Reviewed by Anna Lynn

TITLE:  Forbidden Lover

SERIES:   Exit Strategy #4

AUTHOR:  Jocelynn Drake

PUBLISHER:  Self-Published

LENGTH:  254 pages

RELEASE DATE:  June 11, 2021

BLURB:

Devlin Relic was off limits.

The sweet man had already lost a husband and nearly lost his life when someone put a contract on his head last year.

He needed to focus on raising his adopted son and finding a nice, normal man.

Kai was anything but nice and normal.

He was an assassin, and that did not fit into Dev’s neat and tidy life.

But when a dead body mysteriously appears in Dev’s bathtub, it looks like an assassin is exactly what he needs.

Maybe this time Kai will be brave enough to fight for Devlin and finally put his exit strategy to use.

REVIEW:

Everybody deserves love! It doesn’t matter who you are, what you are, what you do for a living and all these things. When you love someone with all of your heart, all these things become inconsequential. What will be important is the love that you feel for each other and what are you willing to do to have your own happily ever after.

Forbidden Lover is the fourth book in the Exit Strategy series which started with Justin and his G Love, Gabriel. They are international assassins who feel in love and went through a lot to have their HEA. They have found theirs and now it is Kai’s, another assassin, turn to maybe find his? We met Kai in the previous book when he got the contract to kill a recently-widowed father who was also accused of killing his own husband. But fortunately, Kai didn’t fulfill the contract. He let go of 27 million dollars because he just couldn’t kill the man who was wrongly accused and has a young son to raise on his own. Also for the fact that this man was then protected by Justin and Gabriel.

Devlin Relic just got his life, and that of his son’s, back to normal. After being accused of killing his own husband, having a bounty on his head and being in the protection of two world-class Assassins, they are finally home and living a normal life. But such good things come to an end, right? It started when he came home from sending his son to summer camp and found a dead body in his bathtub. Of course, he reported it to the police and to Justin and Gabriel. And of course Justin and Gabriel relayed it to Kai. Kai immediately got on his way to Devlin. And then another dead body was dropped right in the jogging path that Devlin usually take.

Kai has been keeping his distance from the too-sweet, too-good, and too-innocent Devlin Relic ever since he didn’t fulfill the contract to kill him. Secretly though he visited Jake, Devlin’s son, even sent him gifts for his birthday and Christmas. Kai doesn’t feel that he is worthy to be even in the same space as Devlin. He has always been alone and he loves it that way. He knows that he is not worthy of love and although he envies Justin and Gabriel for having found theirs, he has accepted the fact that it is not for him.

But accepting that he doesn’t deserve Devlin doesn’t mean that he will just allow Devlin and Jake to be put in harm’s way again. When Gabriel and Justin informed him of what Devlin found in his bathtub, he immediately left for Devlin’s house. And finding out from Devlin’s description that the dead body fitted someone who was an informant to Kai in a previous contract made Kai fear for Devlin’s life again. When a second dead body was found, they just couldn’t stay and wait anymore, they have to actively find who the killer is and why he is doing it. The second body was another informant of Kai. It seems that the killer is targeting Kai but doing it so that Devlin gets tangled into it as well.  It seems like the killer wanted to show Devlin what kind of man Kai truly is because after all these happened, Kai had to tell Devlin who these people are and how are they connected to him. Kai feels more unworthy of Devlin after all these.

But true love, when you find it, is hard to let go. You know that the obstacles seem unsurmountable but if both parties are willing to make life-changing choices, then they deserve their happily-ever-after. We feel lucky if true love comes to us once in our lifetime, but I think Devlin is luckier because it found him twice in his lifetime. One should never let go if they find their true love. Others are not so lucky.

I am in love with Devlin and Kai, after what they went through, they deserve all of this! Thank you and Congratulations Ms. Jocelynn Drake, amazing story!

RATING:

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