Review Tour: EULOGY: Rachel Van Dyken

by - Wednesday, February 21, 2018

EULOGY(Eagle Elite #9)
Rachel Van Dyken
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Release Date February 20, 2018

All is lost.
All.
I don't recognize myself in the mirror anymore.
My thoughts are filled with hatred and dripping with rage.
I've lost my soul.
She took it to the depths of Hell with her and haunts me with images of what could have been.
Sixty lives are mine to take.
Sixty lives stand in the way of my vengeance.
Sixty lives plus one more.
Mine.
When the last drop of blood falls — mine will be spilled.
Only one person stands in the way.
She doesn't realize I'll kill her too.
I don't own a heart.
And even if I did — I wouldn't fall prey to its lies again.
I am Chase Abandonato.
Heir to a legacy of betrayal.
And I will kill them all.
Even if it means pointing the gun at myself.
A life for a life.
A soul for a soul.
Now I lay me down to sleep… I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
Blood in. No out.

The next stand alone in the internationally bestselling Eagle Elite Series.

Chase Abandonato is no longer the man we have known through this series...the one with a sense of humor, the one that held them together, and the one with a heart. He is now fueled by rage, pain, and bitterness, and considers himself a soulless monster. The rest of his group all have something to lose with their wives or children, but Chase has nothing left to lose. And he is out of control and set on revenge. 

Luciana Smith was a Junior assistance working for Nikolai and she now finds herself right in the middle of the families and in close quarters with the unstable Chase who does not want her around. She is naive, innocent, and smart, but anxious and fearful. She did not realize quite what she was getting herself into.

This is intense, gritty, raw, violent, and action-packed. It is told in multiple points of view... some that  are clearly labeled and one that is a mystery. The families still have enemies gunning for them and now they are also fracturing themselves. And Chase himself is a broken man on a suicide mission.

But Luc unexpectedly brings him little flashes that shed light into his darkness and pain. He has never had a woman actually want him for himself and to truly accept all that he wants to give. But he does not think he could possibly have anything left to offer and does not feel worthy. But she has the potential to at least temporarily make him feel human and alive again. He has is own agenda he cannot seem to see past.

She may be in over her head, but she also might be the one that could save him. Or she could be the final nail in the coffin...

This was another no-holds-barred, intense, raw, brutal story of life in the mafia world. It brings back the whole group in all of their terrifying glory. On the one hand they live in extremes and are vicious criminals, but they also believe strongly in loyalty, family, love, protection. They have sarcastic, dark, and witty senses of humor. But at the core of this is  the story of a damaged man desperately in need of hope, healing, acceptance and someone to see him and fight for him.

It took me a bit to get back into this world and up to speed on all that was going on...and to handle seeing Chase in a whole new light. But it kept me guessing and wondering, and it kept building, and the last half of the book had so much going on that I was completely enthralled. There were so many secrets, omissions, twists, surprises, shockers, and big reveals! I guessed some, but others totally made me yell out in surprise. So much violence, danger, passion, action, and situations flipping. And so many strong emotions. This is why I cannot stop reading this series. I am so attached to the unique and complex characters, and this author is not afraid to step outside the box and go to extremes.

I was gifted a copy.
Chase’s world was crushed in Enrage. He is living in a shell of a house, taking his rage out on anyone who makes the mistake of stepping inside, living for retaliation and revenge. He doesn’t plan on letting anyone in, not the people who already love him, and certainly not anyone new.

There is so much darkness in Chase’s world that it was hard to like him a lot of the time. If I didn’t already love him and hurt for him, it might have been harder to get into this book. But his darkness is understandable after the betrayal he felt at the hands of his wife. He has moments of sweetness followed by moments of terror that gave me whiplash just as much as it did the characters in the story.

I have come to expect the unexpected with this series, and Luciana exceeded my expectations for someone to stand up to Chase. She is so different than any of the other Eagle Elite women that she is exactly what Chase needs. I loved her introduction to him, her honest reactions, and her sweet spark.

This book kept me guessing with a mystery narrator and several rotating narrators in addition to narration by the two main characters. I found by the second half that I could not put the book down and needed to learn the connection to the mystery narrator, the background of that whole piece of the plot, and the resolution to the twists as they just kept coming.

I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review.


BLOOD. BLOOD. BLOOD.
It covered my hands.
It surged through my heart.
It dripped from my fingertips onto the concrete floor.
Trapped.
Broken.
Finished.
Hungry.
Insanity scratched its way into my psyche as I eyed the door and waited. One heartbeat, two heartbeats, three…
It opened.
I fired two rounds, and acrid smoke filled the air.
I thought I knew what love was. I was a fucking idiot. Every single bone in my body shuddered with rage, with the need to rip something apart, someone, anyone —all of them. My friends. My brothers. I brought the war to our house, and they would finish me because of it.
I’d thought I loved her.
Our love had been a lie.
Her betrayal my only truth.
And now?
Now, I finally knew what love was. I’d seen it, smelled it, tasted it.
And lost it.
I’d fucking lost it.
They would pay. They would all pay.
For taking her.
For turning her against me.
For making me believe that blood was everything, only after mine was spilled. 
Every book in this series is a stand alone except Elude and Empire (Sergio's full story)....Note that  the story in ENRAGE and EULOGY are closely related

ELITE (#1):

ELECT (#2):

ENTICE(#3):

ELICIT(#4):

BANG BANG(novella):
ENFORCE (#1.5--Male POV):

EMBER(#5): 

ENCHANT (series prequel):
       
ELUDE(#6): 
AMAZON/B&N/iTunes

EMPIRE (#7):

Buy: AMAZON/B&N/iTunes

ENRAGE (#8) 
Amazon/B&N/iTunes


Upcoming:

ENVY (#9.5/1001 Nights Novella)

Pre-order Amazon 

Rachel Van Dyken is the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling author of regency and contemporary romances. When she's not writing you can find her drinking coffee at Starbucks and plotting her next book while watching The Bachelor. She keeps her home in Idaho with her Husband, adorable son, and two snoring boxers! She loves to hear from readers!

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