Love's Last Kiss

Deadly Force #4

by Sharon Wray

Love's Last Kiss, a standalone novel in the Deadly Force romantic suspense series, occurs between Every Deep Desire (book 1) and One Dark Wish (book 2).

Is love worth risking everything for?

Rose Guthrie, a reluctant erotic dancer, hasn’t trusted anyone since her parents’ death. Yet, to make money for her brother’s heart transplant, she agrees to deliver a sealed box to a mysterious buyer. Until the box—and the seller—disappear. Not surprised by the betrayal, her situation becomes more dangerous when she learns that two deadly enemies also want the box and are willing to kill everyone she loves for it. With one clue left, she breaks into Doom—Savannah’s violent, illegal fight club. Unfortunately, Doom’s referee—the sexy, ex-Army Ranger, Kade Dolan—stands in her way. Although she harbors a secret attraction to Kade, she can’t let him stop her. If she doesn’t deliver the box on time, she’ll lose everything. Including her own life.

Rose doesn’t trust ex-Army Ranger, ex-con Kade Dolan, but that’s okay—he doesn’t trust himself either. Why? Because he lies to everyone about everything, including his time in Leavenworth and his job as an illegal fight club referee. Then there are his two side gigs. The first as an informant for the Prince, the leader of a secret, two-thousand-year-old private army. The second, loving from afar the beautiful, secretive Rose Guthrie. After the Prince discovers Rose is the courier of a lost 18th century artifact, he orders Kade to help her find the box before their greatest enemy does. If they succeed, Kade must return it to the Prince. If they fail, Kade must kill her.

Betrayal or death. When faced with an impossible choice, Kade can’t lie anymore, at least not when it comes to what he’s about to do the woman he loves. But when Rose uncovers Kade’s lies, they learn a terrible truth—the 18th century box holds a secret far deadlier than they imagined. A secret that could destroy them all.

Genres: Suspense, Romantic Suspense

426 pages, Paperback

Published May 8, 2022

About the author

Sharon is a librarian who once studied dress design in the couture houses of Paris and now writes novels of suspense, adventure, and love. A wife, mother of twins, caretaker of Donut the One-Eyed Dog, she's repped by Deidre Knight and Kristy Hunter of The Knight Agency.


Random Fun Facts:

* Jersey girl married to a boy from Charleston, SC and transplanted in Virginia.
* Still not sure why anyone puts sugar in her iced tea.
* Total Buffy fan. Buffy is why she started writing in the first place.

Reviews

[Susanna Eastman]

I've loved every book in Sharon Wray's Deadly Force series. In Love's Last Kiss, Rose Guthrie, an erotic dancer, and Kade Dolan, an ex-Army ranger, are two lost souls. They've struggled for everything they've gotten in life--and life keeps kicking them when they're already down. When the story starts, the stakes--the lives of the people they love--couldn't be higher. The story twists and turns and keeps your heart racing until the very end. It seems impossible that they will ever find their happily ever after.

[Linda]

Just when you think the Deadly Force series couldn’t get any better, this standalone book blew my mind. It falls between book 1 and 2 and captures your attention from the get go. This book has more intrigue, masterminding, secrets, military and missionary accounts and just good ole come to life mystery. If you like books like this, run don’t walk and read this series. You won’t be sorry and will get hooked from page 1.

[InD'tale Magazine]

Rating: 2.5/5.0

Overall, Ms. Wray’s writing is good, and there are some plot twists within the story that are unexpected, but not incredibly surprising.

Read full review in the 2022 Summer issue of InD'tale Magazine.

[Kindlelover 1220]

A thriller romance with plenty of action. A fast paced story that takes hold of the reader and won’t let go until the end. The author throws in some suspense and writes appealing characters to keep the readers attention.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Suzana]

✔A gorgeous, sullen, broody, jaded ex-Army Ranger with his share of twisted problems
✔A smart, sassy, jaded, reluctant erotic dancer with trust issues and a weight of the world on her shoulders
✔Romantic suspense
✔Romantic thriller
✔Military romance
✔Danger / secrets / lies / mystery
✔Fast paced
✔Riveting / raw / dark / gripping/ gritty
✔Page turner
✔Unpredictable twists and turns
✔Enough emotional baggage to fill a room
✔Off – the- charts chemistry
✔Intense
✔Passionate
✔All consuming
✔Heartfelt / Emotional
✔Wonderful
✔A beautiful love story

Love's Last Kiss is a wonderful addition to Deadly Force series. I love my books with equal amount of romance and suspense and boy, did this book delivered on both. It is amazingly written with a raw, dark, twisted, gut-wrenching, heartbreaking, darkly beautiful storyline. I was captivated by the story and plot from the beginning. This book is a definite 5 star read! The storyline was brilliant; the characters were amazing, raw, real, dealing with real life problems, feelings and judgment while the plot and the suspense kept me on the edge of my seat.

