Carter Reed by Tijan

Emma decided to skip the gym and went home early. It was the last easy decision she made because she found her roommate being raped by her boyfriend. She had two choices. Call the cops and be killed by his family’s mafia connections or kill him first and hope to survive. There was no choice to her. She killed the bastard first and went to the one person who could protect her. Carter Reed. He’s a weapon for the rivaling mafia family, but he’s also Emma’s secret. Not only was he best friends with her brother, but she’s the reason he became that weapon in the first place.

Another Tijan book that just didn’t do it for me.

This book started out with a bang! Emma comes home to her roommate being raped by the guy she’s dating. She decides to kill him since she knows that he would kill them both first. She had to find a way to stay alive so she turned to the one person she knew could protect her, Carter Reed. Emma knew Carter when they were younger, he was her brothers best friend and stayed at their house quite a bit. Carter isn’t the same Carter that she used to know. He’s known as the Cold Killer now and is in the mafia business. What she doesn’t know is that the murder of her brother and keeping her safe is what shaped him into the man that he is is today.

This book has twists and turns and kept me reading to see how this was going to end. However, There were quite a few things that really bugged me. They said that Emma and Carter hadn’t seen each other for quite some time, so how did they already begin saying that they loved each other? Emma just shot someone and then two days later she’s already forgotten it because her attraction to Carter overrides it?I also felt I couldn’t trust any of the characters in this book. Especially Theresa, I just felt like she was going to betray Emma in the long run. What was up with her always commenting on good Carter looks and how she kept giving him so called bedroom eyes? With Noah there!

I didn’t really care about any of the characters or what happened to them really. Carter was my favorite character in the book but I still didn’t love him. He was very manipulative of Emma, especially to get out of telling her things. Emma was damn near unbearable. She was so annoying. She just kept throwing pity parties for herself and cried way too much for me.  I get that she would be sad since she killed someone but she would be sad one minute and them wanting sex from Carter the next. She was all over the place. I didn’t even really feel any chemistry between these two, it felt really forced. She was clinging to him because he could protect her and he was carrying a torch for her for the past few years.

Overall it was just meh for me. The book started off strong but it fell flat towards the ending. I see that it has a sequel but I’m going to have to give it a hard pass.