Title: Murder Girl
Author: Lisa Renee Jones
Release Date: July 10, 2018
Series: Lilah Love #2
New York Times bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones returns with the second book in her electrifying series featuring Lilah Love, an FBI profiler who doesnāt fight her dark sideāshe embraces it.
Itās Lilah Loveās job to inhabit a killerās mind. The unapologetically tough FBI profiler is very comfortable there. But her latest case is making her head spin. Itās a string of brutal assassinations carried out across the country, each tied to a mysterious tattoo. Body by body, sheās followed the clues all the way back to her hometown. And every step of the way, the killer has been following her.
Here, beneath the glamour of the privileged Hamptons community, is a secret long buried but never forgotten. Itās bigger than Lilah. Itās powerful enough to escape the reach of the FBI. And itās more personal than anyone can imagine. Because itās hiding in Lilahās own past. To fight it, sheās forced to turn to her lethally tempting ex, Kane Mendez. Heās an expert at bringing out Lilahās darkest impulses. If she plans to survive, sheās going to need them.**You MUST read book one, MURDER NOTES, prior to reading this book.Ā
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Murder Girl by Lisa Renee Jones
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
MURDER GIRL is book two in the Lilah Love series and is a murder mystery that will boggle your mind!
This book begins precisely where MURDER NOTES ended. But no worries if you can’t remember stuff from book one because Lisa Renee Jones is a sweetheart who wrote a detailed and extensive overview at the beginning of book two to remind us. I said this in my review of book one but here it is again: this series has an undertone of romance between Agent Lilah Love and notorious “mob boss”, Kane Mendez. HOWEVER, this is not a love story! And that’s about all of the storyline I can say without giving away spoilers.
I will say that once again, LRJ delivered a thrilling, riveting, SMART tale that will have you on the edge of your seat. The middle dragged just a bit for me, maybe because I was so darn anxious to figure out what the hell was going on! There’s so many twists and turns, it literally discombobulated my brain. Once again, we’re left with doubt and wondering…who can we really trust?
And just to satisfy the romantic in me (and maybe you too), I’ll say that I’m happy that Kane and Lilah find more of a middle ground in this book. I’m crossing my fingers that their romance blossoms more in the future.
The puzzle is partially solved by the end. There’s some answers given and some more questions raised. Meaning we’ll be seeing more of the foul mouthed little pixie with the spine of steel that is Lilah Love. Told entirely from Lilah’s POV with a satisfied for now ending. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book.
View all my reviews
I enter the building and ignore the pretty brunette behind the triangle-shaped stone desk and head to the stairs.
āExcuse me,ā she calls out, but I ignore her. Kane knows Iām coming. He has people watching me and this building. He knows Iām in the building by now. I donāt need āsweet thingā down there to announce me in yet another way. Iām at the top of the stairs before she finishes her fourth excuse me, which is now a bit louder, as if I just havenāt heard her the other three times. I turn down the hallway and walk toward the desk outside Kaneās office where Tabitha sits, minus any more originality today than the last time I was here. Sheās still bleached blonde, with her fake, giant-ass boobs hanging out of a silk blouse with numerous buttons undone that turn it into a slut show that could have been professional.
I pass her without a word, approaching Kaneās double doors, when she says, āDrama follows you, Lilah Love.ā
āNo,ā I say without looking at her. āDead bodies follow me.ā I glance over my shoulder at her. āYou should remember that.ā
And with that statement that really had no purpose other than it felt really damn good, I open Kaneās door.
I step inside Kaneās office and find him sitting behind his desk, just in time to hear him say, āSheās here,ā into his intercom and then release the button.
With exaggerated drama that I reserve for moments when I want to be a smart-ass or simply announce my fucking presence, I use my body to shut the door, but I donāt hang out and wait for it to grow roots. I rotate and charge toward Kane and that King Mendez desk of his that he doesnāt get to use as shelter. By the time I round the wooden atrocity, heās standing, towering over me in a charcoal suit and a purple shirt with black stripes and some sort of black-and-gray tie. Itās flashy, expensive, and works on him when it would not on nine out of ten other people. But then, while I keep a low profileāaside from the door drama, of courseāand favor my black nondescript looks, his entire persona says ālook at meā with the intended message of āI have nothing to hide.ā A lie he tells the world and, after he drugged me to keep me from knowing what happened last night, apparently me.
