Reviewed by Taylin

TITLE: Conrad

SERIES: Assassins To Order #4 of 4

AUTHOR: JP Sayle Lisa Oliver

PUBLISHER: Self-Published

LENGTH: 227 Pages

RELEASE DATE: September 29, 2023

BLURB:

Can the beast lurking inside Conrad be the answer to fighting the evil that threatens Kylo’s world?

A call changes everything for Conrad. He has one mission when he arrives in Paraguay: to ensure that no one finds Devil. His cage brother’s life depends on it. What he doesn’t expect is to meet his mate—the one man he cannot lie to and who seeks answers.

Kylo, pissed at the world and near a nervous breakdown when he discovers he’s been duped by the council lead, demands they send him an assassin. The ode ‘be careful what you wish for’ could never be truer for Kylo when the last thing he needs or wants is an assassin mate.

His sole focus is hunting for Devil.

The Fates have other ideas and when it becomes personal, both men have something to lose—love and family. Time is running out and they must work together to prevent the hidden force behind Devil from destroying everything in their world as they unravel the organization that has held Paraguay in a grip of terror.

Have the Fates made the right decisions? They are about to find out.

Conrad is the last book in the Assassins to Order series — a gritty MM Paranormal Romance. The book includes scenes of graphic violence and intimacies between two alpha males that will leave you begging for more.

REVIEW:

Having seen his fellow assassins find their fated mates – and was happy for them; Conrad never dared to dream that it could happen to him. The moment Conrad met Kylo, he knew that this was the man he would give his life to protect. He didn’t know that Kylo would save him in return.

Conrad was a story that I was both eager and sad to read. Eager, because it was another story in a world where I have come to love all the characters. Sad, because it is the last of the series, and I will miss these boys. Nevertheless, I melted while reading this story. Their journey encompassed the words, family, and partner.

The story is told in the third person from the viewpoints of Conrad and Kylo. The series has created an unusual world of shifters, DNA manipulation, the horrors they have endured, and the happiness that can come from finding your fated mate. Each of the shifters has been gifted with a mate that compliments their differing needs and this coupling is no different. Conrad and Kylo engage in a minor Dom/Sub relationship in the way that each needs something to be able to let go of the horrors they have endured and witnessed. Each man provides strength to the other and although BDSM isn’t a genre I usually read; I totally get why these two alphas’ need this form of relationship.

Kylo is the oldest brother of the Paraguay clan. He is a panther shifter, a natural protector, and a cop who wants justice above all else. For the last twenty years, he’s had a heavy weight on his shoulders with no one whom he could lean on, and he is near breaking point. Conrad gives him strength and a way to let go and know that he is safe.

Conrad’s DNA has been manipulated to the extent that he has multiple animals within him, from a spider to a dragon. Given the environment he grew up in, Conrad discovered long ago – the preferred scene in which he could find pleasure. He recognized that Kylo was a man who needed all the animals inside him. In return, Kylo and his family give Conrad the support and sense of family he’d never had and didn’t know he longed for.

Regarding the story arc, Conrad intends to protect his assassin brother Wyatt, but considering the man is the mate of Kylo’s arch-enemy it’s a tall ask. However, the story has some clever twists and turns including an unhinged daughter to navigate to ensure that all is as well as it can be at the story’s conclusion. Kudos to the author’s here too as they have not shied away from the dreadfulness of experimentation and its consequences. Some people may get a little queasy at some scenes, but without them, the story would deny the reader the full consequences and emotional fallout of the horrors.

I understand that Conrad is all about the assassins’ program and their individual mates, but the only thing stopping me from giving this story full marks is that (and it’s a personal thing) I’d have liked to see more of the Thalassa brothers in it. The series was kicked off by the Tangled Tentacles mob and it would have been nice if they’d been there a bit more in the last.

So, it is with a tear in my eye that I say goodbye to the Tentacles and Assassins and hope beyond hope that JP Sayle and Lisa Oliver receive inspiration to write something with them all and their children in the future.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

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