Review: For His Eyes Only by Lexi Blake

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Standalone - Masters and Mercenaries #13
Release - February 28, 2017
Genre - Romantic Suspense
Dual POV - 3rd person
Heat - 4 out of 5
Length - 453 pages

A night he can’t forget

Five years ago, Nick Markovic found himself consumed by his quest for vengeance. The one time he managed to find peace was in the arms of Hayley Dalton. Being with her was like bathing in sunlight, and he ached to feel that again, but he couldn’t. He gave his oath to Hayley’s cousin Desiree, his partner at McKay-Taggart and Knight, that he’d never let his darkness infect Hayley’s innocent world.

A spark she can’t put out

It was years before that Hayley offered everything she had to Nick. After that one amazing night, all she wanted was to be his forever. Unfortunately, Nick’s reaction was to walk away from her and never look back. The warm and caring man she’d discovered was gone, and after Des’s death, he’d only grown colder. But when Hayley finds herself in mortal danger, she’s forced to seek protection from the man who broke her heart.

A flame that threatens to consume them both

Haunted by the women he failed, Nick can’t allow himself to grow close to Hayley again. Running to stay ahead of the powerful forces that endanger their lives, they travel from the lush Garden in London to the glittering lights of Rio. As the threat against her becomes clearer, he realizes that to keep her safe he must confront the demons from his past, even if it costs him a future with the woman he loves.

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MY REVIEW

This read like an episode right out of a soap opera. If a soap opera had characters that were spies and had a secret dungeon for BDSM activities in their home base. Guy was being tortured by the SVR (formerly the KGB). He gets rescued by gorgeous MI6 agent. They become lovers and share affection with one another over time. But the girl wants to maintain an open relationship. They fight. They eventually break up. Guy falls into the arms of MI6 agent's willing cousin, who's in love with him. After one night of passion with the cousin, he starts to imagine a different type of future with her. On that same night, the MI6 agent swoops in to manipulate him back to her and like a sad sap (PU$$Y) he went, breaking the cousin's heart.

Now five years later, Des (the MI6 agent) is dead and Hayley (the cousin) is in danger. She seeks out Nikolai (the guy) to help her. While he is apparently lusting over Hayley, he's still grieving and loving Des. Which was completely MESSED UP!! Unfortunately, as much as I liked Hayley, I hated how pathetic she was. Even if I overlooked how she slept with her cousin's ex, he still repeatedly chose Des over her. REPEATEDLY!! It was humiliating and extremely hurtful. Why then was she oh so willing to keep throwing herself at him? Poor thing.

And as much as I liked Nikky, I hated how much he obviously didn't care about Hayley in the last 5 years. I wasn't convinced. He continuously waxed poetic about how amazingly sexy Des was and spent a lot of his internal musings reminiscing over their times together. If Des were still alive, would he even be giving Hayley the time of day? I kept waiting for that question to come up, but it never did. Hmmmmm....

There was tons of action. The suspenseful plot was intense and I loved every scene with these characters in motion. The author also sensitively covered the topic of BDSM as a lifestyle. Not too descriptive but the intimate scenes were still sensual and hot. This story touches on loss, betrayal, intrigue, conspiracies, espionage, hope and love.