Reviews

Lethal Redemption by April Hunt

heabooknerd's review against another edition

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4.0

LETHAL REDEMPTION was an action packed and sexy romance and once Grace and Cade are undercover in the New Dawn cult I was riveted. I love a great suspense romance but what made this so enjoyable was the characters. Grace and Cade have a history and it didn't end well so there's a lot of hurt feelings between them, but they still love each other. Working together, undercover as an engaged couple, forces them to confront what happened and the reasons behind it. There's a lot of emotional growth for both Cade and Grace in this book.

Helping to balance all the angsty feelings is this great witty banter between both our hero and heroine and also with the rest of the Steele family. I fell in love with them all! Grace is tough, outspoken, and not afraid to say what she's thinking and I want to be her and be friends with her. She was such an engaging character and I really felt her story. This was also the case with Cade and I loved the way he was constantly supporting Grace. He knows he messed up years ago and he's willing to admit that and make it clear what he wants a second time around. There was a lot to love in this book and I can't wait for more of the Steele family.

ARC provided by NetGalley for honest review

whatshawnareads's review against another edition

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4.0

4.5 Stars. I didn't love this one quite as much as the first in the series, but it was still a super enjoyable read. It's has two of my favorite tropes - second chance romance and fake relationship, but I personally could've done with a little less cult stuff. I do enjoy that this case was so different from the previous book and love the Steele/Wright family dynamics. I hope that we'll get to see so much more of these characters.

Thanks to Forever and Netgalley for the copy to review.

inmyhumbleopinion's review against another edition

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5.0

Lethal Redemption by April Hunt is a romantic suspense novel that will keep you on the edge of your seat. It also explores the nature of what makes a family. I really enjoyed this story it gave me a lot to think about. Hot guys, strong women and some thoroughly bad individuals give you a heart pounding escape.

Extreme Honor by Piper J. Drake features hunky men, dogs and a good mystery. This book rocked! Hope’s Crossing kennel provides a second chance for abused working dogs and the former military guys that run it. Atlas is a special case. He is a hero dog who is suffering because his handler was killed by “friendly fire” as requested Atlas is sent to Hope’s Crossing with secrets on his shoulder, David is determined to find out what happened to Atlas and his handler. The last thing he needs is a pretty subcontractor distracting him. But Atlas responds well to her and well so does David but the closer they get to the truth the more danger they are in. I really enjoyed this fast paced romantic suspense. The characters are multi-dimensional and hard not to like. The author makes you feel for them and for Atlas. The story is loaded with surprises and keeps you enthralled.

katekate_reads_'s review against another edition

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4.0

Grace Steele is an FBI profiler - who is called upon to help on a special mission she is uniquely qualified for. It isn’t her profiling skills that are needed this time - it’s her knowledge and history.

When Grace was a little girl, her mom moved them to live with the Order of the New Dawn - a cult. Now someone very important is in the cult and it’s up to Grace and the Steele Ops team to extract her. If that wasn’t already the last place she wanted to be - she’s also going to have to go undercover partnered with Cade, her first love that ended badly 17 years ago.

This book was a wild ride with so many great elements:

✔️Second chance romance
✔️Cult
✔️Suspenseful moments that will have you on the edge of your seat
✔️A plot that will have you rapidly turning pages to see what happens next

This is the second book in the series and while I do think it added something to have read the first, you could also read it as a stand-alone.

Thank you so much to Forever and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

sblyon's review against another edition

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4.0

In this 2nd installment of the Steel Ops series by April Hunt, Cade & Grace must work together to bring the VP’s daughter out of the cult where Grace was once a member until the age of 13, and where her mother still resides. The pair the have to figure out how to work together, despite a history of deep love and deep hurt, to succeed in their mission and find a new path forward.

whiskeyinthejar's review against another edition

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2.0

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Grace's job as a FBI profiler has pitted her up against some of the most dangerous people. When the Vice President of the United States asks for her help in rescuing his daughter she can't say no, even if it involves going back to the cult she escaped seventeen years ago.
Cade will never stop loving his bestfriends' cousin Grace, even if he felt he had to walk away from her nine years ago. When she has to put herself in danger for the mission, he's going to be right there beside her.
Grace and Cade may have their second chance at love but they'll have to stop the murderous rage of a cult first.

