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Royal Blood #5

Love Like Blood

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The enemy of my enemy is not my friend.

Sebastian Vaughn is haunted by the ghost of his dead lover.
After coming face to face with everything he lost, he’s on the run with a deadly assassin who’s on the verge of insanity. What else are you meant to do when the biggest ghost from your past stares you right in the face? Go with the flow, or die trying.
Xavier Blood never thought he’d fall in love, let alone work for the good guys.
Mercy Reid held him together during the darkest time of his life and now she’s an agent alongside him. Working Black Ops for the British government means two things. No accountability and no association. Get caught and you’re dead.
Their first assignment puts them on the trail of Vaughn, the assassin who saved his life, and the last living man who took everything from him, Jaques Lafayette.
The stakes are high, trust is a hot commodity and someone’s going to die.
Only time will tell who’s blood will paint the world red.

ebook

First published February 1, 2016

12 people are currently reading
247 people want to read

About the author

Amity Cross

55 books784 followers
Amity Cross is the author of wicked stories about rock stars looking for redemption, gritty romances featuring MMA fighters and dark tales of forbidden romance. She loves to write about alpha males and the strong women who challenge them to fall in love.
Amity lives in a leafy country town near Melbourne, Australia and can be found chained to her desk, held at ransom by her characters.
Don’t send help. She likes it.

AVAILABLE SERIES:
The Beat and The Pulse - (Series Complete)
Unexpected - (Series Complete)
Royal Blood - (Series Complete)
L is for Luminous - (Stand Alone Romance)
The Thornfield Affair - (Series Complete)
The Devil’s Tattoo - (Series Complete)
Fortitude MC - (Series Complete)

And more coming soon!


Find out more about Amity and her books by visiting:
http://www.amitycrosswrites.com

Want to be notified about new releases? Sign up for the VIP newsletter and get occasional free books, bonus stories, and more: http://bit.ly/AmityCrossNews

Give a new hero a try! Grab the FREE Amity Cross Starter Library today:
http://bit.ly/AmityFreebies

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5 stars
53 (51%)
4 stars
37 (35%)
3 stars
10 (9%)
2 stars
2 (1%)
1 star
1 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
Profile Image for Nadia Debowska-Stephens (Obsessed by Books).
1,080 reviews28 followers
February 24, 2016
"She was mine in life, death, and rebirth.
She was my forever.
She was my master."

Lorelei, thought dead but still breathing has been the crux of The Hangman's existence. His world turned red, blood red, the moment he lost her and it's been bleeding out ever since. Helping X and Mercy achieve their vengeance has cemented a bond of twisted trust and budding friendship, curiously the death of common enemies has brought them together. The Hangman was brought to his knees during the last book in the series when a ghost from his past is found very much alive. His quest for revenge, for the debt to be paid in blood has become a little more complex...

Lorelei, the daughter of Greggor, has been conditioned. Trained to become an assassin for Royal Blood she is death masked as a beautiful woman. Her memories from before are contained, buried underneath her training to lock them away to save her from the absolute misery she experienced. Used and sold as property by Lafayette, she was reduced to nothing more but an object to be abused by sadistic sexual predators. With her father dead, Royal Blood falling apart and her conditioning breaking down can Lorelei keep it together long enough to exact her revenge?

X and Mercy are brought in to bring the human trafficker to justice, working as black ops can they fly under the radar and get the job done? Tasked to bring in the Royal Blood Assassin as she's a loose cannon and The Hangman who is viewed as nothing more than a murderer where does X's loyalties lie? With Mercy at his side to ground him and the truth of who she was and the atrocities he is capable of revealed who is X now? Can they really ever have their happily ever after? Time to wipe the slate clean...

Love like Blood is a gripping what happens next read, we were left wondering at the ending the last book with so many possibilities. Lorelei is coming apart at the seems whilst Vaughan is her anchor as Mercy is for X, he too has to come to terms with the new version of the woman he loves. Who to trust? Who to kill? Love like blood does not disappoint. Another action packed death filled ride with X, Mercy, Lorelei and Vaughn

A four and a half star heads will roll read.

~*~ Obsessed by Books copy given in exchange for an honest review ~*~
Profile Image for Romance Readers Retreat.
2,346 reviews225 followers
February 24, 2016
3.5 Stars

I've loved every single book in this series so far and I even mentioned, in my review of the last book, how much I would have loved the story to continue.

Unfortunately, with this book, the characters haven't gone in a direction I hoped they would.

Every character was virtually unrecognisable from the ones I have become familiar with.  Vaughn in particular was a shadow of the man I had come to love. In this book he gave me very little and I get his love for Lorelei is unconditional, but he just came across as weak in comparison to what he has been. Having said that, I did feel his devotion to Lorelei was incredible and it was hard not to love him for that.

As for Lorelei, well she just came across as a bit of a b1tch, if I'm honest. She never really gave away much vulnerability, even when she started to piece things together. Having gone through what she has, I would have expected more from her.

We were not only given the story of Vaughn and Lorelei, but also how X and Mercy are doing working for a Black Ops organisation within the British Government.  It will be interesting to see how things will ultimately work out for them, because I really do believe they were at their best when they lived by their own rules.

This book to me felt like a filler for things to come in the next book and despite my misgivings about this one, I did enjoy it, just not to the level I did the others and I'm still hopeful that the series will return to what I know and love.
Profile Image for A Book Lover's Emporium Book Blog.
2,816 reviews171 followers
February 17, 2016
Let me say from the very start, I absolutely love the Royal Blood series so I was very eager to read this, to say the least. I have been waiting with baited breath in fact.
Wow!! This is a brilliant instalment to this gripping series! Love, lies, deception, murder, it has it all!
This review is proving a hard one to write, I feel I have to explain the story, but don’t want to give anything away, it’s so hard when I just want to share it with everyone!
This book will have you hooked, sucked in from the first word! It gripped me immediately and putting it down was a very hard task indeed.
Amity is one of my favourite authors. I love her style of writing. I love that the female characters are as kick ass as the male characters, so with each instalment you get a very action packed, exciting and yet emotional read. If you haven't read this series yet and you like to read a book that's not all flowers and unicorns, and you like a female character that can hold her own then I can't recommend it enough!
Even though this book has concentrated on 2 other characters from the main story Vaughn and Lorelei, it was great to see X and Mercy make an appearance or two. I love all of the characters in this series they each have their own story to tell.
I'm very much looking forward to the next book I will be sad when this series comes to an end I just love it!
Profile Image for She Hearts Books.
2,113 reviews74 followers
February 24, 2016
Holy hell. The band of assassins are reunited along with Lorilei who is pretty messed up thanks to her monster of a father. I was super excited that Vaughn has his girl back...well kind of... Now then there's X and Mercy who I absolutely LOVE. X knows all about what Lorilei is going through since they were both programmed by the same sick man. Now Vaughn has asked him to help bring her out of the crazy and to get Lafayette in the process. I love the sizzle and the suspense of this part of their story and am so hoping that there is more to come.

I give Love Like Blood 5 hearts!
Profile Image for Rebecca.
2,889 reviews160 followers
February 24, 2016
Amity Cross’ Royal Blood series is made up of a collection of books that are well written, suspenseful, complex, and character and plot driven. Xavier Blood, the main character of the series, is quite the anti-hero, but in Love Like Blood, readers see the deprogrammed freed man with a bit of a conscience that he’s become with Mercy’s help, and it gives us hope that Vaughn will be able to get his Lorelei back even if the situations aren’t exactly the same.

Truth, revenge, and new beginnings are the main subjects of book 5. Lorelei needs answers, and she needs to figure out who she is now not who she was five years ago with Vaughn or even two weeks ago as the merciless assassin that she had been programmed to be. But as Lorelei struggles through the effects of getting her memories back, she doesn’t know how to go from a nameless killer to a woman who once had a life very different from the only one she can remember with a man she feels a connection to but can’t quite understand why.

All Vaughn wants to do is love and save Lorelei, but he’s not the one who can truly help her – the only one who can is the one who’s been through a similar torture, X, and due to the set of circumstances that brought all of them together, trust is not something they all feel towards each other, especially now that X and Mercy work for a branch of MI6.

