Title: The Viper (Untamed Hearts, #1)
Author: Kele Moon
Genre: Erotic / Contemporary Romance
Release Date: August 19, 2014
Publisher: Loose Id
Tour Organized by: As the Pages Turn
Synopsis
Marcos Rivera is a fighter. A gang member. Someone who has seen the dark side of humankind and survived. He has lost family and gained enemies. He has stolen cars and destroyed hearts, stripping one for money and the other for pleasure. His past is haunted and his future is bleak.
Until her.
Katie Foster is a high school history teacher. Smart, strong, and sexy. She is a woman Marcos shouldn’t want. Shouldn’t touch. Shouldn’t love. He met her in Garnet, a backwards, hick town that’s the last place in the world he wants to be, but he finds himself going back for a taste of the forbidden.
Katie represents all that is good in the world, and Marcos knows he’s nothing but trouble for her perfect life. He fights and he screws. He commits crimes and he breaks the rules. He will never change and he will never escape his gang lifestyle.
Or can he?
What happens when two different people from two very different walks of life risk it all by giving into the passion that threatens to consume both of them? Can a woman who only knows how to play it safe give her heart to a man who lives hard and loves harder?
Will she survive The Viper?
4 Star Review by Jen Skewes
I am a huge fane of Kele Moon's writing and am always so excited when I find out that she has another book that is being released. The Viper is the first of a new series which is actually a spinoff of the Battered Hearts series which I loved. So we get to see some of the characters that we fell in love with like, Jules, Tina, Nova and Chuito. And we get to meet Chuito's very sexy cousin Marcos Rivara
Marcos was visiting his cousin in the small town of Garnet when he met Katie Foster, the girl who would change has life. Marcos grew up in Miami. He was a gangster, a thug as he referred to himself. He didn't deserve someone like Katie Foster. A few months ago they met when when hit her car. He stayed there with her that night until the cops and the ambulance showed up, even knowing that staying could only cause problems for him. Ever since that night he cannot get Katie out of his mind. But he knows that no matter what he cannot go there. She is a good girl and too good for him. So when he finds out that she has been trying to reach out to him he knows what he has to do. He needs to go back to Garnet and tell her that she needs to forget him. That he is no good for her. But seeing Katie Foster again makes keeping away from her even harder. There is a spark, and a connection, the same one that he felt that night on the side of the road after the accident. They both feel it, which is the same reason that Katie has been trying to get in touch with him since that night. He changed her that night and she needs to see him again.
Katie is a good girl. A sweet and innocent school teacher who plays by the rules. Marcos Rivera is unlike any man that she has ever met. And despite people telling her that he is no good she can't help thinking about. When he shows up in town again she is shocked but at the same time happy. Marcos is there to tell her that she needs to forget him. But Katie is trying to understand why he came all this way to tell her that. She refuses to give up and tries one last time. She is tired of playing by the rules and becomes a little more daring. They end spending one night together which turns into a week and a promise. At the end of the week she has to let him go, no matter what. That is all that he can give her right now, even if his heart wants more. But what happens when their time together is up?
What I loved about this book was Marcos and Katie's relationship. They had this connection that you felt. It was as if they knew each other for a lot longer than the really did. They fit so perfect and easily together. Even though they came from two totally different worlds. Marco grew up in a world of violence and crime. It's what he knows. Katie grew up in a small town and is the very sweet good girl next door. But together they just work.
I loved Marcos. I am not sure what it was about him but he just oozed sex. He was sexy and a complete bad boy. He was a tough guy, a fighter, a guy who didn't always use his brain, and reacted too quickly. But beneath that tough exterior was a heart. He referred to himself as a thug, but Katie Foster was the woman who really saw the man underneath that tough skin. Don't get me wrong he was a bad guy who committed crimes and was in a gang. But he has a soft spot for Katie and it showed.
Katie was a wonderful heroine. I think at times she seemed naive but at the same time I think it was just her curious side. She never judged Marcos. She knew exactly what he had done, what he may be capable of but it didn't matter. She felt hat she felt and was tired of playing by the rules.
Kele Moon has once again captured me with her characters. I loved Marcos and Katie's story. It was hot and sexy, and an overall enjoyable read. I also loved that we get t to see a lot of Chuito in this book and I loved the relationship that he had with Marcos. I loved getting a glimpse into their past and I am looking forward to his story. Another great job!
“You’re
not exactly a ten, Katie.” Grayson laughed cruelly, reminding Katie why she
left to begin with. “No one is going to love you for your mind like I do, not
in this town. I’m your best option, and I don’t understand why you did this to
us.”
“I
think she’s a ten,” a man called from behind them.
Goose
bumps danced over Katie’s skin, and she wasn’t sure why until she craned her
neck to look toward the direction of the low, male voice. Her body must have
recognized what her mind hadn’t caught up with, because walking over to them
was Marcos Rivera. He was wearing sunglasses and a baseball hat, but it was
undeniably him. She could see the snake tattoo on his arm from there.
He
looked larger than life in the late afternoon sun with those impossibly broad
shoulders and large, bunched biceps covered in tribal tattoos. She couldn’t
help but notice that every inch of him seemed wound tight and ready to
jump—like a tiger stalking prey. She blinked, understanding for the first time
all those warnings Jules had been leveling at her in regards to Marcos.
This
wasn’t the kind, handsome angel from the crash site.
This
Marcos looked deadly.
He took
off his sunglasses when he stopped in front of them. His light gaze rested on
the steely grasp Grayson still had on her arm. “This is the part where you let
her go.”
“Excuse
me?” Grayson huffed in that annoying superior voice of his that had always
embarrassed Katie when he used it in public, usually toward someone parking
their car or waiting on them at a restaurant. “This is my wife and—”
“Ex-wife,”
Katie corrected before Grayson could finish. She was still staring at Marcos in
shock, unable to believe he was really standing there in front of her. “What
are you doing here?”
Marcos
broke the dangerous staring contest he was having with Grayson. He let his gaze
run over her hotly for one long moment, making more goose bumps dance over her
arms. A small bit of the tension eased out of his powerful frame, and the look
in his beautiful eyes became warm just like she remembered. “I got your
messages.”
“My
messa—” Katie cheeks heated when she realized what he was talking about and her
voice was a squeak of acknowledgement. “Oh.”
There
was a quiet moment between them, one charged enough that Katie was actually
breathless to be in his presence again after so long. Strangely enough, she
could feel it off Marcos too. That electric fission of need so overwhelming it
actually showed on his face and translated into something tangible enough that
even someone as romantically challenged as Katie could sense it. As if
remembering they weren’t alone, Marcos cleared his throat and turned back to
Grayson, his eyes narrowed in warning once more.
“Yeah, I’m gonna have to insist you
get your hands off her.” He eyed Grayson’s hold on her arm pointedly. “Now.”
About Kele Moon
A freckle faced, redhead born and raised in Hawaii, Kele Moon has always been a bit of a sore thumb and has come to enjoy the novelty of it. She thrives off pushing the envelope and finding ways to make the impossible work in her story telling. With a mad passion for romance, she adores the art of falling in love. The only rules she believes in is that, in love there are no rules and true love knows no bounds.
So obsessed is she with the beauty of romance and the novelty of creating it she’s lost in her own wonder world most of the time. Thankfully she married her own dark, handsome, brooding hero who had infinite patience for her airy ways and attempts to keep her grounded. When she leaves her keys in the refrigerator or her cell phone in the oven he’s usually there to save her from herself. The two of them now reside in Florida with their three beautiful children who make their lives both fun and challenging in equal parts–They wouldn’t have it any other way.
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