Enemy Lover by Karin Harlow

Marcus Cross and Jax Cassidy's book




Enemy Lover


By Karin Harlow


Book Blurb:

When you have no alternative, then you call in L.O.S.T. Because with the Last Option Special Team, it’s do or die. . . .

It’s Jax Cassidy’s first mission for L.O.S.T.—one that will give the former cop who went rogue a chance to prove herself. Her assignment: gain the trust of assassin Marcus Cross . . . eliminate him . . . then take down Marcus’s mentor, Joseph Lazarus, a man with a bold eye on the White House. But the woman who’s known by her team for being a femme fatale succumbs to passion, only to discover Cross’s deadly secret. He’s a vampire, and Joseph Lazarus is his creator.

Left for dead by his platoon in the violent hills of Afghanistan, Special Ops sniper Marcus Cross was given a second chance at life. His newly heightened skills make him the perfect killing machine, and as Lazarus’s right-hand man, he’s quickly rising to the top of his dark empire, purging enemies with speed and precision. Only when dangerous beauty Jax Cassidy is sent to bring him in does he begin to question Lazarus’s motives and his own actions. But when Jax’s life is threatened by the one thing that can destroy them both, Marcus must make a bitter choice—her death or his.

I read Enemy Lover a few days ago and I didn't do a review right away because I am unsure what to rate it. So this review is me on the fly jotting down what comes to me and where it flows out at the end is how I'll rate it. I don't think I've done that before. 

The female protagonist is Jax Cassidy. She is a tough chick. She has been wronged on so many levels that it infuriated me. So points there for invoking so much anger from this reader. A former decorated cop, we meet a convicted Jax (then known as Angela) as she is being loaded onto a bus heading off to prison. Although she is toughing out this circumstance you can't but feel the helplessness of the situation. Life imprisonment. 8 x 8 cell. Mixed with prisoners she has arrested over the years. 
I ached and the book caught my attention right away. 


The next few chapters is about Jax being interviewed and introduced to L.O.S.T after she was kidnapped from the prison bus. We don't actually get introduced to Marcus until chapter 7. Marcus works for a type of vigilante organization called "The Solution". He is going after his target, a scumbag press secretary for a senator, who like to hurt young girls. You learn a lot about Marcus' back story in this chapter. 


So I am trying to gather my thoughts about these two  similar organizations. You have "L.O.S.T" which takes out targets and completes undercover Ops, funded by the government. And then you have "The Solution" who is illegitimately funded by the government. The Solution claims to be patriotic by taking out terrorists and was even the network who located Saddam Hussein before turning over to the armed forces. 
I felt very confused by the two organizations. It wasn't until later when it was clear that the leader of The Solution was power crazy before I understood. Then I kept wondering if The Solution would have been a bad organization if their leader, Lazarus would have been stable like L.O.S.T.'s  leader "The Godfather"???


The fact that Marcus is a vampire only mildly came into play in the story. It felt odd. I don't know quite how to explain this but to me it felt misplaced and as if the story was being made up as I read along. 
It seemed odd that L.O.S.T. had no idea about the vampire society but then all of a sudden the Godfather found someone who could speak expertly about them. 
These type of things kept me from enjoying the story. 
There are a few more but I fear my review would certainly be to long and more of an analysis.  


I did feel that Jax and Marcus had a great connection and were a fabulous couple to read about. I understand that L.O.S.T. is going to be a series but I would have loved it if the series was about Jax and Marcus similar to Cat and Bones. I loved their chemistry and I would think that if Enemy Lover served as an introduction book, Karin Harlow could write amazing adventures full of suspense for Jax and Marcus. I admit to not wanting their journey to come to an end. These two could be one hell of a power couple.  
I just wished that when authors found a magical match with a couple that they expand on that same couple and write a series around them. So few couples are written about but when they are, the books just get better and better. 


Teasers: gangster alley fight, sunset balcony sex, killing room, healing blood