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Release Blitz: Silent Knight by Layla Reyne

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Silent Knight | Layla Reyne

Fog City #5

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Release Date: May 3rd, 2021

Cover Design: Cate Ashwood

Photography: Wander Aguiar

Universal Link: mybook.to/SilentKnight

Add to Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2LYJ7Yq

READ MY REVIEW

Silent Knight Ebook

The time was never right before. Now they’re on opposite sides of the law… and more in love than ever. But none of that will matter, if they don’t survive until morning.

Blurb

I won’t let anything happen to you.

Fourteen years ago, Braxton Kane’s feelings were forbidden.
As an officer, he couldn’t fall for an enlisted… no matter how much he longed for Holt Madigan.
Now–as a police chief in love with a digital assassin–his promise to always protect Holt is becoming harder to keep.

I’ll protect you.

Holt doesn’t understand why his best friend has been pushing him away for months.
But when Brax’s life and career are threatened, Holt refuses to allow the distance any longer.
The Madigans protect their own, and Brax is family, whether he believes it or not.

I won’t let anything happen to you either.

Forced together, Holt realizes his feelings for his best friend have changed.
His desire to explore the promise their single night together held is undeniable.
His resolve to protect the man who has always protected him is unshakable.
But if Holt wants a future with Brax, he’ll have to search and destroy the person who attacked him–before Brax activates the kill switch and sacrifices himself.

Love and devotion. Friendship and trust. Family. It all comes down to this. Holt and Kane, together at last, in the final book of the Fog City romantic suspense series.

Silent Knight - AN IGS Teaser 2

About The Author

layla_reyne

Layla Reyne is the author of the Fog City, Agents Irish and Whiskey, Trouble Brewing, and Changing Lanes series.

A Carolina Tar Heel who now calls the San Francisco Bay Area home, Layla enjoys weaving her bi-coastal experiences into her stories, along with adrenaline-fueled suspense and heart-pounding romance.

Social Media

Website: https://www.laylareyne.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/laylareyne

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B01N8ZS9QF

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laylareyne

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/laylaslushes

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laylareyne/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/laylareyne

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/layla-reyne

Silent Knight - AN Teaser

A perfect masterclass in how to end a series with an unshakeable love

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Silent-Knight-Ebook-for-JJSilent Knight by Layla Reyne

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Couldn’t have been a more perfect ending to the Fog City series than this book.

***

There are a few authors I know I shouldn’t start to read after 10pm at night because I simply will not be able to put their book down until I have finished it.

Layla Reyne is one of those authors, and her Fog City series has been an exemplar lesson in why I know this fact.

Which is why I didn’t get to sleep until gone 3.30am because I just couldn’t tear myself away from this powerful example of the steadfastness of a real and unshakeable love.

Brax and Holt are everything which dreams are made of, a solid foundation of friendship which blossoms after hard trials into a love for the ages, a relationship which isn’t perfect but which is absolutely right for the two men at the heart of it.

The premise at the heart of this series has been about family. How they are the ones you can rely on, but also the ones who can wound you the deepest.

Each of the Madigan siblings has gone through the mill to reach their happy ending, Holt’s perhaps being the hardest because he thought he’d already found it with his ex-wife Amelia.

And, speaking of, her actions here both broke my heart at the selflessness she shows, and also made me want to envelop her in the biggest hug possible, because she also goes through her own journey in coming to terms with events in the previous books.

This is a suspense series, so of course the main thrust of the narrative surrounds the team trying to find out who is targeting Brax in his role as Chief of Police. But we also get to discover why Brax has bent the rules whenever he can for the Madigans in a series of flashbacks which form the first part of the book.

For me it was an inspired decision, Layla gives us Braxton’s POV for the first time and we get into the heart of his devotion. He fell for Holt the second the 20-year-old scared Private First Class stepped off the transport plane out in the war zone deserts and his love never wavered.

Such devotion is hard to write without making the character look like a sad sack, but it is done here with such skill that you will fall for Holt too as you see him grow through Brax’s eyes.

Holt’s demisexuality is also brilliantly explored and we finally get to see the one night they spent together before life took them in different directions after Holt’s discharge. It’s beautiful in both the level of trust given and in the heartbreaking knowledge that almost a decade has passed since those feelings were given free rein between the two.

Honestly, I could rhapsodise about this book for hours because I have been waiting for Brax and Holt’s story almost since page one of Prince of Killers and I was trying not to have unrealistic expectations for their story.

But my faith was as solid as Brax’s and it was rewarded with a masterclass in how to interweave a romance with a suspense plot that drives a narrative pace which has your heart racing and your adrenaline pumping from beginning to the very happy end.

As for all the Easter Egg appearances of some of my absolute favourite characters of all time (read Layla’s Whiskeyverse series’ if you haven’t yet because they’re exceptional!), they just added the icing onto a truly perfect cake.

#ARC kindly received from the author via Valentine PR in return for an honest and unbiased review

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Another one to add to my favourites shelf from J.R. Lawrie

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The Sheltering Tree by J.R. Lawrie

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

J.R.’s debut collection of short stories is one of my favourite books of all time and this one has gone right next to it on the shelf.

The relationship between Alastair and Jay is perfectly developed through intense chemistry when they first meet, to a hesitant friends with benefits sexual exploration and then into a deep friendship.

They are studies in opposites, Alastair’s high flying job as Commander of the Metropolitan Police puts him in the spotlight, but it’s something he does under sufferance. Jay’s role as CEO of a company helping at risk kids is close to home, and he’s hiding a painful secret which would have devastating consequences if it comes out.

There’s a tension runs through the book because of this secret, which the reader isn’t a party to either in full, which makes the narrative pacing a perfect blend of the quieter, intimate moments with the suspense elements.

Sex is inspired between these two. Alastair hasn’t had chance to have a relationship for years, Jay is too busy hiding himself to really let go but together, they fly high.

The scenes at Cliveden are among my most favourite romantic encounters in any book, they’re so filled with all the feelings the two men are trying to suppress. The speculative added commentary from the hotel staff just pops the cherry on an already delicious cake imho. It made me smile big time.

There’s also an excellent set of secondary characters, one of my favourites being Alastair’s personal assistant (and general go-to gal) Juliet, who is encouraging and mothering of him even though she’s much younger.

I won’t go into the details of the suspense element of the plot, only to say that it works perfectly throughout as Jay’s past comes back to threaten not only him, but Alastair’s position. The build-up to the final quarter of the book will make your heart race as the danger gets closer.

Oh, and the wee little Easter Egg reference to Richard from J.R.’s Let Your Heart Be Light: A Collection of M/M Holiday Romances was brilliant. If you’ve not read that book yet, I’d definitely suggest you do!

I can’t wait to see what other people think of this book, it’s one of my absolute favourite reads in any genre.

#ARC kindly received from the author in return for an honest and unbiased review

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