We stand there for a beat or ten without words before he says, āLilah,ā and the very fact that he says it like sex is all it takes for me to snap.
I slap him in the face, because my bare fist is too small to hurt him the way his jaw would hurt me. Itās also a disgrace to a man to be slapped, which is why one UFC fighter Iāve watched here and there does it to his opponents. And Kane is my opponent. He turns his head with the force of the blow, my palm stinging in the aftermath.
āWell now, beautiful,ā he says, fixing me with a brown-eyed stare. āI know you like it rough, but is now the time? We both have questions we want answered.ā
I slap him again, and this time he catches my wrist before I pull back. I try to slap him with my free hand, and he catches it as well, this time before contact. āYou get two, not three.ā
My gaze flicks to the handprint on his right cheek that matches the one on the left before I meet his stare and say, āTwo was pretty damn satisfying.ā
āWhy didnāt you tell me about your stalker?ā he demands, his question low, lethal, his anger banked just beneath the surface, while mine is the cherry on top of every lie heās told me. āBecause we both know thatās what weāre dealing with here,ā he adds.
āLet go of me, Kane,ā I bite out, my voice taut with impatience. No. Make that a desire to smack him again.
āAfter you tell me about your stalker and the notes.ā
āLet go of me, Kane,ā I repeat slowly, āor my next move will be a knee to your family jewels. And I promise you, it will be hard enough that neither of us will have to worry about our urge to fuck ever again.ā My jaw sets hard, but he doesnāt release me. āYou drugged me,ā I remind him, āand then searched my house before leaving me with a gun that I was too drugged to use. So if you think I wonāt do itāā
He releases me but doesnāt step back. āI didnāt leave you with a gun you couldnāt use. I kept you at my house until sunrise, and I left a team guarding your place, front and back. I protected you, like I always do.ā
I donāt analyze why that makes me angrier. Thatās for later. For now, there is this: āIād pull my gun on you and back you off, Kane, but I swore the next time I did that, Iād shoot you. And I need information from you.ā
āIām all yours, beautiful,ā he says, holding his hands out. āI always am.ā He motions to the sitting area to his left and behind him. āLetās sit and make this peaceful.ā
āPeaceful, my ass,ā I say.
Author:Ā Lisa Renee Jones
New York Times bestselling author Lisa Renee Jonesās heart-pounding thriller of a womanās secretsāand a past thatās about to come out of hidingā¦
As an FBI profiler, itās Lilah Loveās job to think like a killer. And she is very good at her job. When a series of murders surfaceāthe victims all stripped naked and shot in the headāLilahās instincts tell her itās the work of an assassin, not a serial killer. But when the case takes her back to her hometown in the Hamptons and a mysterious but unmistakable connection to her own life, all her assumptions are shaken to the core.
Thrust into a troubled past sheās tried to shut the door on, Lilahās back in the town where her father is mayor, her brother is police chief, and she has an intimate history with the local crime lordās son, Kane Mendez. The two share a devastating secret, and only Kane understands Lilahās own darkest impulses. As more corpses surface, so does a series of anonymous notes to Lilah, threatening to expose her. Is the killer someone in her own circle? And is she the next target?
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones is the author of the highly acclaimed INSIDE OUT series.
In addition to the success of Lisa’s INSIDE OUT series, she has published many successful titles. The TALL, DARK AND DEADLY series and THE SECRET LIFE OF AMY BENSEN series, both spent several months on a combination of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling lists. Lisa is also the author of the bestselling WHITE LIES and LILAH LOVE series.
Prior to publishing Lisa owned multi-state staffing agency that was recognized many times by The Austin Business Journal and also praised by the Dallas Women’s Magazine. In 1998 Lisa was listed as the #7 growing women owned business in Entrepreneur Magazine.
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Fabulous review, Trisy! I’ve heard such good things about this series.
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Thanks Janine, it’s a definite thriller!š
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