Blackout: Book One
Leather and Lace Duet #1
By Janine Infante Bosco
Title: Blackout: Book One
Series: Leather and Lace Duet #1
Author: Janine Infante Bosco
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: April 1, 2019
After years of struggling with alcoholism and drug abuse, I got clean and put my best foot forward. I became the man worthy of Lacey Parrish’s love and made the girl with the sad brown eyes my wife. But I’m not the only one in our marriage with demons. Diagnosed a manic depressive, Lacey struggles daily with her mind, never willing to succumb to the stigma of mental illness.
The odds have always been stacked against us, but the stakes have never been this high.
Pregnant with our child, Lacey is forced to choose between her mind and the baby we wished for.
Pregnant with our child, Lacey is forced to choose between her mind and the baby we wished for.
I can take pain, but I can’t take hers.
Helpless and at the mercy of all the things that plague us, I turn to my past.
It’s always our favorite sins that do us in.
Leather.
Lace.
Me.
Her.
Suffering through hell, hoping love is enough for us to survive one more blackout.
*This is part one of the Leather & Lace duet and over 70,000 words.*
Blackout: Book One by Janine Infante Bosco
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
BLACKOUT: BOOK ONE is the beginning of the The Leather and Lace Duet. It is a cliffhanger! If you haven’t yet read anything about the Satan’s Knights MC saga, this is probably a great place to start because although the characters are interconnected, Ms. Bosco does a fabulous job of explaining the storyline.
Lacey Parrish is the princess of the MC. She’s the daughter of the president, Jack “The Bulldog” Parrish and she was raised in the club. In a previous book, Lacey found the love of her life, Blackie. This is the continuation of their romance. They each have demons tearing them apart, Lacey is manic depressive, just like her dad. Blackie is a seasoned biker who is also an addict and an alcoholic. Can their marriage survive the club drama that constantly bombards them?
I’ve read several of the books in the Satan’s Knights MC world and each time I dig in, I have to brace myself because I know that Ms. Bosco will Tear. Me. Up. Her books aren’t easy to read, they’re stained with anguish, violence, sorrow. But I also know that when I come out the other side, I’ll feel cleansed and filled with hope. The choices that Blackie and Lacey face are hard. And yet, Lacey was steadfast in her decision, strong for her unborn child. I admired the hell out of her! Blackie broke my heart repeatedly, I cried real tears for his tumultuous journey. By the end, though, I started to feel a bit of hope for him and I can’t wait for the next book. I need to see Blackie and Lacey find their HEA!!
Need an angsty, sexy read? Pick this one up! Told from dual POVs with a cliffy that will leave you on the edge. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book.
Blackout, Book One Excerpt: “That’s Not How This Works”
©Copyright 2019 Janine Infante Bosco
Learningnour baby might be born with a heart defect if Lacey remains on her medication was the final card to fall. Now, all that’s left is a mountain of debris and I don’t know how to drudge through any of it.
“Just go,” Lacey says, keeping her back to me as she fills a water glass. It’s the third time she’s poured herself a refill and I wonder if she’s wishing it was something harder. God knows I’m fixing for something.
Scotch.
Whiskey.
Tequila.
I’d fucking drink turpentine right now.
“I’m not going anywhere, Lace, that’s not how this works,” I tell her, bracing my hands on the kitchen island. We both know what happens if I leave, the problem is she’s too wrapped up in her grief to realize she’s sending me straight to hell because if I do as she says, I’ll either go to a bar or drive out to Queens to score some drugs.
“Stop pretending like either of us know how anything works,” she hisses, dropping her glass into the sink. There’s truth to her words. A truth we’ve both been too fucking naïve to accept.
She turns to me, crossing her arms over her chest as she gives me her dark eyes.
“Every time we take a step forward, we take three back. We’re a fucking joke, Blackie. Two lost souls who will never get it right and now, we’re bringing a baby into the world. If that’s not fucking selfish, I don’t know what is.”
“You didn’t think it was selfish the first night I came in you,” I fire back, slamming my fist against the counter. My anger gets the best of me and I lose my patience.
Everything, all the shit with the club, Jack’s failing mind, my addictions, and her fucking illness, it all comes crashing to the surface.
Everything, all the shit with the club, Jack’s failing mind, my addictions, and her fucking illness, it all comes crashing to the surface.
“I told you that night, I was worried about you getting pregnant and not because I thought we didn’t deserve to be parents or because I didn’t want to have a baby. I was concerned for you, for your fucking mental health but you told me there were people like you all over the world having kids.”
“People like me,” she repeats.
Ignoring the hurt in her eyes, I continue my rant.
“You fucking promised me you’d get in touch with your shrink. You swore you’d tell her we were trying for a baby—”
“I didn’t know I’d get pregnant so quickly,” she spats.
“You pissed on your fucking word,” I shout over her.
As soon as the words leave my lips, I regret them, but there’s no taking them back.
Maybe she was right.
Maybe I should’ve fucking left.
At least then I wouldn’t have to watch the painful expression fill her pretty face.
It’s funny.
I can take pain, but I can’t take hers.Â
Exhaling, I swipe a hand over my face and bow my head.