Her worst fear---or one of them---was about to come to fruition. The other had been watching the man she loved---and trusted---walk away and out of her life.

Lethal Redemption is the second installment of the Steele Ops series, a group of former military men and women who have built their own security business. They operate out of a beer distillery and do operations that the U.S. government doesn't want their name attached to. The Vice President's daughter has fallen into The New Order of the Dawn, a cult, and needs to be rescued but the Vice President doesn't want any media attention. If you read the first in the series (Deadly Obsession) you'll remember Grace and Cade as the antagonistic twosome that obviously still had feelings for each other. Even though we got glimpses of these two in the first, you could still comfortably start here.

After seventeen years of being free of Father Teague's daily Blessings and her mother's nonstop disapproving lectures, she was headed back to New Dawn...and back to the people who stole eight years of her childhood.

Grace came to live with her four male cousins when she escaped from the Order of the New Dawn cult. Her father had died and her mother had dragged her into the cult. Cade and his sister Zoey (heroine from book one) were friends with the four Steele cousins and thus Cade and Grace grew-up together. They dated while in college and had big plans put Cade decided to reenlist in the Army without telling Grace and they broke up. I really missed watching Grace and Cade grow to be in love. Their second chance romance didn't get as much page time as I would have liked because of the cult storyline dominating the plot. The two did have a nice flow to their interactions but the feelings and attraction build-up has already happened and we get more of “well, let's try this again”, some fear from both sides, and then “we're together again”. These actions and emotions don't necessarily cycle through quickly, but they didn't have the number of steps and depth I need to really get involved with a couple.

She trusted him.
Now it was up to him to make sure she never regretted it.


Grace was the much more shaded in character, with her time in the cult, escaping, adjusting to living with cousins, Cade issues, and then having to go back into the cult and seeing her mother again. There is some ground work laid from the first book about the issues Cade has with his father but Cade was mostly in the story to support, get protective if Grace put herself in danger, and be there for the sex scenes. The fact that they had previously developed feelings of love and the cult plot really stole any page time from their romance.

The New Dawn cult, their workings, was interesting but the conclusion to how the Vice President's daughter fit in and the threads that untangled to reveal the who and what, made for a somewhat muddy and trying too hard to be clever climax. There are still some Steele Ops members that need their happily ever after and a possible Vice President's daughter and Secret Service Agent. This author does always manage to pull me into the story, there's an easy of flow and movement to characters that I enjoy, so I'll still be checking out the series next romance and adventure.

robinlovesreading's review against another edition

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5.0

Lately I have read more than a few books with people who have managed to escape from cults and who have managed to really make something of their lives. In Lethal Redemption by April Hunt, our female protagonist Grace Steele, now an FBI profiler, was able to escape the Order of the New Dawn when she was much younger, and has done her best to bury her troubling memories while she was there. However when the Steele Ops private security agency requests her help rescuing a woman named Sarah Brandt, she agrees, even though she knows she will be plagued by disturbing memories.

Cade Wright, who works with Steele Ops is the man that Grace will be working with in order to rescue Sarah. This could be problematic because Cade and Grace have a past, one that ended over nine years earlier. Working together just might give Cade another chance with Grace, a chance to prove to her that he has changed, that he is worthy of another chance.

Lethal Redemption is an incredibly intense book! We have at least three things going on in this book - rescuing Sarah, Grace's traumatic past with the cult, especially considering who one of the cult members were and how this still affects her today and then the growing relationship she has with Cade. These scenarios, with a mix of past and present, work remarkably well together to create an incredibly compulsive read.

I loved how Grace and Cade had to "pretend" to be a couple in order to infiltrate the cult. Their history, which at one point ended on a very bad note, combined with long-buried feelings forcing their way to the surface, added an incredible amount of tension to what was already a compelling story. The first book in this series, Deadly Obsession, was equally impressive, leaving me excited to read the next book in the series, Fatal Deception, which is currently in my TBR.

Many thanks to Forever and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

emac021's review against another edition

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mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

mariliis's review against another edition

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medium-paced

4.0

earl_of_book_dragon's review against another edition

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DNF. I just wasn’t interested enough to finish.