Spotlight Tour and Giveaway: Built to Last: Julie Ann Walker
Julie Ann Walker
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Release Date June 26, 2018
In the epic conclusion to the BKI series, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Julie Ann Walker delivers her biggest bombshell yet!
Welcome to Black Knights Inc.
What appears to be a tricked-out motorcycle shop on the North Side of Chicago is actually headquarters for the world's most elite covert operatives. Deadly, dangerous, and determined, they'll steal your breath and your heart.
After a mission-gone-sideways forces Jamin "Angel" Agassi to change his identity, he's determined to bring down the world's worst crime syndicate kingpin once and for all. That's going to be the easy part. Keeping Interpol agent Sonya Butler from discovering who he really is—and blazing another trail into his heart—is the challenge.
Welcome to Black Knights Inc.
What appears to be a tricked-out motorcycle shop on the North Side of Chicago is actually headquarters for the world's most elite covert operatives. Deadly, dangerous, and determined, they'll steal your breath and your heart.
After a mission-gone-sideways forces Jamin "Angel" Agassi to change his identity, he's determined to bring down the world's worst crime syndicate kingpin once and for all. That's going to be the easy part. Keeping Interpol agent Sonya Butler from discovering who he really is—and blazing another trail into his heart—is the challenge.
The last couple of books have been building up to a showdown with the evil mastermind Spider. And now Jamin “Angel” Agassi, a former Mossad agent and currently working for Black Knight Inc. has managed to catch Spider's attention and infiltrate his network. He is an enigma. A man of mystery with several previous identities and now is basically a ghost. He is tall, dark, dangerous, and deadly. He sacrificed everything for his country including the woman he loved. And now he is a man on a mission, but also dealing with his past.
Sonya Butler is working with Spider as his Girl Friday. She is smart, resourceful, tenacious, and wary when it comes to dealing with Angel. And she may have her own hidden agenda. But there is an attraction she cannot deny and also something about Angel that makes her remember the love she lost a decade ago.
Thrust into a dangerous situation, they have to rely on each other. It is intense and unpredictable. But will their secrets and/or their pursuers catch up to them?
Ace and Rusty are also still fussing and fighting their attraction. Ace is out and never wants to be put back in the closet. But Rusty is really far in the closet and does not plan on coming out. But when things get dicey and tensions run high, feelings escalate. But will it be too late to do something about it?
This is an action-packed, suspenseful, undercover story built around two love stories. It is a second chance romance and also a M/M romance. It also has some humor and definite camaraderie mixed in. The couples are facing personal struggles in addition to the external danger. Ultimately it is about sacrifice, honesty, forgiveness, hope, and the power of love...whether it be to hurt or heal.
I would not recommend reading this one as a stand-alone and feel like it would be most enjoyed and understood if you at least read the last two books prior to this one that has followed this group of characters and story arc. Some of the other BKI agents are part of this mission including Ozzie, Rock, Boss, and Ghost. But this book also serves as an epilogue to the entire BKI series giving updates on all of the couples and giving us a chance to catch up with them and provide some series closure. And she left it with a little tease that could mean something new for this author in the future.
Sonya Butler works for a criminal mastermind. The men she meets during the course of her work are not good men. But one strikes her as familiar, despite obvious plastic surgery and the fact that she watched the man from her past died in front of her. She is smart and resourceful, going to extreme measures to complete a task she feels is important. She may be at the beck and call of dangerous men, but she has her own agenda.
Jamin “Angel” Agassi is working undercover, so far undercover that not even his teammates know his true identity. As the Black Knights get closer to discovering the identity of the elusive “Spider,” Angel encounters a woman from his past he never thought he’d see again, let alone find working with the man they suspect is the Spider.
As these two work together, they can’t fight the chemistry between them. But even as things heat up between them, Angel keeps his identity a secret, a secret that could cost him everything.
