Wednesday, March 19, 2014

PROVOKE by Missy Johnson

PROVOKE
(Provoke Book 1)
by Missy Johnson
Release: March 16, 2014

My rating: 3 of 5 ⭐️






Twenty-three year old Assistant Prosecutor, Leeta Drake had not planned on falling for the tattooed bad boy only months after her bad break-up. But despite the fact that they did not appear to be the best of matches, or that her parents would not approve of her choice, Leeta believed the man she was in love with was good to the core. That is, until she saw the videos on his computer.

With an upbringing and a family like his, Mace Jordan was well aware that getting involved with a good girl like Leeta was a very bad idea. Especially since he had just found a way to rid himself of the dark need for revenge that shadowed his heart. Not the kind of thing Leeta could be exposed to or would be understanding of, nor could he afford to be diverted from his goal. But he knew, the moment she found him out.

How to explain to the woman you love, that you had sold your soul to the devil? To a woman who made it her life to uphold the law, that what she saw was not necessarily all it seemed? That your reasons for hurting her were unavoidable in your quest for restitution? 

*******

Very dark and carnal, at times disturbing and desparate pursuit of justice.

With family members in jail and a not so squeaky clean history himself, Mace is determined to stay on the straight and narrow. But a tragic event that leaves him burdened with grief and a measure of guilt, pushes him into a decision that ends up not just affecting him, but the one he wanted to keep unsoiled by the dark side of his life.

Young and successful, Leeta was raised in a relatively protected coccoon, but her job in the prosecutor's office had provided enough of life's less pleasant realities. So Leeta was not entirely innocent and unprepared for the trouble that Mace brought with him. After the initial shock, she manages to think on her feet and think outside the box.

Although I enjoyed the interplay between the characters early on in the book, as I got further along, and the secrets were revealed, I had more and more trouble finding their interactions believable. In fact, at times their behaviour seemed erratic and out of left field. We don't really get a chance to know them very well before the proverbial shit hits the fan, so it is difficult anyway to gage what their version of 'normal' should be. 

The chemistry early on was definitely heated, however, all sensuality disappeared from my experience of the book, once the subplot became evident. That had nothing to do with the quality of writing, but was simply a side effect of the topic at hand. 

I liked the premise of the story, but found the execution rather choppy and a bit limited. There were scenes that seemed cut off mid scene and simply left. There were jumps in time and place without some kind of connective tissue that made me wonder where I was in the grand scope of things. People were introduced without any real substance or concrete place in the story, and there are still things that are not quite clear to me about the purpose of their involvement.

Overall a decent read, with some explicit heat and a fair share of action and suspense! 

✨A harsh, dark, heated plot for revenge.✨

**Copy provided in return for an honest review.**




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