Reviewed by Valerie
TITLE: Deliverance
SERIES: Darkest Skies #2
AUTHOR: Garrett Leigh
PUBLISHER: Fox Love Press
LENGTH: 321 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 20, 2021
BLURB:
Banished gangster Benito Martell is living on the edge. An explosive hook-up in a club gifts him the relief he craves, but nothing about his life is ever so simple. Complications abound, and before long, he’s falling for the only man who can save his family from eviction.
Recovering addict Mickey Larwood has worked hard to leave his past behind. He can’t look back, not even for the beautiful Benito, the last soul on earth he expected to steal his heart—a soul who’s knee-deep in the underworld Mickey has run hundreds of miles to escape.
Benito can deny it all he wants, but Mickey can smell trouble a mile off.
And Benito is trouble with a capital T. As his desperate lies unravel, so does the fledgling love that’s grown between them. If Benito wants deliverance from his old life and a future with Mickey, old ghosts need to die.
If they don’t kill him first.
REVIEW:
Deliverance is not a sweet and tender love story. It’s raw and gritty and dangerous. And it’s brilliant! Sometimes a single word can encapsulate a book. In this case, it’s intense: deep, intense characters; a powerful, intense relationship; and a dark, intense plot. This is Garrett Leigh at her angsty best.
Benito and Mickey meet at the bar in a sex club and they quickly progress to an upstairs bedroom. They ignite a five-alarm fire of rough, hard sex, grappling for dominance. It’s hot AF. They both break their individually held hookup rules: no kissing. Their need-driven, desperate lip locks baffle them both. Then, what began as a one-off becomes a second night, and soon they’re addicted to each other. There’s an undercurrent of something more than just sexual desire, an intense connection that defies logic.
“The affinity between them seemed to grow with every second of heavy silence. They were different men from different streets, but perhaps Benito was right— something about them was the same. They fit.”
Benito Martell is in a bleak situation. He was a bad, bad man in Redemption where he was one of Dante Pope’s road men (gangsters). Now he’s being forced by a high-ranking gangster to carry out drug related crimes to pay a bounty before being allowed to escape the gang life. He desperately wants to leave life on the road behind, so he does what he has to do to clear that debt. Otherwise, the lives of his precious twelve-year-old sister, Gianna – an incredibly courageous child who has seen the dark side of life up close – and his estranged mother, Rosette, are in jeopardy. Benito has no choice but to acquiesce to the demands. It’s a kill or be killed world but Benito refuses to play by those rules; it’s Gianna who keeps him on the straight and narrow.
Mickey is a recovering addict and former road man himself. He’s living a respectable life now as a housing officer (working for Isha and Dom from Leigh’s Lucky series). Conflict arises and whatever they’re building comes crashing down when their real lives outside of sex collide. They discover they’re both products of a rough world where men inevitably grow up with few options other than illicit activity to survive. They have too much in common, and none of it good. Mickey has turned his life around, but Benito’s redemption arc is just beginning. Their struggles are heartbreaking. As Mickey falls in love, he must ask himself if Benito is a good man beneath his lies and current gang involvement. Are Benito’s good intentions enough, or does Mickey need to walk away from the greatest love he’s ever known?
One aspect I enjoyed in this book was when the men step away from getting down and dirty to spend more time getting to know each other. They begin to appreciate simple activities such as taking walks, working out together, and sharing meals. It provides more depth to the characters, making the reader become more invested, and their tribulations more poignant. Benito and Mickey are sympathetic despite walking on the wrong side of morality and the law. Even with their break from sex, the intense chemistry never dies down.
I devoured Deliverance in one go, unfortunately all through the night. In each of my reviews for Garrett Leigh’s last few books, I’ve said it’s one of her best works. I’m saying it again. It’s getting crowded at the top of that list. With its solid plot, heart-pumping action (I was legit frightened reading this book, on edge waiting for the Big Bad to strike), and upbeat pace, this book is easy to love. Gianna is a delightful sprite, and it was fun to revisit Isha and Dom. Another five heart read.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS: