Bit of a mixed bag this one. While I inicially liked the premise, and was fairly intrigued, the more I thought about the plot, Stone’s backstory, the subsequent conflict with the mobsters, the witsec situation, and the resolution of it all, the less sense it made. I wish the novel focused more on the relationship between the characters and less on the Syndicate, because Noir didn’t do a very good job crafting a suspensful, believable story. I felt like fan-fic and I didn’t like it much.
That said, I did like the concept of an ex-con falling for a police detective, so I liked both main characters and their romance, despite the fact that Stone bordered on being tstl on a number of occasions. The banter was well done, the dialogue quippy, the chemistry hot, and the instalove nowehere to be found. Only complaint about this aspect would be the overabundance of sex scenes. After a while, it started to feel like they were there just to add to the page count and nothing more, and I really hate when grown adults are supposedly horny 24/7. It doesn’t work quite like that guys!
Overall, I would recommend it if you want something steamy and light, and don’t mind the plot being a bit shit. (Or maybe not shit exactly, but very unrealistic and simple in ways it wouldn’t be irl).