Love Like Blood is divided into two parts – Blood Lust, the first one, deals with the aftermath of Lorelei’s decisions and her thirst to make those pay who had any hand in turning her into what she had become as well as Vaughn’s attempts to bring out the old Lorelei – the one he loved and never stopped.

In Love Like Blood, Vaughn and Lorelei and X and Mercy come together to put an end to the people responsible for the darkness that has consumed their lives for so many years, and regardless of the dangers or the fear of duplicity, they all work for a new beginning – one that won’t come easily, but one they’re willing to put everything on the line in order to get that chance.

One book remains in the Royal Blood series, and X and Mercy’s future has to be its topic because at the end of Love Like Blood, it’s unclear what path they plan to take, which means readers are in store for one more journey into the double dealings and darkened environment that surrounds a man who’s been changing ever since he made the decision to love Mercy instead of kill her and the woman who’s responsible for bringing X into the light, even if it’s still in edges of darkness.

A complimentary copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 Poison Apples (The Fairest of All Book Reviews)
Profile Image for Melissa Mendoza.
2,598 reviews54 followers
February 24, 2016
Title:Love Like Blood
Author: Amity Cross
Series: Royal Blood Series, Book #5
Publisher: Smashwords Edition
Release Date: February 24, 2016
Genre(s): Dark Romance
Page Count:
Heat Level: 5 flames out of 5
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Blurb:

The enemy of my enemy is not my friend.

Sebastian Vaughn is haunted by the ghost of his dead lover.
After coming face to face with everything he lost, he’s on the run with a deadly assassin who’s on the verge of insanity. What else are you meant to do when the biggest ghost from your past stares you right in the face? Go with the flow, or die trying.
Xavier Blood never thought he’d fall in love, let alone work for the good guys.
Mercy Reid held him together during the darkest time of his life and now she’s an agent alongside him. Working Black Ops for the British government means two things. No accountability and no association. Get caught and you’re dead.
Their first assignment puts them on the trail of Vaughn, the assassin who saved his life, and the last living man who took everything from him, Jaques Lafayette.
The stakes are high, trust is a hot commodity and someone’s going to die.
Only time will tell who’s blood will paint the world red.


“Mercy Reid could be a smart-mouthed piece of work-she knew all the buttons to press to pss me the fck off-but she held my heart, and I held hers. She was the only person in the world I would allow to talk to me the way she did.”

5 bloody stars!! Dark, sexy and twisted!

This is one of the only series, that I will drop everything for and read!! I love the darkness, the twisted nature and well the characters as well! I thought I loved Xavier more than anything then we’re brought into Vaugn’s story and well, he had me falling over from lust! The story and his journey is twisted, dark, and sexy as sin!! If you haven’t read this series, I don’t know what you are waiting for….go buy these books now!!!

Review_Mel

ARC provided by author in exchange for an honest review. Reviewed by Melissa from Alpha Book Club description
Profile Image for Dana Busenbark.
2,801 reviews29 followers
February 25, 2016
This story starts off with a bang, trying to remember who Lorelei is. The Hangman, aka. Vaughn, trying to help her figure out what she is going to do with her life after the death of her father. Will she go after Royal Blood and try to take over or will she go after Lafayette, the man who sold her into sexual slavery? Was she trafficked? Was she a sex slave? What happened to her? What turned her into an assassin? Who? This story is really all about Lorelei figuring out who and what she wants to be again. We once again get into the fact that X and Mercy have joined MI-6 in their deep cover, Queen and government won't acknowledge their existence much less job if they're caught work. What is Mei asking of X? What's going on with Mercy? Where are Lorelei and Vaughn headed to? What happens when Mercy and X are tasked, off the books of an off the books group to bring in not only Lafayette, but Lorelei and Vaughn as well? What happens when X gets in contact with Vaughn's man? And Vaughn gets in contact with Hawkes as well? Does Hawkes relay X's message? Can people trust one another to work with each other again from opposite sides of the fence? Read and see what happens! This does have an HEA of sorts, but at the same time leaves an opportunity open for another book in the series.

