. Though they were never a law-abiding club, Finn liked to think it was more about the mateship than the illegal activities. But that all changed when Carl also died and the next brother in line, Rocky, took up the mantle of club president. Now the club is all about status, respect forced through fear and intimidation. There is more violence, there are hardcore drugs, there are guns and there is death. Rocky is forcing Finn to take on a bigger role in the club, and Finn is too scared of his brother to refuse.
Mitch O’Neill is just the detective to go undercover in a motorcycle club. He’s big, he’s intimidating, he loves his bike, and his ex-boyfriend, Peter, has somehow gotten himself into Rocky’s inner circle. Despite knowing it’s a bad idea, he’s crazy attracted to the psychotic presidents brother, and he knows that Finn is attracted to him too. Obviously this isn’t going to go well.
I loved these characters. Not just Finn and Mitch, but the secondary characters too. Funnily enough Rocky was a favourite of mine. It was great to see an evil, violent, truly psychopathic bad guy stay true to form. Usually a character like that would have some sort of weakness, love for his little brother Finn maybe, and that’s fine, I don’t have any problem with that. But not Rocky. He’s one fucked up dude with not one little redeeming feature in sight. Which made his actions totally unpredictable and leaves you wondering just what the man might do next. In contrast to him Finn is the “nice” brother. I liked the confusion that I felt from Finn. He was so conflicted but out of his element in dealing with his brother. He wants to do the right thing but has no real idea how to achieve that or what the right thing is exactly. In some ways Mitch is similar to Finn in that he’s a conflicted man. While he isn’t in love with his ex anymore he hates seeing him in danger and involved in the club. He has no idea how he can help Peter and likewise he has no idea what to do about his feelings for Finn. With bullets flying it’s not exactly a tranquil environment conductive to rational reflection.
This story felt very Australian, and I really enjoyed that aspect. From the location in Sydney to the Aussie language used, the whole atmosphere just felt comfortably familiar. In Australia any talk on the news of gangs or guns and most people immediately think – bikie gang. It was pretty cool to be in the middle of a bikie gang war within the safety of a fictional story. While this book has a Soldiers of Fury emblem on the cover, which would usually indicate a series, I’m unaware if that’s the author’s intention here. I’m not sure how there could be a sequel which included the club, but if the author writes it I’ll definitely read it.
I’ve read half a dozen or so Nic Starr stories now, and I’d say that this is my favourite so far. While there is plenty of violence it’s definitely not a dark or angsty read. Instead, while it’s got a lot more grit than this author’s usual work, it still maintains the levels of more starry-eyed emotions that one would expect when opening a Nic Starr book.
RATING: 
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