Kept

The Enforcers, Book #3

By Maya Banks

ISBN# 9780425280676

Author’s Website:  http://mayabanks.com/

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi

As Drake Donovan’s enforcer, Silas Goodnight has stood by Drake through everything.  He saw the gang wars (that are still playing out), a traitor in their midst, and he even saw the horrible way Drake treated his now wife, Evangeline, before he came to his senses!  Silas and Evangeline have grown close in the short time he’s known her, he sees her as the diamond in the rough that she truly is.  So imagine his surprise when Silas finds his very own rare jewel in the most unlikely of places.

Hayley has been struggling since her dad died, the life insurance policy he’s put all his money into turned out to be a scam and what was supposed to provide for Hayley once he was gone has given her nothing but heartache and filled her with a seething rage.  She moved to the city to follow her dream of going to a prestigious music school and to become a top notch violinist.  However, the cost of living here was more than she could have ever expected.  She’s going to school full-time and working multiple jobs and she’s still just barely scraping by.  And, even worse her apartment sitting job is coming to a sudden end and she has to find a new place to live before she’ll be homeless in just three days!  But unfortunately she can’t find anything she can afford.

When Hayley goes into the apartment complex Silas owns in hopes of finding affordable housing, Silas sees her on the monitors from his room and is floored by her beauty.  So much so that after she leaves rejected at the cost of the only unit available, Silas insists his property manager go find her and offer the apartment next to him at a dirt-cheap price.  The apartment that Silas just had the wall removed on to expand his own apartment.  He quickly pays to have the wall rebuilt and the apartment furnished for her.  Silas vows to keep his distance from her.  But he has an uneasy feeling one night when she doesn’t come home on time and he goes looking for her to find her being brutally attacked by three thugs.  He comes to her rescue and takes her home to his apartment, where he nurses her back to health and decides to keep her for himself!

But trouble is brewing and all the people Silas and his brothers care about are in danger, just by knowing them.  Could he bear if anything would happen to his princess because of him?  And, what can he do to prevent it?

This has not been one of my favorite series.  The first two books focused on Drake and Evangeline, and Drake was such a jerk that I really struggled liking those books.  But I had to give this series one more chance when I saw that this one was about Silas!

The book got off to a slow start and it took me awhile to get engrossed in the story.  Also, the book mirrored Drake and Evangeline’s story a little too much.  In fact in the beginning Hayley acted just like Evangeline down to her quick hatred for people she didn’t know that hurt Silas in his past, when frankly she didn’t really know him at all.

Thankfully Silas retained his good character that I fell in love with in the earlier books of the series.  I was worried he was going to turn into the jerk that Drake was, but he did NOT!  Also, his dominance wasn’t quite as complete as Drake’s and you didn’t get all the BDSM scenes we got with Drake and Evangeline.  Of course he did have his idiot move where he completely broke Hayley’s heart.  But it didn’t take him nearly as long to correct it as Drake took.  Silas’s problems were actually solved in just one book!

It was also nice getting to see more of Drake’s men as they are truly engaging characters that I can’t wait to read more about.

But one flaw with this book is that it seems to follow a set formula for relationships in this series.  Dominant male meets naïve girl, he forces her to live with him, makes a few jerky moves that makes girl question his loyalty, but he gives lame apology and she quickly forgives, only to have her heart crushed a little later and then big danger from his enemies eventually brings them back together.  But I did find this book to be a grave improvement over the first two books in the series.  Hopefully it will continue to get better from here.

*OBS would like to thank the publisher for supplying a free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review*