As the final Black Knights novel, this book does a good job of wrapping up the story arcs and the Spider plot line that were woven through the series. Though the main couple does have a standalone storyline in Built to Last, there are several storylines that continue from previous books so it really does read best as part of the series. I enjoyed watching Rusty and Ace struggle with their own feelings in the background of Sonya and Angel’s story, as we have seen them do for several stories now.
I received this book for free from netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Jamin “Angel” Agassi is working undercover, so far undercover that not even his teammates know his true identity. As the Black Knights get closer to discovering the identity of the elusive “Spider,” Angel encounters a woman from his past he never thought he’d see again, let alone find working with the man they suspect is the Spider.
As these two work together, they can’t fight the chemistry between them. But even as things heat up between them, Angel keeps his identity a secret, a secret that could cost him everything.
As the final Black Knights novel, this book does a good job of wrapping up the story arcs and the Spider plot line that were woven through the series. Though the main couple does have a standalone storyline in Built to Last, there are several storylines that continue from previous books so it really does read best as part of the series. I enjoyed watching Rusty and Ace struggle with their own feelings in the background of Sonya and Angel’s story, as we have seen them do for several stories now.
I received this book for free from netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
“Angel,” she whispered, coming up for air.
The way she said Angel, with such longing and desperation, was perfect. Except it wasn’t his name. Not his real name, anyway. And the fool in him longed to throw caution to the wind and tell her the truth, if only to hear her call him Mark one last time.
Years of unquenched desire rode atop his shoulders. A decade of dirty words fell from his lips as he kissed his way back to her ear.
“Tell me you want me,” he commanded, nipping her earlobe.
The way she groaned captured him. Trapped him. Except the truth was, she’d owned him since the moment she opened her mouth beside his table at that café in Paris and asked if he was Mark Risa in sweetly accented Hebrew. He was hers. Always had been. Always would be.
Instinct was his ruler now. Instinct and the memories of all the things she liked. All the things that made her yelp and purr and beg for more. Cupping her breast through the soft cotton of her T-shirt, he thumbed over her nipple, delighted to discover the peak already ruched tight with desire.
She was as responsive as he remembered. Possibly more so.
“Tell me you want me,” he demanded again, needing to hear it. Needing her to admit it.
“I want you. God help me, I do.”
If he’d only heard the desperation in her voice, he might have kept going. Except…overshadowing that desperation were hard notes of guilt.
Reality check.
He pulled back to discover her eyes were glassy with unshed tears. Everything inside him stilled—his heart, his lungs, his blood. Everything except his mind. It raced toward a conclusion he didn’t want to face.
“Are you still crying for him?” he whispered. “This man from your past?”
“No.” She shook her head. Then shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know. It’s just that you remind me of him sometimes. The way you walk. The way you pop your jaw. The way you kiss except…”
He wanted nothing more than to keep contact with her. But she had withdrawn from him emotionally, and the gentleman in him—a guy he rarely let out to play—demanded he withdraw from her physically. When he stepped back, breaking the connection of their bodies, it felt like everything that was important inside him stayed behind. Stayed with her.
“Except what?”
“Except you’re better at it than he was. I didn’t think that was possible,” she was quick to add. “Because he was the best. The absolute best. And yet it is possible. And I feel so…so…” She swallowed and searched his eyes. “Guilty for admitting it.”
Angel shot a victorious fist in the air. Or, at least, he imagined he did.
Couple of things here… One, good to know that for her, and up until now, he’d been the best. And two, he had learned a thing or two since the tender age of twenty-four. He looked forward to demonstrating each and every new skill.
“Sonya, you are not wrong to want me. Your man is dead.” The lie tasted sour in his mouth. God, don’t strike me down. Not now. Not yet. “But you are still living. Still breathing. You have needs.”
She frowned before ducking her chin and staring at her bare feet. He glanced down too and found, much to his delight, her toenails were painted a familiar hot pink.
So there is some of the old Sonya left…
“It feels wrong to want you.” Her blond hair had fallen over her shoulders like the halves of a curtain. “I don’t even know you.”
He didn’t mistake her words. They were essentially the ones he’d given her earlier. Except the difference was that in his case, he had known he was lying.
