Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1B3xNuk
Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/1AQZFTL
Synopsis:
*From International Bestselling authors Callie Hart and Lili St. Germain comes a tale of two families co-existing in a melting pot of violence, murder and drugs in the seedy underbelly of New York City*
Hell’s Kitchen
Theo and Sal Barbieri are brothers, tasked by their Mafioso father Roberto with a very clear purpose: kidnap Kaitlin McLaughlin. The beautiful daughter of Roberto’s Irish enemy. It’s high time Kaitlin was punished for her father’s sins—not to mention, her own.
And Operation: Kidnap Kaitlin is a roaring success… until it isn’t. When Kaitlin escapes into the busy streets of New York City, it’s a race against the clock to find her before Sal and Theo become the hunted.
Zeth Mayfair has traded his life as a hitman for a quieter existence, but it isn’t long before the past catches up with him in the form of Roberto Barbieri. Will he succumb to the lure of power that Roberto is offering? Or will he retaliate by killing every last Barbieri in New York to get them off his back?
Jason Ross is running. Woken in the night by a tip that the Gypsy Brothers are coming for him, he packs a bag and gets his girlfriend the hell out of dodge. Arriving in New York City in the midst of a heatwave is one thing, but being tailed by an entire drug cartel is another.
Worlds collide in Hell’s Kitchen as secrets come to light and sins are punished. Because we might be different in the light of day, but in the darkness, we’re all connected somehow.
Hell’s Kitchen is a serial comprising three volumes: Hell’s Kitchen, Tribeca and Bleecker Street. Volume One releases on March 3rd with a limited-time sale price of 99 cents
Review: Surj
Lili Saint Germain is renowned for giving her readers raw, gritty, no holds barred stories that delve deep into the world of the criminal underbelly. Whether it's the world of the mafia or the MC, you know that you're going to need to don your big girl panties because the chances are, what you read will make your stomach roll, it will make you flinch and it will make you scared to turn the next page in fear of what you might find. Blood, guts and gore are a walk in the park for this author but they all fit seamlessly into the captivating stories she gives us. So when I heard she was partnering up with Callie Hart to give us a new series entitled "Hell's Kitchen," I was beyond excited. The title itself gave me the impression this was going to be yet another book that didn't fit into any one genre and I was right. Did it matter that it wasn't a conventional romance? Absolutely not because what I got was one crazy ass story line that packed quite the punch right from the word go. I was very quickly addicted to what unraveled before me and it wasn't difficult to fall in love with the characters I was introduced to.
Pigs are an excellent way of clearing up a mess. They'll eat anything. Accountants.
Pimps. Prostitutes. Your progeny, if they crash a car on the George Washington
bridge and allow the teenage daughter of your sworn enemy to escape.
Told from multiple POV, I was given the stories of several different characters. Was it confusing? Not at all. In fact, from Theo and Sal to Kaitlin and Gracie, Zeth and of course Jase, Juliette and Elliott, each of their journeys intrigued me. None of them were as I initially thought they were and I loved finding out their dirty little secrets, their hopes, dreams and fears and in some cases their worst nightmares. But the one thing that kept me reading like a crazed woman was the fact that all of these stories were somehow intertwined and I couldn't wait for it all to come to a head because I knew that it would be that, that would make for explosive reading.
People say drowning is a peaceful way to die. But I've been drowning for nine months,
and I can tell you, there's nothing peaceful about clawing at the air in front of you
every time you wake up in the morning unable to breathe, trying to stay afloat.
Each of the characters definitely contributed something different to the story line but what I wasn't expecting with humour... as in laugh out loud humour. Theo and Sal should have been men that put the fear of god into me but instead, their antics had me rolling around with laughter. I should have despised them but to be honest, I kinda saw them as lovable rogues. And as for the women... they were feisty and full of sass, giving as good as they got. Girl power was definitely rife in this book that's for sure.
"You aren't a damsel in distress sweetheart. you nearly killed me."