RECEIVED THIS BOOK AS A GIFT FOR A FAIR/HONEST REVIEW and REVIEWER FOR Bloggin' With M.Brennan.
Profile Image for Michelle Brace .
1,736 reviews15 followers
February 24, 2016
Another great installment in this suspenseful, dark series. I have loved all the books that I have read in this series and have been eagerly awaiting to get Sebastian's story. Amity writes stories that will have you biting your nails in anticipation on what is going to happen next. When I read this book I was completely immersed into it and felt as if I was experiencing everything myself. You don't want to miss out on this series!

I don't want to give the story away so this won't be too long. This book we find out what happened to Lorelei. Sebastian has been on a mission to get those that killed the love of his life so when he she shows up in the last place he thought she would he is thrown. Unfortunately the woman he loved is no longer that person. She has no memories of her past, she has locked those away to protect herself from all the torture and misery she has had to deal with. We also get X and Mercy in this book. They are tasked by the M16 to bring in Lorelei who is an unpredictable assassin and also their "friend" The Hangman.

Where will their loyalties lie? Will Sebastian be able to get Lorelei to get her memories? Will she be able to mentally survive if she brings the past back in?

Don't miss out on this book if you have read the others in this series. If you haven't read any in this series than what are you waiting for? Pick them up today and hold on to your seats for a wild ride.
Profile Image for Tonya.
2,071 reviews10 followers
February 24, 2016
This is the fifth book in the royal Blood series. You do need to read the other books first. This book is a little different, it isn’t centered on Mercy and X. This is Vaughn and Lorelei’s story. Mercy and X are in this though.

This book starts with Lorelei and Vaughn on the run. Vaughn is hurt and Lorelei’s conditioning is breaking. She’s feeling out of control. Memories are slowly coming back. She wants revenge!

This is where Mercy and X come in. Everything Lorelei is going through, X has already been through. Hopefully he can help her.

They all want to get Lafayette. Mercy and X for MI6 and Vaughn and Lorelei, for her questions and revenge.

This is a great book and series. I can’t wait for the next book. It is the final book in the series. I’m wondering what will happen with Mercy, X, and MI6. These characters are all messed up and I love it!
Profile Image for Marika.
4,852 reviews100 followers
February 25, 2016
Love this series sooooo much..It's so gritty and dark..yet you still fell so much!
This book is no different.. finally I got to read more about Vaughn and Lorelei... my heart was so broken for Vaughn I couldn’t wait to find out what was in store!
So very happy Mercy and X are in this story.. since Sebastian and X were connected and Vaughn helped them before I was curious as on how exactly were Mercy and X going to do their job and bring Lafyette in..
What about Vaughn? And Lorelei? Would she recover from what she went through? Would she remember?
I love this author's style.. Once you start a book there's no way to stop..you're catapulted in a darker and dangerous world and yet you can't seem to stop reading !
Profile Image for Kim Ginsberg.
Author 3 books29 followers
February 24, 2016
Lorelei is reunited with Vaughn and they run and hide. Mercy and X are working for MI6 in their black ops department of Section Seven. Lorelei is having a hard time remembering her old life and what really happened to her in the past. The flashes she gets tell her very little of what her life was like. X and Mercy are charged by Mei to find Lafyette and take him in. Follow Lorelei as she remembers bits and pieces of who she was and what she did under The Watchman's orders. Can Lorelei and Vaughn make it? Will Mercy and X help Lorelei and Vaughn get Lafyette or will they take him in? Find out in book 5 of this awesome series!!!
112 reviews1 follower
July 13, 2016
Vaughn tries to help Lorelei in the aftermath and during her deprogramming. She doesn't remember him but he still loves her. Meanwhile, X and Mercy are working Black Ops for the British gov't. Both couples go after Lafayette, the human trafficker. Lorelei and Vaughn foil a kidnapping attempt. In the end Vaughn is shot in the stomach by Lafayette and then Lafayette is killed. Mercy and X have to help Vaughn escape from the hospital before he's arrested. He hopes Lorelei meets him in Jamaica to live happily ever after.
Profile Image for Daniele.
158 reviews1 follower
September 22, 2016
4.5 Stars for this thrilling continuation of the Royal Blood series!

Honestly the book started a little slow for my taste, but eventually I was reading page after page to discover what would happen next.

A few grammatical errors, but overall excellent writing!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews

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