Retribution by Virginia Brasch Series: The Artemis Series #1
Published by Entranced Publishing on March 3, 2014
Pages: 166
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Purchase Links: Amazon
An eye for an eye. Bailey Russell is an assassin on an Artemis Agency assignment that is both business and personal: take out Amir Fahad, the arms dealer, who killed her partner. She' s put together an ideal plan that includes using herself as bait. Grieving the loss of her former partner and her team' s faith in her she vows the only way this mission ends is in death: hers or Fahad' s.
A dangerous web they weave. British Intelligence Operative, Ben Ambrose, is married to his job. And for the past three months that has meant living undercover as part of Fahad' s crew. Three month' s work blown when he feels compelled to risk his life to protect Bailey and her friends from Fahad' s men.
The best laid plans. Bailey' s plan ruined. Ben' s cover blown. Their entire professional lives consist of lies and subterfuge, but there' s one thing Bailey and Ben can' t hide from each other, their growing attraction. Still, each wants to complete their mission at all costs: personal and professional.
Payback' s a bitch and this time her name is Bailey.
Today is my stop on the blog tour for Retribution by Virginia Brasch and I’m featuring a Review! This blog tour runs from 3rd March 2014 until 16th March 2014.
Retribution is a fierce, action-packed tale of covert operations, arms-dealers, modern day pirates, and pay back. The only thing hotter than the revenge in this novel is the romance.
I’m not crazy about the cover of this book. There should have been a beautiful bad-ass chick on the front, bedazzled with weapons like they were diamonds. Or two hot agents walking through the desert together.That, however, is the only complaint you will hear coming from me about Virginia Brasch’s stellar debut novel: Retribution.
During the first few chapters of this book, I honestly didn’t know if I was going to like it. I was getting a Charlie’s Angels-type vibe and I hate Charlie’s Angels. But once the story focused on our female MC for the long haul, I was hooked. Not just hooked, really, but obsessed. I HAD TO KEEP READING.
First, we’re introduced to a handful of female character’s that make up the altruistic Artemis Agency. These lethal ladies are all highly trained assassins that seek to balance the scales of justice. The Artemis Agency is a family. And someone in the family has a chip on her shoulder.
Her lips were soft and full, perfectly bowed. Her chin was narrow but strong, perfectly rounding out her oval face. There was strength in her eyes. Bright honey colored eyes that seemed to pin him down whenever they locked with his.
Meet Bailey. Bailey Russel is a sharp-tongued, intelligent 27 year old woman who just happens to look like a cover model for Shape magazine. This honey-eyed beauty feels like she needs to prove to her team that she can hold her stuff together after a nasty terrorist arms-dealer named Amir Fahad killed one of her Artemis sisters, Alex, right in front of her and got away with it. The only thing keeping Bailey together though is the chance to avenge her dead sister-in-arms. The opportunity to give Fahad the retribution he deserves has finally come up, and Bailey takes on this mission by herself. Not just to avenge Alex, but to prove she’s still Artemis material.
He was tall, about six feet with dark brown hair that was freshly trimmed but still managed to look a little shaggy. Strange blue gray eyes that changed with his mood matched the color of his suit.
There’s something sexy about the title “British Intelligence Operative”, but there’s something even sexier about Ben Ambrose than his occupation. This 32 year old blue-eyed hunk belongs on the cover of British GQ and has the perfect blend of confidence and chivalry to his character. BEN IS BLOODY SWOON-WORTHY and as fate would have it, he’s after the same bad guy as Bailey. Things get really interesting when they are thrown together on this mission to hunt down Fahad. Both of them are keeping secrets, and trust is hard to come by.
Ben and Bailey. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? There mission takes them to the desert where they experience hardship after explosive hardship, but this only serves to break down their emotional walls and force them to trust each other. It’s the relationship between these two that drives the story. Ben and Bailey are magic together. Virginia Brasch nails the build up of sexual tension between the two MC’s, but the build up between them isn’t just lustful. There are some seriously swoony feels going on. I could see little assassin babies in Ben’s eyes every time he revealed his thoughts about Bailey:
Next to her was Bailey, the enigma. Hurricane Bailey.She was strikingly beautiful with chocolate hair and light honey eyes. She was playful and cheeky with a smile that lit up her whole face.
Virginia’s writing is witty and bold. The plot is smart and exhilarating. The characters are hot and memorable. And there’s a twist to the end that caught me, a seasoned reader, by surprise. The action and romance are perfectly intertwined in Retribution and I found it comparable to Mr. and Mrs. Smith starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. If you like smart dialogue and sexy MC’s with your entertainment, than you’ll love this book. I’m excited to read more about Bailey and Ben’s adventures in Fiery Pursuits, book two in the Artemis series.
You can add Retribution to your to-read list on Goodreads.
About the Author
Virginia Brasch, author of Retribution, the first book in the Artemis Series is making her writing debut. The married Pennsylvania native has an inherited love of books. Virginia was tired of reading stories about helpless damsels in distress and started writing about her own kind of heroine.
She snorts when she laughs, has an unfortunate fondness for karaoke, a growing collection of books, and is drawn always to the sea. She was also once hit in the head by a small sailboat’ s boom and tossed overboard. This taught her the importance of expecting the unexpected. She enjoys dirty jokes and swears like a sailor though claims to be “****ing working on it.”
Virginia is an adventurer who lives a wildly exciting life. Afraid to fly, she travels infrequently. She gets excited to spend a night in reading or snuggle up watching a movie with her husband. She likes hanging out with her mom or tentatively venturing out with girlfriends, lured by promises of wine and laughing until it hurts.
“Life is short. Have fun while you’ re here.”
She writes suspense with a romantic kick and fully believes heroines should be a bit brash. For more romantic suspense fun, or just for a chat, you can find Virginia on twitter (@Virginia_Brasch), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/VBrasch), and her website (http://virginiabrasch.wordpress.com/). She encourages readers to go ahead and be a little bit Brasch.
You can find and contact Virginia here:
There is a tour wide giveaway for the blog tour of Retribution. You can win one of two ebook copies of Retribution!
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