Kade and Rose absolutely stole the show. Their love story is beautiful, messy, emotional, heart wrenching, healing, insanely romantic with ALL.THE.FEELS. and SWOON. I wanted to live forever in these pages and to never let go of these amazing characters and world. Through the book is noticed a gradual change, development and feelings which grew the more they were spending time together - when her life became endangered. He wanted to protect her while battling with himself and the new sensations he felt. They are explosive, perfectly imperfect and a rollercoaster of emotions. It took them time to fully trust and lean on each other. The push and pull between Kade and Rose was incredible even though they don't have a smooth path. They are each other's light in the darkness. They shouldn’t work but they absolutely do. Kade and Rose are effortless and familiar and yet complicated and perplexing. Neither of them liked being vulnerable with each other but that is exactly what needed to happen in order for them to start fresh and begin a relationship.

An absolutely amazing book with everything you could possibly want if you love mysteries, thrillers, character driven storyline, romance, military romance, lies, deceit, danger. With an effortless writing, awe-inspiring details, unputdownable, intense story and a journey of self-discovery, hitting rock-bottom, finding the right path again, healing, forgiveness, believing in love, secrets, lies, mystery, the author takes us on an emotional, heartbreaking and beautiful journey of the characters and their struggles. This is a story that must not be missed.

[Jacquie]

Rose Guthrie will do anything to protect her young brother, who needs a heart transplant, even compromise herself to deliver a valuable box to a secretive buyer. When the seller disappears, along with the box, Rose enters a dangerous game of cat and mouse, one she’s determined to win.

Ex-army ranger, Kade Dolan, doesn’t care about much, he can’t afford to. Thanks to a debt he owes The Prince, leader of the Fianna, a deadly army steeped in history dating back two thousand years, Kade is living on borrowed time before he must give up everything to become a Fianna warrior. The problem is, he’s attracted to the beautiful Rose. When her life is endangered, he steps in, and becomes ensnared in the lies he must keep if he wants to protect the woman he loves.

This is a fast-paced suspense story including lost treasure, nefarious villains, brave heroes, and a love worth fighting for.

[Cheryl]

I have not read any of the other books in this series. Yet this is not a problem as this book can be read as a standalone book. I felt for Rosie. The great lengths she went to save her brother is very admirable. She put herself in danger. Luckily, Kade is there to help protect her.

While Kade watches out for Rosie, he did not smother her. He allowed her feisty side to come out. Together these two worked well together. Kade isa good guy but I was not feeling the romantic aspect in the beginning between these two. Yet, as the story did progress, I did like these two together.

I did think the pacing of the story moved at a good, steady one. I found myself reading several chapters at a time. I may not have fully engaged with the characters, but I still was engaged with the overall storyline.

[Hannah]

I'm not crying your crying. That ending really got me. Full of mystery and machinations. From start to finish this book is intense. Kade and Rose hits you in the heartstrings. For Kade it is instant but Rose takes some time because she has a hard time trusting. I knew that Vane wasn't all bad, I just have more questions about him now. Yes I would recommend you read at least the first book first, but it's not necessary. This does take place between books 1 and 2, so it won't be that hard to keep up.

[Christine Woinich]

This was an interesting story, though at times, I was a bit confused as to which side everyone was on. Rose was a determined woman to help her brother whatever way she could. She got herself into trouble, but she also found Kade. Kade had his own issues, but he could not help his attraction to Rose. With danger, death, secrets galore, and more, Rose and Kade found ways to be together, now and in the future.

I received a copy of this story through Xpresso Tours, and this is my unsolicited review.

[Pam]

Love's Last Kiss the fourth book in the Deadly Force series by Sharon Wray
This book is action packed with lost of twists and turns. It has everything, assassins, betrayal, hate, deceit, murder, intrigue, friendship, love, family and a sick child. I loved this book, it had me on the edge of my seat.

[Sammye]

This is an emotional, heartbreaking romantic suspense in the Deadly Force series. It’s action packed and full of danger, steam, lies, secrets and lots of twists. I thoroughly enjoyed it. *this was a complimentary copy via BookSirens and this is my honest review*

[Laura R]

This is a dark romantic suspense story with plenty of twists along the way that will keep you guessing as to what is going to happen next. There are a lot of characters and it takes a while in the story to figure out who they all are and which characters are aligned with each other.

[Jennifer Goins]

Love the book. It was well written and had wonderful characters in the storyline. The book was so easy to read. To learn more about this wonderful author please check out their Newsletters.