"You wanna go another round? I feel like I was a little off my game before.
What with just having been in a car crash and all."
Hart Saint Germain have ensured that their writing was as visual as possible in "Hell's Kitchen" which meant this book played out like a film in my head. Some of the scenes were just brilliant... the fight scene between Gracie and Theo was written to perfection and then of course there was the whole undercurrent of sexual tension when Gracie was taken up to Theo's apartment. To be honest, I don't think I could pick a favourite scene because there were so many. That's how good the writing was in this book.
"Hell's Kitchen" was a fantastic introduction to what looks to be an amazing series. The ground work has been laid, the characters have been introduced. Now it's time to sit back and watch the fireworks start... because they will start, that's a definite and when they do, I have a feeling loyalties will be tested, blood will be spilled and death? Well that will be a given. but who will take a bullet? The mind boggles with ideas.
I've got that feeling in my gut. The one that tells me I'll be emptying my clip before
the day's finished. Hopefully into somebody else, and not into my own skull.
I could't rate "Hell's Kitchen" anything less than ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ A job well done to Hart Saint Germain. This partnership has definitely been a successful one and I for one cannot wait for more!!!
Excerpt:
“What time they due to land?” Sal asks. He loops a tie, pre-knotted and ready to go, over his head.
“Twenty minutes.” With traffic the way it is, we’ll be there in ten.
Sal tightens the tie around his neck, placing the ridiculous fucking chauffeur’s hat on his head. He tucks his hair back behind his ears. He needs to cut it, but will the bastard listen? Hell, no. He never listens to a word I say. “Are you ready?” he asks.
I take my eyes off the road, arching an eyebrow at him. Who the hell does he think he’s talking to? I’ve been doing this job longer than him, after all. I’ve never blinked. Never not been ready. He gets the point pretty damn quickly.
“All right, man, I’m sorry.”
When we arrive at the airfield, we’re directed to hangar twelve, no questions asked. Paddy McLaughlin’s own men would have arrived around now—if we hadn’t already beaten the shit out of them and handcuffed them to a pillar inside an old cardboard factory down on the wharf—so we’re expected. Kaitlin McLaughlin’s plane is delayed. I’m already bored and itching to go by the time the private jet touches down. Sal climbs out of the car and leans against the front passenger door, waiting for the prissy Irish princess and her entourage to exit the plane. When she does, we’re in luck.
Normally, Paddy doesn’t send his little girl anywhere without two personal bodyguards. Today, she’s only accompanied by one. Sal taps the hood of the car as he goes out to take her bags. I have the engine purring in anticipation as he opens the back passenger side door for her and she climbs inside.
Huge sunglasses cover her eyes. That full mouth of hers is perfectly visible in the rearview, though. “Where the fuck is Ray?” she asks. Her father may be first generation Irish, but Kaitlin was born and raised in the States—she sounds like a spoiled little Yank bitch.
“Mr. McLaughlin needed him for something else. He sent us instead.”
She slides the sunglasses down the bridge of her nose, peering at me over the car’s half-raised privacy screen. “And who are you?”
I give her a tight-lipped smile, doing my best to keep my tongue in my head. We need the bodyguard to get in the car, and then we’re golden. Until then, I’m Jerry, the friendly town car driver. “Jerry. My buddy there, that’s Gareth. We’re new.”
“I can see that.” She makes a low, humming sound at the back of her throat. She sounds like she approves. Sorry, sweetheart. I don’t touch crazy pussy. But I will introduce you to my old man, all the same. He just can’t wait to fucking meet you.
The door behind me opens and I feel the car dip as someone gets in—I didn’t notice before, but the lone bodyguard with Kaitlin is a woman. Must be the chick Roberto was talking about. I get a good look at her in the rearview and find myself taking a second one for good measure. She’s blisteringly hot. Maybe in her mid-twenties? Long dark hair, tied back into a braid. High cheekbones. A mouth to rival Kaitlin’s. Her tits strain against her tight black shirt as she twists to put on her seatbelt. You can tell she works out; her clothes fit her far too well for her not to know she looks good in them, too.
