I received this book for free from in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Black Hearted
by
Julie Ann Walker
romantic suspense in an eARC edition that was published by Limerence Publications LLC on September 26, 2023 and has 346 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Hell on Wheels, Rev It Up, Built to Last, Wild Ride, Volume One, Volume Two, Volume Three, Dead in the Water, Man in Black
Second in the Black Knights Inc: Reloaded romantic suspense series, a spin-off from Walker’s original Black Knights Inc, and revolving around a new group of formidable operators still based at the old factory building on Goose Island in Chicago, Illinois. The couple focus is on Hannah Blue and Samuel Harwood.
Limerence Publications LLC and the author sent me a copy of the book.
My Take
Fun! I do like the Black Knights. Partly for their fun gadgetry and hidden escape routes and mostly for their honor, chivalry, and ability to win as well as that feel of a supportive family.
Walker uses third person global subjective point-of-view so we “hear” from a number of characters with the predominate perspectives coming from Hannah and Sam.
That Sam has some background. Oy. Poor guy. He’s really made something of himself, rising above his childhood and that nasty ex-wife. And he’s starting to realize what he really wants. What, who, he doesn’t want to want, the girl he watched grow up. Then there’s that moral issue from his last mission . . . and I’m okay with what he did.’
It’s a crime that resonates with Eliza, as she’d had a roommate at school who’d been forced to endure a double rape. Once by the rapist and once by the so-called justice system.
Hannah has always known what she wants. And she won’t let Sam’s weird perception of her get in her way — he just can’t admit that Hannah has grown up. Oh, man, then Hannah discovers that Chloe, Sam’s ex-wife, is a Candy lookalike.
Cesar has his own subplot going on and is terrified of falling in love.
A good thing to remember: “The past is a place to learn from, not to live in”. Then there’s Fish’s comment about saints and sinners, lololol.
A bad thing to know: “. . . can’t get elected based on their policies, so they have to get elected by giving people an out-group to hate on”. Sounds like today’s politicians.
Whoa, Eliza and Fisher have some, um, relationship — and she’d “rather have dull shish kabob skewers shoved through her brain” . . . so ya know where that’s going to go, lol. Walker continues to set Eliza’s story up with all that background on her past experiences with her dad. It is sweet that Fish has that gentler side with an appreciation for beauty and poetry. Yeah, who’d’ve thought!?
Vinny is an idiot who will be experiencing some dramatic irony, I mean, who believes that a Chinese agent actually is working in a positive way for the US government??? Eliza’s dad is almost as much of a jerk. Eliza’s abandonment issues pretty much says it all.
Naturally there are miscommunication issues . . . what would a romance be without them. And I wanted to smack the two of them over their heads!
Black Hearted ties right in with contemporary concerns over electrical outages caused by terrorists and the memories of what happened in Texas when winter and a blackout caused so much death — it threw my imagination into overdrive. And as Sam notes, it doesn’t even touch on the financial repercussions. At the end, oh man, Walker puts it out there, all the negative action going down in today’s society. Fascism on the rise. Books being banned and burned. Democracy on the decline. And so much more. I reckon Walker has enough fodder for plots for the next millennium. As for that threat against BKI? Hoo, boy.
The story is definitely character-driven with all the stereotypes of the good guys, the bad guys, and the idiot, lol. Naturally, there’s plenty of action with these black ops boys and Hannah’s presence makes it all the more fun.
That end realization of Hannah’s made me want to cry.
The Story
They have a history, Hannah and Sam. He watched her grow up from a pre-teen to a teen when he dated her older sister in high school. Then he’d called on her cyber skills for a job to uncover a government mole in Back in Black.
Now Hannah needs his help to uncover another plot the FBI claims she’s a part of.
The Characters
“Hurricane Hannah” Blue, a.k.a. Miss Violet, is a rebel with colorful hair and ratty clothes who’s brilliant on the computer. The sunny Cesar, Hannah’s roommate for the past seven years and best friend, performs as Cesarine in a drag show at the Kit Kat Lounge. Peter Olsen (Hannah refers to him as The Golden God or the GOAT) has finally told Cesar he loves him. Marco is a lawyer they know. (Dan impersonates Little Edie in the show.)