[Gail Bengston]

Intrigue, trust and more Bowing men. A little bit of history, great characters and a great story. Love the deadly force novels!

[MammaDi3Gatti]

I'm not entirely sure how to review this novel. It's my first one in the series and possibly by this author, and while it can be read as a standalone, I think reading the other books in the series would be a good idea. Officially, it's book four, but chronologically, it takes place between books one and two. Therefore, there are references that I assume pertain to the first book and possibly add context to the second book, but I couldn't say for sure.

I also not entirely sure what genre it is. It's billed as a romantic suspense, and it definitely is that, but it also felt paranormal and somewhat post-apocalyptic. I don't think that was the author's intent. The post-apocalyptic part I get from the dark description of Savannah's less savory neighborhoods that are especially hard hit by some kind of weird issue with the electrical grid. Eventually, it's mentioned that the issue is related to Fianna hijinks, and I suspect that it's described in greater length in previous novels of the series. Without that background knowledge, however, it felt apocalyptic.

What is/who are the Fianna? That's the part that felt paranormal to me. Essentially, it's a super secret society--though a lot of characters seemed to know about it--that sees justice as black and white and seems to think it's its mission to even the scales. The way the Fianna warriors are described calls to mind ghostly pirates, with their odd rolling gait and single-minded purpose. They're clearly not the good guys, but it would be hard to say that they're the bad guys either. Regardless, they're apparently just regular men who have had anything but the Fianna's mission cruelly trained out of them. Even so, I just couldn't get behind the idea that these are actual people. Real people.

If you scrape away all this confusion, at its core, this is a really good story. Rose is a great heroine who's been dealt a pretty crappy hand. Our hero, Kane, has also been really screwed over, but he sees his redemption in Rose. His willingness to sacrifice everything for her is pretty darn dreamy. The supporting cast, which includes characters from the other books, of course, is large in number, which can get confusing at times. And while are hero and heroine are clearly good and specific characters are really bad, the bulk of the supporting cast is somewhere in the middle. Even the ones who are clearly on Rose and Kane's side are mysterious.

Overall, this is good book, but I don't think it's meant to be read as a standalone, not if you really want to get the full sense of the story. That said, if this is the first of the series that you pick up, you'll still get a good read. You just may be left with more questions than answers. You will, however, get your HEA.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion. Thanks!

[Tanya]

This book is twisted, steamy, action-packed, and heartbreaking. Rose is a fighter but also a damsel in distress. Kade is a bad boy but can't help protect, care and love. The author throws in so many twists it is hard to keep it straight, and just as you think the heroine couple will win against the odds, the best surprising moment happens, and you are left reeling. The mystery, the suspense, and the action will leave you wanting to get to the next part of this page-turning story. I like the historical references, secret society interference, and family connections that the author has included. I can't wait to see how this end will Rose get her happily ever after?

Rose is a loving sister. She has a young brother with a medical illness; she does what she can for him. She knows Samantha, Deke, and Kade and is in Savannah. Where she was and what she does feels familiar with the last book I read, also the bowing man. What a prologue; as soon we get a footing, everything changes. Now what?

Rose is desperate to help her brother, but she also deals with a lot of red tape and rules. Kade likes Rose but is not sure how to start something with her. Kade seems to have a little trouble with the law. He works at Iron Racks Gym, which is also familiar. I do like his bad boy vibe, yet he is still protective of women.

This book gets intriguing as Kade and Rose get roped into helping the Fianna warriors and The Prince. This book also seems to correlate along the same timeline as the last, and I am glad I read that one first. Deals, clues, and twists are great as they hunt for this object everyone wants.

I like the darkness in the men's nightlife, including Callum and the Fianna. Callum ensures this gets the edge-of-your-seat action and is very dark as it introduces illegal underground fighting. Kade is poetic in his affirmation of love and trust.

Difficult choices and unexpected results strike Kade and Rose as they must choose what happens next. Rose isn't at all informed, and it is heartbreaking. However, when all hope is lost, her fighting spirit comes into play. I was surprised and thrilled by the ending of this book.

[Barbara Lack]

Wow! This book is cleverly written. It flows smoothly. This book was violent at times but so romantic while doing it. It takes a talented writer to pull that off and that’s what Sharon Wray did. I couldn’t stop turning the pages. I had to see how it ended. The ending was perfect.

[Sammye]

This is an emotional, heartbreaking romantic suspense in the Deadly Force series. It’s action packed and full of danger, steam, lies, secrets and lots of twists. I thoroughly enjoyed it. *this was a complimentary copy via BookSirens and this is my honest review*

[Lisa Benton]

I liked the historical background of this one. I did a little research on our friend Button, and even found his signature on Wikipedia. Great job on this story, but calling it #4 is definitely misleading. It should be changed to 1.5