Bad Deeds
Lisa Renee Jones     
December 2021 Releases

Contemporary
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Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Dirty Money
Book: 3
Heat Level: Hot

Wall Street meets the Sons of Anarchy in Bad Deeds, the smoldering, scorching next novel in the explosively sexy Dirty Money series from New York Times bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones.

Would you bleed for the one you love?

To save his family empire from the grip of the drug cartel, Shane is pushed to the edge of darkness, forced to make choices he might never make. His father is dying. His brother is desperate to rule the empire and this means war and all gloves are off. His brother only thought he knew what dirty meant. Shane is about to give it new meaning. There is another war brewing though, and that one, is inside him, his battle between right and wrong, light and dark, and in the heat of the night, it is Emily he turns to for escape. Driving her to new limits, pushing her to accept a part of him that even he cannot.

In every one of Shane's seductive demands, Emily can taste and feel, his torment, his struggle to save his family and not lose himself. But he is losing himself, and that is a problem just as dangerous as her secret, that still lurk in the shadows, a threat to the Brandon Family waiting to erupt. No matter where she and Shane have traveled, or will travel in the future, she can't just sit back and watch him become everything he hates, everything he never wanted to become, everything she tried to save him from when she tried to run. It could be their undoing, the end. His end.

This is war, blood will spill, and someone in the heart of the Brandon family will not survive....

Bad Deeds picks up right where Damaged Control ended. Emily and Shane have decided to weather the storm despite the danger that is plowing straight towards them. They are gathered at his family’s house for dinner and it is nothing short of an all out verbal brawl. Eventually, with the Cartel’s influence over the family’s business, they all realize they must come together. They all may be family but they are also enemies as well.

Emily and Shane’s relationship is still going good. I’m rooting for their HEA but it is so hard with the many obstacles that they face. There is so much going on with the family, the cartel and all of the drama. The book starts off with a lot of information dumping again but things rev up and the drama explodes.

Shane is so charming and swoon-worthy. He is not just this lusty beefcake as I had conjured him up in my mind from previous reads. He is more emotional. He is willing to risk getting burned by his family and everyone else for Emily. He sees her as his asset and not just a liability or a threat.

He’s angry. I hear it in the bit of his voice, feel it in the tension in his body. That’s the emotion he feels, and that comes from his certainty that his father is lying. I don’t even think it’s real. This is about fear, fear that he will feel hope and discover it’s false. I step to him, aligning our legs. “Shane-“

“You aren’t my weakness,” he says softly, but somehow vehemently. “You’re just the opposite. You’re the complete contradiction to everything that is this family, and you remind me of the change I’m fighting for.”

I can’t believe that I’m saying this but I feel some sort of sympathy for Derek. He is still a hard character to like. However, LRJ shows a new side to him. We learn more about him and Teresa. I’m warming up to him…well let me say that I’m a bit more intrigued. I also want more of Jessica and Cody. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if I need a book solely on them.

Spoiler Alert: This ends in the mother of cliffhangers. I’m not a fan of cliffhangers and this one is no different. I literally jumped up and yelled out for a few seconds. Now we have to wait for the last installment to the story.

I know there is more to the story but I wonder if we could have wrapped this up into a pretty trilogy. After two or three books, it is hard to continue reading about the same characters. Of course, once you are three books in, you are invested. So I find myself anxiously waiting for the next addition.

~ Samantha