I’m tired.
I’m tired of running, tired of hiding, tired of always looking over my shoulder.
Now my guys must endure this too.
The clock is still ticking in my head.
I feel him circling, getting closer and closer.
The fear I carry is nearly suffocating. Not for me, but for my guys. I know what it’s like to have your family taken from you in the most brutal of ways. I won’t lose my family again. I will do whatever it takes to protect them. Even if that means I must face the monster who has haunted my nightmares and reality and kill him myself.
Please forgive me, my Stone boys.
I must do this to free you. And…to free me.

I finally got around to cracking this kindle book open. I read the 3 previous books in the series in 2024, but I had to wait for this book to be released. When I first started reading it, I was so confused because it has been so long since I had finished the third book, I couldn’t quite remember what was going on. My brain also remembered the main character by a different name and no matter how many times I told myself her current name IS her real name; my brain would not answer.

I intended to read this through my lunchbreak, but it ended up being devoured past that as I had the unfortunate experience of drinking a mug of hot chocolate which then triggered an FND episode with crushing nausea.

This is the last book in the series, and it starts with the knowledge that Mr X has found Shiloh. Mr X has been a rather silent counterpart in the first three books. He was the bogeyman I wasn’t sure we’d ever meet. He is responsible for the murder of Shiloh’s family and her entrance into the Witness Protection Program.

Mr X is the one Shiloh has been running from and Shiloh is the object of Mr X’s obsession. It was always going to end in a conflict, I just couldn’t work out when or where.

Having reacquainted myself with Keenan, Knox, Creed and Colt, I am reminded of how their characters have evolved from the first book and how they have easily adapted to having Shiloh in their lives and adapted to her actions to protect them all.

In the previous three books I found the level of smut versus plot to be average, they each complemented each other. However, in this last book, with what the plot had at stake, I found there was too much smut, and this took away from the plot of being hunted and being in danger. I understand the need for the character to be distracted and have moments of fun, but if I was on the run from a homicidal maniac who had killed my entire family as well as injured those close to me, I wouldn’t be that interested in popping my socks with four hunky men.

It was predictable to me that Shiloh would find a way to separate herself from her men and to ‘shoulder the responsibility alone’. It found it a little disappointing to be honest. I know the character has strength and resilience and also has a lot of vulnerability and guilt, but I didn’t feel propelled into the moment, it took me out of it instead.

I’ve read a fair amount of spicy books with the ‘damsel in distress – but dark and violent’ aspect and while each of their stories have been different, none of them gave into the ‘come to me and x,y,z lives’. So, I was disappointed that Shiloh did go down this route. It almost made her character unbelievable.

Her attitude to being lured out did a little to mollify me. I still didn’t feel connected to the story in the way that I wanted to but I was able to finish reading.

Not the best ending to the series – in my opinion – but it was readable.