She lifted her chin, staring into his eyes. “Why? Why do I feel this connection with you? Is it because we’re in the same boat? Because Grafton has us both by the nose?”
“I cannot say.” Another lie. The pile was becoming unwieldy. “But I can tell you I feel it too.”
He thought she would be happy to hear it, but she pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead and blew out a gusty sigh. “I’m tired. I should go to bed. We leave for Moldova in six hours.”
Whoa. What? That was it? She was going to abandon the conversation when it was getting good?
“Good night, Angel,” she said a little breathlessly.
Stay, he wanted to tell her.
No. Screw that. He didn’t want her to stay. He wanted to toss her over his shoulder, cart her upstairs, and throw her on his bed and undress her. He wanted to kiss every inch of her naked body until she begged him to put himself inside her.
Instead, he took a step back and lifted a hand, wordlessly indicating she was free to go.
It took everything he had not to reach for her when she slid past him. Instead, he satisfied himself with watching her hips sway to the feminine rhythm of her body as she walked to the end of the kitchen island. She had filled out some over the years. Not that she’d ever been stick thin. God had smiled the day he made her and blessed her with curves. But what little angularity youth had given her was gone now. Her hips were fuller. Her breasts heavier. Everything about her screamed woman.
At the doorway, she swung around, a question in her eyes.
“Was there something else?” he asked.
“I know you think I’m broken.” The misery in her voice hit him in the place where his shattered heart used to be.
Oh, Sonya. What happened to you?
He wanted so much to take her in his arms and remind her of what she once was. Of who she once was. But all he could give her was one simple truth. “The light only truly shines through people who have been broken.”
Series on Author's Website | Goodreads
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See our reviews of
Thrill Ride (# 4)
Born Wild (# 5)
Hell for Leather (# 6)
Full Throttle (#7)
Too Hard to Handle (#8)
Wild Ride (#9)
Fuel for Fire (#10)
Hot Pursuit (#11)
The story initiated in Fuel for Fire continues in Hot Pursuit so recommend at least reading this prior
Full Throttle (#7)
Too Hard to Handle (#8)
Wild Ride (#9)
Fuel for Fire (#10)
Hot Pursuit (#11)
The story initiated in Fuel for Fire continues in Hot Pursuit so recommend at least reading this prior
A brooding covert operative and a spunky CIA agent discover a burning passion in the next installment of Julie Ann Walker's red-hot BKI series
Dagan Zoelner has made three huge mistakes
The first two left blood on his hands.
The third left him wondering...what if? What if he had told the woman of his dreams how he felt before his world fell apart?
Spitfire CIA agent Chelsea Duvall has always had a thing for bossy, brooding Dagan. It's just as well that he's never given her a second look, since she carries a combustible secret about his past that threatens to torch their lives...
He puts the hot...
Christian Watson, a former SAS officer and current BKI operator, never thought he would return to England after a terrible turn of events forced him to abandon his homeland. But now he's back on British soil where old enemies are determined to do him in. Fighting for his life is pretty much SOP for Christian. Doing it with the beautiful, bossy Emily Scott in tow is another matter entirely.
In hot pursuit.
Emily lost her coveted job at the CIA because of a colleague turned rogue, and now she has just one rule when it comes to men: they're for recreational purposes only. But when she and Christian are thrust into very close quarters while evading two mysterious men who want Christian dead, she can't help but question all her ideas about love and life lived on the edge. Battling the bad guys is hard enough, battling her feelings for Christian just might prove impossible.
Julie Ann Walker is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of award-winning romantic suspense. She has won the Book Buyers Best Award, been nominated for the National Readers Choice Award, the Bookseller's Best Award, the Australian Romance Reader Awards, and the Romance Writers of America's prestigious RITA award. Her books have been described as "alpha, edgy, and downright hot." Most days you can find Julie on her bicycle along the lake shore in Chicago or blasting away at her keyboard, trying to wrangle her capricious imagination into submission.
Be sure to sign up for Julie's occasional newsletter at: www.julieannwalker.com
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