Just like Kaitlin, she asks, “Where’s Ray?”
“Busy doing something for Daddy,” Kaitlin informs her, which saves me from spinning the lie again.
“Okay. Straight to the bar, then.” The body guard’s head doesn’t even lift, but she’s a professional. She assesses me in the mirror just as I’ve assessed her. I pretend not to notice as Sal folds himself into the passenger seat.
“Of course.” I press the button for the privacy screen, raising it the rest of the way, blocking out all sound from the back of the car. Sal turns and gives me one of his wicked, crazy-ass grins. He’s enjoying this already. “All right, then, big brother. Let’s do this.” He leans forward and hits a button on the dash—and every single door on the town car automatically locks. “No backing out now.”
I burn out of the hangar to the sounds of muffled thuds from the back of the car. The bodyguard’s not stupid. She’s heard the doors locking and knows something isn’t right. “Motherfucker! Open this up right now!”
Normally there’s an intercom in these cars, but this one’s different. Sal and I smashed the shit out of this car’s intercom with two lump hammers and ripped out the wiring. We also lined the roof with lead. The girls in the back aren’t striking up a conversation with us any time soon. And they aren’t making any phone calls to dear old Papa McLaughlin, either.
As I head back toward the city, the shouting from the back gets louder. It’s accompanied by the dull thudding of feet trying to smash out the privacy screen. Sal raps his knuckles against the glass, grinning again. “Bitch sounds crazy back there. I don’t think she likes the modifications we’ve made.”
I allow myself a small smile as we hit the George Washington Bridge, heading back toward North Manhattan. So far Operation: Kidnap Kaitlin has been a roaring success. Sal pulls out his cell and starts tapping into it with quick fingers. “Telling the old man we’re on our way?”
He nods. “Bastard better give us credit where credit’s due. He’s probably still organising his own fucking birthday party. Meanwhile, we have just successfully taken our mark hostage. We’re on the homeward stretch.”
The fucking homeward stretch.
The thing about saying you’re on the homeward stretch is that often it’s like waving a red flag at a bull. Fate must hear that phrase and decide to fuck over the poor schmuck who was dumb enough to utter it every single fucking time. It’s only seconds after Sal’s parted with those words that the electric window behind me—the bodyguard’s side window—shatters. We knew the bodyguard would be armed, but we didn’t expect anyone to be shooting out the damn side windows. An eruption of fragmented diamonds explodes sideways, spraying a bright yellow smart car with a million shards of glass. The sound of the firing gun is almost deafening.
“What the fuck?”
The smart car veers sideways, smashing into us; I press my foot to the floor, grinding my teeth at the sound of screeching metal and more hammering from the back as I swerve through the traffic. Sal twists in his seat, pulling his gun and pressing it to the glass of the privacy screen. His finger’s on the trigger. “She’s going fucking crazy. I’m gonna shoot the bitch.”
About the Authors
Callie Hart
Callie has experienced many changes throughout her life, and gone through many ups and downs that have all worked towards shaping and molding her into the person she is today: fun loving, active, social, and hard working. The only thing that has remained a constant throughout her life is writing. Creating characters who will tear your conscience in two is a favorite pastime of Callie’s. There are few real saints and sinners in her books; more often, the denizens of her stories are all very human. Broken, flawed, and always with the potential for redemption.
Despite the subject matter being markedly hot and heavy in comparison to the stories she wrote in elementary school, there will always be an element of fairytale to her work.
Lili Saint Germain
Lili writes dark romance, suspense and paranormal stories. Her serial novel, Seven Sons, was released in early 2014, with the following books in the series to be released in quick succession. Lili quit corporate life to focus on writing and so far is loving every minute of it. Her other loves in life include her gorgeous husband and beautiful daughter, good coffee, Tarantino movies and spending hours on Pinterest.
She loves to read almost as much as she loves to write.
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