Love Affair With An e-Reader: BLOG TOUR: REVIEW, EXCERPT, & GIVEAWAY

Thanks for joining us in celebrating the release of Hard to Let Go, Beckett's story in the Hard Ink series. This is the final book for the original Hard Ink gang. Enjoy the excerpt and review and don't forget to enter the Giveaway!

Beckett Murda hates to dwell on the past. But his investigation into the ambush that killed half his Special Forces team and ended his Army career gives him little choice. Just when his team learns how powerful their enemies are, hard-ass Beckett encounters his biggest complication yet—a seductive, feisty Katherine Rixey.

A tough, stubborn prosecutor, Kat visits her brothers’ Hard Ink Tattoo shop following a bad break-up—and finds herself staring down the barrel of a stranger’s gun. Beckett is hard-bodied and sexy as hell, but he’s also the most infuriating man ever. Worse, Kat’s brothers are at war with the criminals her office is investigating. When Kat joins the fight, she lands straight in Beckett’s sights . . . and in his arms. Not to mention their enemies’ crosshairs.

Now Beckett and Kat must set aside their differences to work together, because the only thing sweeter than justice is finding love and never letting go.

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I went into this book with a bit of wistfulness. This is the last of the Hard Ink series for the original characters introduced in book one. It says a lot about Laura Kaye's writing that I have become so attached to these characters and this storyline. And I'll say this up front, I loved the ending. It is fitting and poignant.

This book features the stories of Becket Murda and Katherine Rixey. Becket is the stoic one of the Hard Ink crew. He's brooding with a level of dangerous energy just beneath the surface. Katherine is a prosecutor for the Justice Department. She's committed and loyal with a strong sense of right and wrong. I like my heroines to have great character with a sense of value and purpose. Kat is right up my alley. She is also smart and competent with both her mind and her shooting. She is a standout heroine in this series of big alpha male personalties. They are an unlikely pair, but that is what makes this story so appealing.

On the surface Beckett seems so hard. He hard muscled and hard headed. They say still waters run deep. Beckett is like the Grand Canyon. When Ms. Kaye opens him up, shows his vulnerability, I was hooked. Because of his difficult upbringing with his dad, Beckett goes through life numb. The only thing he really feels is anger, and that frightens him. Therefore, he tamps down most of this emotions. If there are no highs, there can be no lows. If you don't want for things, you won't be disappointed. Wanting something puts you at risk. Taking a chance with Kat opens up his world to new possibilities both good and bad.

The relationship between Beckett and Kat is explosive. After their first meeting in which Beckett held a gun on Kat, they are antagonistic toward one another. There are very explicit sexual encounters brimming with overwhelming tension. What starts as basically sex with a stranger morphs into something deeper as admiration, respect, and adoration settles in.

My one small critique of this story is that I would have liked to see more MacGyver-ness from Beckett. He is suppose to be the gadgets-guy with the ability to fix things. I would've been great to experience more of this.

IN A NUTSHELL:
I'm sorry to see it end. This book is prompting me to start over and read the series from the beginning. I see an episode of binge reading in my near future.

Angel. Beckett called her Angel.

Kat could barely breathe, and it had absolutely nothing to do with the 250-pound linebacker currently lying on top of her.

He’d called her Angel.

Why? All they did was fight and annoy the shit out of each other. Where had the term of endearment come from?

Maybe it was just the haze of lust and epically good sex talking. That could totally be it. She wondered if he even realized he’d said it.

But it was still confusing as hell. She’d been so mad at him last night that she hadn’t even wanted to be in the same room with him. And she’d promised herself that after all the bullshit he’d said, this wasn’t happening again. Not ever.

Now, here she lay. His cock still tucked inside her, his body covering her, his arms holding her. And a part of her didn’t want it to end. Because he’d also apologized. More than that, he’d made it clear that he’d flown off the handle because he was worried about her. Which was downright sweet, really. In a totally fucked-up Beckett Murda kinda way.

Honestly, he was, at once, the sexiest, most attractive man she’d ever known—and the most confusing and infuriating.

He’s rough around the edges, but he’s a good guy. Beckett just takes a while to let anybody get close …

That’s what Marz had said. Could it be that Beckett’s whole strong-silent-grouchy routine was just … some kind of defense mechanism? If so, a defense against what?

And did it really matter?

She laid there for a long moment, surrounded by Beckett’s heat, his soft breath playing over her ear.

Yeah, on some level it did matter. Because there was something between them. Clearly. Maybe it was just pure animal attraction. Except he’d given her glimpses that there was something more to him. Something deeper. Something that spoke to her heart. All of which played as much of a role in the fact that they kept ending up naked together—or partially naked, anyway—as the fact that he fucked her better than she’d ever been fucked in her life. At least, it explained why she kept giving in.

“Beckett?” she whispered, not possessing the energy to speak much louder.

No answer.

“Beckett?” she said again.

Holy shit. The big, hard-ass jerk had fallen asleep? Holding her.

Aw, crap. That was kinda sweet, too. Proving that her heart was such a sucker. Because she didn’t want to wake him up. She didn’t want him to get off of her. All she wanted was to listen to the call of her exhaustion and close her eyes.

Laura is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over twenty books in contemporary and paranormal romance and romantic suspense. Growing up, Laura’s large extended family believed in the supernatural, and family lore involving angels, ghosts, and evil-eye curses cemented in Laura a life-long fascination with storytelling and all things paranormal. She lives in Maryland with her husband, two daughters, and cute-but-bad dog, and appreciates her view of the Chesapeake Bay every day.