Confessions of 2 Book Lovers: REVIEW: Royal Blood by Amity Cross

A hit gone wrong, an impossible contract, revenge and the ultimate kicker… falling in love.

Mercy Reid is a runner.
She found the perfect place to hide, until it wasn't.
Xavier "X" Blood always gets what he wants.
He had the perfect arrangement, until it wasn't.

X is the mysterious tough guy from Royal Blood MC who gets shit done. Cross the Club and you get a visit from X. Only one person walks away at the end of it...and it isn't you.
Mercy is hiding something. Something big. Looking to get lost, she runs from one hopeless situation right into the clutches of a monster.
When X and Mercy meet, something more electrifying than sparks fly. Something dangerous, passionate and forbidden.

When you deal in death, there's only one way things can end...

Or is there?

Warning: If you like sparkly unicorns and hearts, Royal Blood IS NOT for you.

If you like dark twisty anti-heroes and heart stopping roller coasters, Royal Blood IS for you.

If you like teddy bears and kittens with whiskers, Royal Blood IS NOT for you.

If you like unapologetic alpha males that drip sex and talk dirty, Royal Blood IS for you.

You have been warned.

Um wow. I've recently gotten on this revenge / mafia kick, so when my best book buddy brought Royal Blood to my attention, I saw it had the revenge part as well as bikers! So of course I was all over it like white on rice. It helped that the blurb sounded freaking awesome too! ;) So I went into this one basically blind having only read the blurb, which I almost never do. There's a reason for this. I will try to curtail any spoilers, but there is one that I simply can't not tell my fellow readers right off the bat. There is a cliffhanger in this book. I abhor cliffhangers. They are the Antichrist I tell you! Hence my need to never go in blind as I've been burned before. The book as a whole, without the cliffhanger, would be a solid 4 stars for me. It was intriguing, action packed, there were twists and turns and it had a unique story line. Oh, and lots of really hot sex! I enjoyed almost everything about it! The writing was good, the characters were well developed. There wasn't a point where I lost interest. Things were going fairly well, if I do say so. Until I got to the end. The cliff forced me to drop a half star. It would have been a whole star had the book itself (and it must be said, the last line was KICK ASS!) wasn't so damn good! Honestly, had I known prior to starting that there was a cliffhanger, I would have declined to review this until after book 2 was out. Alas, I didn't have that information in the beginning. Hopefully the author won't make us wait too long and even more hopefully, the next book won't have a cliffhanger too!!! (hint hint, please don't let book 2 have a cliff!!!)

First up is Mercy Reid. She's got a dark and gruesome past. She's hiding from something / someone and she has a secret agenda. Revenge. Dig it!

Next up is Xavier Blood, known as X. He's a hit man for the Royal Blood MC. DIG IT! ;) He has an even more dark and mysterious past. So mysterious, even he doesn't remember what it is! Poor guy was treated to some serious shit times to force that knowledge out of his head.

X gets a new contract. Someone tried to kill the president of a rival MC and they decide to stall the war with the Royal's in order to utilize the talents of X to find, then dispatch said wannabe killer. Here's where things get tricky. And here's where I pull a stunt like the author and leave this review on a cliffhanger! Mwahahahahaaaa!!!

Seriously, if I were to continue down this path I'd end up giving away all the goods. And for once in my reviewing life, I'm not gonna spoil it! :P (neener neener ha ha)

I liked this book a lot. The end pissed me off as ALL cliffhangers do, but the difference here is, this author left it with a KICK ASS line, and made me want to actually read the next one! That never happens, so props to Amity Cross for that smooth move! ;)

Sliding out of the booth, I sauntered across the pub and ducked behind the counter. Nobody gave me a second glance. They didn't know who I was, nobody did, but they knew I wasn't anybody good. Peering through the window on the door, Mercy had her back turned, wiping at her damp T-shirt. I could step into her from behind and show her how hard I was…but that wasn't the way this game was going to be played.

Pressing the door open with the flat of my palm, she looked up at me with blue eyes that gave away two things. Her hair wasn't naturally black and by the way her pupils dilated, she was amped up. I was interested in only one of these observations and by the way my cock began to stir, there was no guessing which one was the money shot.

Mercy glared up at me, trying to cover her surprise at my appearance.

“What the fuck do you want?” she spat, dabbing at her tiny T-shirt with a rag. “You’re not allowed back here. Employees only."

I stepped closer, not put off by her tone at all. I’d had worse.

“I don’t give a shit,” I said.

She eyed me, her gaze raking from head to cock and back up again.

I quirked an eyebrow, my lip curling in amusement.

“If you want something, just fucking say it,” she said with an exasperated sigh. “I don’t even know who the fuck you are."

“X.”

“X, what?” she said, putting her hands on her hips. Bitch didn’t miss a trick.

“It’s my name."

"X as in the letter x?" She rolled her eyes.

"Got a problem?" I asked, inching closer.

“Yeah.” She nodded at me. “You’re in a staff only area. You might be all buddy buddy with Weiss, but I don’t know you from shit."

“The mouth on you,” I breathed, totally turned on. I knew she had bite in her, but fucking Jesus H Christ. The more she bit, the harder I got. My gaze rested on her tits. Yeah, I was a tits man through and through and hers...

“You think I’m going to let you fuck me?” she scoffed, her bluntness doing nothing but turning me on even more.

My gaze snapped back to hers. “Who said I was going to fuck you?"

She pressed her hips forward, her groin rubbing into mine. “Your cock."

My hand shot up and grasped the hair at the nape of her neck. With a sharp tug, her head fell to the side, leaving her neck exposed. If I was an asshole, I’d just take her now, but I wasn't…fuck that. I was an asshole. Asshole was too safe a word to describe the kind of man I was.

“No,” I said, running my gaze down her pale neck and over her tits. “No, I’m not going to fuck you, Mercy.” She gave me a look that screamed ‘offended' and it only made me grin wider. “Not here. When I fuck you, I’m not going to share your screams with anyone."

Her entire body shivered and I knew I had her. Next time, she would come to me.

Letting her go, I let her hair run between my fingers and it took her a beat too long to step back and separate our bodies.

Giving her one last appreciative look, I turned on my heel and exited the ‘employee only’ room. I could wait. My cock strained against my jeans in protest, but this was one desire I was playing out and savoring.

I strode across the bar and pushed out the door, rearranging myself.

I could wait.