“Shit, I’m sorry, Lace.”
“Don’t be sorry for expressing how you truly feel,” she spats, furiously wiping at the tear that escapes the corner of her eye.
“I don’t know what the fuck I feel,” I admit, gripping the edge of the counter again.
Frustration claws at me as I keep my eyes pinned to her. “All I know is the last thing I want to see is you lose yourself to your maker. I don’t understand why you won’t just talk to the doctor before you make a decision.”
Frustration claws at me as I keep my eyes pinned to her. “All I know is the last thing I want to see is you lose yourself to your maker. I don’t understand why you won’t just talk to the doctor before you make a decision.”
“And I don’t know what’s so hard to comprehend. You know, it’s my body, therefore it’s ultimately my decision, but it’s our
baby, Blackie. It’s not a dream anymore. It’s not a what if—I’m pregnant and I can’t understand how you would risk our child being born with a heart defect.”
baby, Blackie. It’s not a dream anymore. It’s not a what if—I’m pregnant and I can’t understand how you would risk our child being born with a heart defect.”
Her words slap me in the face, and I clench my jaw, trying to keep my emotions in check.
There shouldn’t be a choice. We shouldn’t have to choose between Lacey’s mental stability and bringing a healthy baby into the world, but once again life’s got us by the balls. No one gets a say in the cards they’re dealt. You get what you get. You either play your fucking hand or you fold. Some people, go all in.
They risk everything they got and pray they don’t lose. Others, they’re more cautious and maybe that’s because they’ve lost in the past. Maybe, just maybe they want to hang onto what they got and don’t want to press their luck.
There shouldn’t be a choice. We shouldn’t have to choose between Lacey’s mental stability and bringing a healthy baby into the world, but once again life’s got us by the balls. No one gets a say in the cards they’re dealt. You get what you get. You either play your fucking hand or you fold. Some people, go all in.
They risk everything they got and pray they don’t lose. Others, they’re more cautious and maybe that’s because they’ve lost in the past. Maybe, just maybe they want to hang onto what they got and don’t want to press their luck.
I already visit one wife in a cemetery.
I don’t want to visit Lacey in the fucking psych ward.
“Let me asknyou something,” I say hoarsely, pausing to swallow the lump suffocating me.
“Have you thought about what happens after the baby is born? More specifically, have you taken a fucking second to think about what happens to you?”
“Have you thought about what happens after the baby is born? More specifically, have you taken a fucking second to think about what happens to you?”
She doesn’t answer me as she diverts her eyes away and I take the opportunity to paint her a picture.
“The baby is born, and she’s perfect. She’s got a full head of dark hair and the prettiest brown eyes either of us has ever seen. She’s everything we dreamed ofnand yet, I’m the only one living the dream. You don’t look at her the way I do. You don’t hold her and feel the same things I do. To you, she just exists, and you don’t understand why. You forget the sacrifices you made bringing her into the world. You forget the dreams you had for her. You forget it all.”
“Stop,” she orders, balling her fists at her side.
“No,” I growl. “I won’t stop. You won’t get to experience the joys of motherhood, Lacey. You won’t hold her in the middle of the night when she wakes. You won’t get to watch her grow or teach her how to walk. You won’t even give a fuck because you and your maker will be one. She wins and your child, the precious baby you fought to bring into this world, she fucking loses.”
Suddenly, Lacey spins around and takes the glass from the sink. Before I realize what she’s doing, she turns back to me and throws it across the room. It misses me by an inch and crashes against the floor.
“Get the fuck out of here,” she cries.
When I don’t move, she advances towards me and stands across the other end of the island.
“I want you to leave!”
“I’ll go,” I tell her. “But I won’t fucking apologize for a word of what I just said. Children are born with birth defects every day, Lace. Sometimes the doctors catch them early on and sometimes they don’t find out until the baby is already in the mother’s arms. That don’t make them broken or any less loveable.”
Coming Soon
Releasing May 21, 2019
B&N / KOBO / APPLE BOOKS
Janine Infante Bosco lives in New York City, she has always
loved reading and writing. When she was thirteen, she began to write her own stories and her passion for writing took off as the years went on. At eighteen, she even wrote a full screenplay with dreams of one day becoming a member of the Screen Actors Guild. Janine writes emotionally charged novels with an emphasis on family bonds, strong willed female characters, and alpha male men who will do anything for the women they love. She loves to interact with fans and fellow avid romance readers like herself.She is proud of her success as an author and the friendships she’s made in the book community but her greatest accomplishment to date would be her two sons Joseph and Paul.
loved reading and writing. When she was thirteen, she began to write her own stories and her passion for writing took off as the years went on. At eighteen, she even wrote a full screenplay with dreams of one day becoming a member of the Screen Actors Guild. Janine writes emotionally charged novels with an emphasis on family bonds, strong willed female characters, and alpha male men who will do anything for the women they love. She loves to interact with fans and fellow avid romance readers like herself.She is proud of her success as an author and the friendships she’s made in the book community but her greatest accomplishment to date would be her two sons Joseph and Paul.
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