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Review

3.5 ‘The Cop and the Ex-Con’ stars

This is the sixth and final book in The Marked Men series, and I have been really excited to get to it. I really like the ‘opposites attract’ set up, and with the chemistry that’s been building between Asa and Royal over the last few books, I knew there were going to be fireworks when these two finally got together.

Asa’s introduction to the series wasn’t exactly a positive one. He is Ayden’s wayward, criminal brother, a liar and a con-artist, and the story of his past is full of bad and dangerous behaviour. But a brush with death served as a wake-up call, and since then he has worked hard to reclaim his life. He moved to Denver to be closer to his sister, got a job working at Rome’s bar, and has put his past behind him in order to be the kind of brother that Ayden deserves, and the kind of man that he can be proud of.

Royal lives in the same building as Nash, and has become close friends with Saint. She’s stunningly beautiful, is passionate about her job as a police officer, and holds nothing of herself back. She has wanted Asa since she first laid eyes on him and though he hasn’t responded to her advances, it hasn’t stopped her from trying.

“He might have been a criminal in the past, but now I was the one that wanted to steal something from him and keep it for my own … he was going to put up a fight once he realized I was after his heart. After all, it was my job to capture the bad guy … only this one I wasn’t planning on letting go of.”

When this book starts, Royal is in a bad place. A tragic shooting on the job has left her best friend and partner badly injured in hospital, and Royal is struggling with her part in the incident. On suspension and questioning everything in her life, the only thing she knows for sure is that she wants Asa. Of course Asa wants her right back – what man wouldn’t? But he’s a bad boy who has nothing to offer the gorgeous cop. And even though he’s turned his life around, he knows that she deserves better than anything he has to offer.

There’s a bit of back and forth between these two as Royal chases Asa, and he continues to push her away, but she is one determined girl! And when she finally gets her man right where she wants him… hotness!!

“I never claimed to be an angel and even the devil could only play with fire for so long before he gave in to unholy temptation and danced in the flames.”

Neither of them can deny their mad attraction, but they have a lot to work through – they both have dramas in their lives, let alone the hurdles Asa keeps putting in place for any relationship progression – and honestly, I found the story to be a bit slow moving in places as they went over and over the same ground. But the connection between them is explored really nicely and it’s just as emotional as it is physical, and I genuinely liked both of the characters and was cheering for them to find their HEA.

“You don’t judge me, you don’t try and make it better. You just let me feel bad while making me feel really good . . . I want to do that for you, too.”

Again, there is a dramatic climax, but this one was really well done – predictable, but still a nice twist, and written in a way where I could understand where the characters were coming from and nobody behaved stupidly. I honestly had no idea how it was going to be resolved, but I believed in the characters, and in what they had found together (and of course they were always going to get a happy ending!), so it was just a matter of sitting back and watching it all unfold.

“The cop and the criminal. Who would have ever seen that coming?”
“I saw it from a mile away…and you’re a reformed criminal.”
“I stole your heart, didn’t I?”
“I stole yours first, Asa.”
“You can’t take something that was yours all along, Red.”

Swooooon!

While this book wasn’t my favourite of the series, I still enjoyed it. Asa and Royal are both great characters, both strong in their own ways, and I loved their individual character growth throughout the book. Their story ends in a really good place, and as a bonus, there is an epilogue which finishes off not only this book, but the whole series beautifully.

“We were marked and had been marked in unforgettable and forever ways. We were all better men for it. Marked men. None of us would have it any other way.”

I love that all of the couples once again feature in everything that is going on in the story, and there is some great progression for each of their stories. And I’m so glad I don’t need to say goodbye to these characters just yet. With the spin-off series Saints of Denver sitting there waiting for me, I can’t wait to continue on.

3.5 stars