Samuel Harwood, a former Marine Raider sergeant and sniper known for his ability to focus, rides Pale Horse, the name he’s given his black-and-white Harley chopper. Candy Blue had been Sam’s high school girlfriend (Hannah’s older sister) who is now married to a guy eight years her senior, Jared — yep, that gap sends Hannah into a tizzy when Sam brings up her age.
The Black Knights (BKI) are . . .
. . . a new crew of private defense contractors with some of the original Black Knights in Chicago. Their cover is as a chopper shop. The new men include Fisher “Fish” Wakefield, a former Delta Force sergeant; the adventurous Britt Rollins; the book-loving Hewitt Burch; the strong silent Graham Colburn; Hunter Jackson, a former Green Beret who is off on his honeymoon with Grace Beacham, a Chicago-based FBI agent (Back in Black); and, the family-needing Eliza Meadows, who has an attention to detail bar none which makes her perfect as BKI’s secretary, den mother, and onsite chef extraordinaire. Peanut is their fat former alley cat whom Becky loves.
The “old guard” Knights include Frank “Boss” (a former Navy SEAL) and Becky Knight, the lead mechanic and bike designer extraordinaire who have two kids (In Rides Trouble, 2); Ethan “Ozzie” Sykes is a former Navy SEAL and computer genius who is married to the five-months pregnant Samantha, an investigative reporter for the Chicago Tribune (Wild Ride, 9); and, Christian and Emily (Hot Pursuit, 11).
The four Connelly brothers — two of them are Rafer and Toran — are guards. Red Delilah’s Biker Bar is a home away from home for the Black Knights and is owned by Red Delilah, a moonlighting forensic accountant, who married Bryan “Mac” McMillan after events in Hell for Leather, 6. Ricky is a useful guy when you need to scrounge up private transport.
The US president is a woman. Eliza’s father, Leonard Meadows, is her chief of staff and both expect BKI to operate independently, doing whatever the president needs, Eliza “spying” on her coworkers, but none of them looking to the president for help. Senator McClean’s son is taking Eliza on a date. Bishop is the former secretary to the FBI director.
The FBI
Director Morgan. Agent Keith Waller gets off on abusing people. Agent Mulder thinks Waller is okay. Agent Moretti makes a third. Agent Timothy Floyd had worked with Hannah on that previous job.
ERCOT is also known as . . .
. . . the Electric Reliability Council of Texas with Bleeker Creek one of its power stations. Teddy Gonzales is the lead engineer for third shift. Evan is one of the guards.
Vincent “Vinny” Romano, a.k.a. Vick, is a career criminal, mostly identity fraud who’s kept his less-than-stellar activities from Nanna, the grandmother who raised him. Yang works for a Chinese intelligence agency. “Bishop” is Yang’s liaison with the US government.
Dominion Pipeline is the largest fuel supplier to the Eastern Seaboard. Red Square is/was a ransomeware syndicate. Kerberos is a white-hat hacker group. Miguel Blanco had been part of a Columbian gang. Aveline had been one of Eliza’s roommates at boarding school. Tommy Fiorentino had been a grade school classmate of Hannah’s. Chloe, a Candy lookalike, is Sam’s ex who’d spent too much time with Steve, a Jody.
The Cover and Title
The colors on the cover are split between a yellow-green and black with the background starting in black, moving into a yellow-green sky with electrical pylons stretching into the horizon and a silhouette of Hannah and Sam on his motorcycle, and ending in a narrow black band at the bottom with the series info in a pale yellow. Back to the top is an info blurb with the author’s name below that in that pale yellow. The title (mostly yellow gradating up and to the right to orange) is below to the left of a blow-up of Sam’s black-haired head, beard, and sunglasses with a deeper yellow-green T-shirt.
I think the title is a play on the Black Knights and their hearts, Black Hearted.
