5 RESPLENDENT STARS!!
“It’s from the ruins they will rise.”
Holy Amazeballs!! Five stars does not even come CLOSE to encapsulating how extraordinary FROM THE RUINS, book 1 in Janine Infante Bosco's new Satan’s Knights series, is! It’s the kind of all-consuming book grabs your heart from page one, RAVAGES, then HEALS, the soul, and keeps you ENTHRALLED up until the very end! This is my first novel from this exceptionally talented author but it Will. Not. Be. My. Last!
This is the PALPABLE love story of two broken souls who rise from the ruins of unspeakable tragedy and despair and fight valiantly to become whole again! After losing his wife in a gory ambush, Lee "Pipe" Jameson vows to avenge her death—or die trying— turns his back on the Satan's Knights club, and holes up in his cabin in the woods determined to drink his way into oblivion. The last thing this grouchy, grief-stricken bear of a man wants is human companionship so when he meets his new neighbor, Layla Milano, a single mother struggling to raise three kids all by herself, he is HARDLY civilized. And she gives him a mighty big tongue lashing in return! The mouthy broad is a prickly thorn in his side but her fiery inner light just might be what he needs to keep him from plunging into the dark abyss.
And even though a fiercely independent Layla is leery of entrusting her heart to another man again, there is something about the primally sexy brute that calls to an elemental part of her. Lee is a shell of a man, wallowing in misery, but she feels compelled to bring him back from the ledge, and in turn, just might mend her own shattered heart in the process. Can these two damaged souls heal each other and find hope, renewal and sweet salvation in each other?
I RELISH books like this that wring every single emotion out of you. I smiled, shivered, squirmed, hurt, cried, felt dread churn in my gut, got giddy butterflies and had to fan myself off on many an occasion! And talk about an epic TRIUMPHING AGAINST ALL ODDS love story!!!!
These characters SLAYED me and left an indelible mark on my heart. And I have MAD, PASSIONATE LOVE for Lee, a true tortured soul who has had a very rough life. The son of an Irish immigrant, he was conceived from a brutal act of violence—
“I was born from hell…. and Satan’s blood filled my veins”
—and his tragic fate was sealed from the moment he drew his first breath. Although his devoted mother did everything in her power to make sure he stayed on the straight and narrow, after her gruesome murder he found himself lost and all alone in the world, fighting for survival on the streets. After serving hard time in juvie, his entry into Satan’s Knights MC was an answer to his every unspoken prayer, paving the way for his desperately needed rebirth.
“Twenty-odd years ago, I found my religion. I didn’t find it in a church or at some temple. There was no holy figure praying for me, welcoming me into his kingdom as he submerged me in water. There was me. And there was Satan. Dressed in leather, I knelt before his altar and took an oath. Fearing nothing, I vowed to ride through the valley of the shadow of death with my brothers at my side...”
Pipe embraced the MC life and eventually found an old lady of his own to love and protect, honor and cherish. He’d thought he’d finally found his own slice of happiness until she was taken from him in another cruel twist of fate. Drowning in guilt and rage and mind-numbing grief, all he wanted was to suffer in silence until Layla and her brood storm uninvited into his solitary world.
A newly divorced Layla has not exactly led a charmed life either. Yet even though her woeful unhappy marriage to her abusive ex chipped away at her self esteem, she is determined to pave a good life for her beloved kids. And OMG those kids! They were quite a handful and all tugged at my heartstrings—especially troubled 16 year old Tommy and adorable little “Half-Pint!”— and these young’uns not only played a key role in uniting these two unlikely lovers together, but along the way they all became a family worth fighting for.
Their truly was not a dull moment in this book, the feels were OFF THE CHARTS, and the crackling chemistry between this combustible duo was ELECTRIFYING! Although Layla and Lee’s relationship starts off combative, it eventually morphs into a wondrous love that inflames the heart! Speaking of flames…once these two catch fire, they positively smolder!!
As you would imagine with any MC book worth its mettle, it’s got plenty of danger and suspense and flying bullets to keep the adrenaline pumping. And I enjoyed how the close knit culture of the Satan’s Knight’s brotherhood is woven so integrally into the tapestry of the story.
“We’re family, maybe not by blood, but by choice. It’s a thing of beauty to look at a person knowing you chose them and they chose you. For when we die, the blood that binds us will drain, but the imprint we leave on one another’s soul will carry on. It will live within the walls of this clubhouse. It will be the foundation that guides the anarchy of the Satan’s Knights for all of time.”
Bottom Line: FROM THE RUINS is not a sweet, syrupy romance by any means. It’s GUTWRENCHING and GRITTY and UNFLINCHINGLY RAW, but at its core is a poignant, passionate and incredibly uplifting love story about soul deep healing and second chances that strikes a powerful chord! I savored every single broken-hearted and hauntingly beautiful moment, and look forward to more installments in the WILDLY ADDICTIVE Satan’s Knights series!!