I received this book for free from the author as a free story in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: the author as a free story
Man in Black
by
Julie Ann Walker
romantic suspense in an eARC edition that was published by Limerence Publications LLC on May 28, 2024 and has 310 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, Black Hearted, Born Wild
Third in the Black Knights Inc: Reloaded romantic suspense series in a continuation of the Black Knights Inc series revolving around a small group of black ops ex-soldiers undercover as motorcycle mechanics. The couple focus is on Eliza and Fisher with a side note on Britt and Julia *eyebrow waggle*.
This ARC was sent to me by the author for an honest review.
My Take
I’ll warn y’all ahead of time — I do love strong, capable men who flash into action . . . sigh . . .
Walker starts with an intro to Eliza and Fisher of the Black Knights and then follows up with the inciting incident. Wow. I love her description of Eliza coming to and her struggles to rise up and understand what’s happened. Then that emotional blow. The line-by-line exposure of Eliza’s griefs. A nice bit of show, that. I sure can understand her guilt and fears.
I do love the Black Knights’ home base set in an old menthol cigarette company with its extensive shop on the ground floor and living quarters above. It even includes an escape tunnel.
Who’d’a thunk a soldier would be so fascinated by poetry? I gotta confess that I’ve never liked poetry. I never understand all that symbolism, etc. But Fish does make me want to explore it.
I sure can understand Fisher’s concerns about anything happening between him and Eliza. He’s a backcountry boy from Louisiana with a hideous childhood while Eliza is a boarding-school socialite who comes from money and power. And does Walker ever emphasize this, lol. Walker continues the contrast right into clothing choices and bedroom decor.
It does make me crazy that Fisher is so hung-up on his father and his childhood, but it is understandable, and such a strong stance for Fish to take. I can also understand his fears — thank god for Frank Knight! Parents have a lot to answer for — stop making excuses and get out!
”. . . we tend to judge ourselves by our intentions and everyone else by their actions.”
Frank isn’t the only one with good advice; Fish has a good one for Eliza and her primary trauma.
Lol, Fisher’s reasons for getting into poetry! It’s quite the contrast to his thoughts on how PTSD affects the sounds an ex-solider at home experiences.
Senator McClean sounds like the kind of politician we should have, instead of the ones we do have. Charlie also sounds like a great guy, despite what Fish thinks.
Julia and Dillan. Oh. Boy. Walker does enjoy creating those stereotypes, and it cracks me up how much fun she has with Dillan’s character. Man fit. Pouting. And talk about being a handicap in interviews! It made me moan at how stupid the man was! You’d’a thunk he’d have more smarts, what with his so-important background.
It does go to show that money does not guarantee happiness. Man in Black shows that it’s the person who counts, not their upbringing or background. Their moral center, their kindness, their everyday actions and talk. Then there are those whose moral center collapses in adversity. It made me wanna cry at the injustice of it.
All these thoughts and feelings come courtesy of Walker’s use of third person global subjective point-of-view from Fisher’s, Eliza’s, Julia’s, Britt’s, and Yang’s perspectives.
We keep getting closer to learning Bishop’s identity, and there’s one scene in here that scares my pants off. And now that I’m going back through my notes, I see the clues that Walker is dropping. It’s making me more certain who Bishop is. Oh. Boy.
There are plenty of funny moments. I particularly enjoyed Eliza’s use of the lessons she learned from alien erotica, lol.
Walker is setting us up for Britt’s adventures (not until March 2025! in Black Moon Rising). It should be something of a stinker what with his worries about his con man brother versus his new fixation on an FBI agent. Ahem, “not that he noticed . . .”
Ya know, I do wish more men read romance novels, at least for the lessons on sex. A good one is when Eliza explains the difference between Fisher and every other man who came before.
I’m sorry for those of you who are anti-woke, ‘cause I am so woke. I believe in people being able to make a living wage. I believe that men and women are equal. I believe in people being able to make their own choices, to own their selves, without outsiders sticking their noses into other people’s business. Get a frickin’ life. Pay attention to your own lives. Practice being actual Christians. Y’all claim that God made everything. That includes people of color, different religions, and choices that are different from any one of us. This attitude is particularly obvious when you get Bishop’s thoughts on what this country “really needs”.
Man in Black is essentially driven by the characters’ thoughts and worries with action taking second place. I think there’s more action in how Walker describes the men and their capabilities *grin*.
Whew, that ending. It solves some questions, intensifies others, and creates new ones!
These two? They are running hot and cold and in such need of love, of family. Family can be more than the one you grew up with.
