3 Stars

Publisher: Random House Publishing Group – Loveswept, Loveswept

Date of publication: November 1st, 2016

Genre: Romance

Series: Sentinels of Babylon

Necessary Evil – Book 1

Where you can find this book: Amazon

Book synopsis:

In this steamy series opener from bestselling author Jamie K. Schmidt—whose writing has been called “hot and sexy, with just the right amount of emotional punch,” by Lauren Layne—a vigilante biker takes the power of love into his own hands.

Lucy Simmons comes from a rough family, but she’s a damn good public defender. Even though she hates to see criminals walk due to sloppy police work, the law’s there to make sure everyone gets a fair trial, and Lucy certainly doesn’t believe in the kind of justice meted out by the leather-clad ex-cop they call “Evil.” He’s stubborn, cynical, and out of control—but he plays her body like no man ever has. For once, both Lucy’s boss and her brother agree: The biker is trouble.

Evan Villiers took a sacred vow to let no killer, rapist, or pedophile go unpunished. When scumbags fall through the system, his motorcycle club cleans up the garbage. Although the Sons of Babylon and their methods may not be to Lucy’s liking, the beautiful lawyer has become Evan’s light in the dark. But his next hit is Lucy’s own brother—a murderer who got off on a technicality. Now, with his loyalties split, Evan must turn his back on his brothers . . . or lose the woman who has claimed his reckless heart.

My review:

Ok, normally I don’t complain about covers or blurbs that describe the book. I actually make it a point not to because there is a reason why the author chose the cover or the publisher wrote the blurb the way they did. But this time, I have to say something.

The guy on the cover does not match up to what the author wrote. See, Evan (aka Evil) has a beard, which was mentioned quite often in the book, and a huge tattoo of a spider on his chest, which was mentioned a few times because of Lucy’s extreme phobia of spiders. So I wasn’t exactly thrilled about the cover and if I had to suggest one thing to the author….change it. Get some awesome tatted hunk to pose for the cover and then put a huge spider tattoo on his chest. Seriously, just do it!!

Now onto the blurb. While some of it stays true to what the story is about but the bit about Lucy’s brother isn’t exactly true. He is suspected of murdering two people, not off on a technicality. Actually, he hadn’t been in jail for 5 years and lived out in CA before coming to NY to escape a psycho ex-girlfriend (or so he says). The suspicion of murder comes after he moves to NY. There is one person in the book who did get off on a technicality. They must have mixed them up.

I actually liked Evil, a lot. While I don’t agree with vigilante’s, I can definitely see where he, Warden, Sentential, Ryder, and the Judge are coming from. Evil is a retired homicide detective, Warden a retired prison guard, Sentential a retired Special Forces and Ryder retired CIA operative. They all have seen the worst of humanity and they all have seen obviously guilty people walk when they should have stayed in jail. Unfortunately, our justice system is flawed and it happens all the time.

Lucy, I was a little more on the face about. While she rocked at being a public defender, she sucked at her personal life (seriously). She supported her brother and made excuses for him. “He got picked up for everything because people automatically assumed he did it because our father went to jail” was the main excuse that she used and it made me want to smack her. Listen, I knew exactly where she was coming from. Having someone who you can’t trust or who is draining you dry of all your money is awful and that’s all I am going to say.

The slow burn, at first, between her and Evil, was delicious. Instead of instantly falling into InstaLove/InstaLust, the author made them have a 2-year history of wanting each other. And when they finally do give in (she went down on Evil in his bar), it is explosive and oh so good!!

I was a little put-off, though, by the amount of violence in the book. Also, I felt that while it was patterned after MC books, it wasn’t a full MC book. Basically, it was just 4 friends who are sick of the justice system and take matters into their own hands that happen to ride motorcycles. Also, there were a couple of loose ends. The slimy lawyer…what happened to him after the SOB’s visited him? And the storyline with the Pyros….it just disappeared after Lucy’s car got torched and the SOB’s took revenge.

The sub-story involving her brother was sad and the ending to that was awful. I felt bad for Evil to be put in that situation and for Lucy to have to be in it (want to know what happened? Read the book!)

The ending was not what I expected and I cried.

I would give Necessary Evil an Adult rating. There is mention of sex. There is mild language. There is mild violence. I would recommend that no one under the age of 21 read this book.

I would reread Necessary Evil. I would recommend it to family and friends.

**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**