The Story
For the past four years, Eliza and Fisher have had a snarling relationship with each secretly wishing for more. It’ll take a traumatic, life-threatening event to kickstart this couple.
Only, Fish wants to feel safe in love.
The Characters
Black Knights Inc is . . .
. . . a custom motorcycle shop based on Goose Island in Chicago. That’s their cover, for each man is ex-military now working as a group of super-secret government defense contractors, answering only to the president.
The upper-crust Eliza “Liza” Meadows, who is “as beautiful as the night”, is the Knights’ office manager / live-in chef / and all-around girl Friday. She’s also the liaison between the Black Knights and the president. Her father, the cold Leonard Meadows, is the chief-of-staff to the president, Sandra J Stevens. (Her husband, the First Gentleman, is described as a glory hound.) Athena had been Eliza’s mother.
The poetry-loving harmonica-playing Fisher ”Fish” Wakefield, decorated former Delta Force and playboy of playboys, can’t cook for nothing. He named his six-figure motorcycle, Mardi Gras. Nash Wakefield, Fish’s dad, was the defining character in Fish’s background. Too bad Nash isn’t dead.
Britt Rollins, former sergeant of the 75th Ranger Regiment from Charleston, South Carolina, and adrenaline junkie, is Fisher’s best friend, wingmen for life. Britt has an older brother, Knox, whose childhood Britt questions, whether Knox’s would have been different, if his particular adrenaline addiction would have been different.
The other, current, Black Knights include the huge, heavily muscled Graham Colburn; Hewitt “Night Stalker” Burch (160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment), who pilots helicopters; Sam, a sharpshooter, who’s with the brilliant purple-haired dark web surfer, Hannah Blue, who is his girlfriend (Black Hearted, 2); and, Hunter Jackson, who is married to Grace, who works counterterrorism (Back in Black, 1).
The original Black Knights include Rebecca “Becky” Knight who is the owner of Black Knights and the wunderkind motorcycle designer whose designs are coveted by many. She’s married to Frank Knight (In Rides Trouble, Orig 2), a.k.a. Boss, a former Navy SEAL. They have two children, Hazel and Charlotte. Ozzie, their computer guru, and Samantha, an intrepid investigative reporter,(Wild Ride, Orig 9) have a baby, Sophia Marie. Jake “the Snake” Sommers and Michelle, a pharmaceutical rep (Rev It Up, Orig 3) have two boys, Franklin and JJ. Dan Currington, who had hooked up with Penni DePaul in Too Hard to Handle, Orig 8. They have four guards in the Connelly brothers, who include Manus (his wife is Birgit, a first-generation German-American, and they have seven-year-old twins) and Geralt. Peanut is the company mascot, a notch-eared tomcat who loves to be petted.
Charles McClean is in love with Eliza — and about to propose! His father is Senator John McClean, a self-made billionaire who truly is a fire-brand trying to help the people who elected him. Some of the guests at the party included Senator Bethany Chastain and her husband, Professor Bill Chastain. Peter Sullivan is the senator’s chef; Debra is his wife.
The FBI
Special Agent Julia O’Toole has been recently promoted to the disgust of her partner, the very right-wing Special Agent Dillan Douglas. It’s quite the surprise to learn of Julia’s penchant for rescuing animals, including Gunpowder, the former African grey with the foul mouth, lol. Julia’s brothers are firefighters.
“Yang” (Black Hearted), a brilliant assassin, does love hospitals. Vincent Romano had been their previous hacker (Black Hearted).
“Bishop” is the unknown traitor, who’s been organizing all the evil. There are rumors as to how many foreign spy communities with which he’s involved. Chuck Reynolds is a kiddie-loving current senate minority leader with an obsession for insider trading.
Benson is a nurse at Northwestern Memorial hospital. Ms Stapleton had been an employee at Eliza’s boarding school.
The Cover and Title
The cover is hot with the promise of action. It’s mostly black with blues in the lower center of a lightish blue sky over a blue mansion haloed in a whiteish blue with a couple silhouetted in front. In the upper right background is a close-up of Fisher in profile wearing sunglasses and a black T, and I gotta agree, he does look model-ready! There’s an info blurb at the top in a pale blue with the author’s name in a pale yellow below it. Below that, to the left of Fisher’s head is the title in a horizontal gradation of pale orange to pale yellow. At the very bottom is the series info split into pale yellow and pale blue with the “o” a gun sight.
The title is focused on one particular Man in Black, Fisher Wakefield.
