Blood. Sex. Revenge.
Being king comes at a brutal price.
Drug lord Javier Bernal has sliced and diced his way to the top of the Mexican drug trade, presiding over the country’s largest cartel. But his rise to power comes at a brutal price: the death of his sister, Alana. Devastated and wracked with guilt, he turns away from his new wife, Luisa, forcing their marriage into a steady decline. But it isn’t until she’s pushed into the waiting arms of Esteban Mendoza, his right-hand man, that Javier realizes everything he’s lost.
And it isn’t until he learns the truth about Alana, that he realizes everything there is to gain.
Blood will spill.
Cities will burn.
Heads will roll.
Because Javier will stop at nothing until he gets what he wants.
And what he wants is raw, ruthless revenge.
Dirty Promises is the third and final book in the Dirty Angels Trilogy. While the other two books – Dirty Angels and Dirty Deeds – can be read as standalones, it is recommended you read at least Dirty Angels before reading Dirty Promises.
All my life, I thought I could operate under my own code of morals and ideals. It was no different than most, I supposed. The cop who has to shoot someone in self-defense. The soldiers that go to war and raid villages in the name of freedom. Everyone makes excuses for what they do, because they believe in it. Because they believe they are in the right.
I had always thought of myself as a somewhat civilized, almost classy, narco. I at least wanted to bring purpose and grace to what I did. I didn’t believe in killing mercilessly. I believed in mercy, in forgiveness, in giving people second chances. I believed in letting people go after I got what I wanted from them.
I believed that to snitch was an outrage, that even though we were dealing and fighting and killing to be in a billion dollar industry. I believed that religious celebrations were to be respected. I believed that family came first. I believed that women and children would not be harmed.
For a moment, I thought that perhaps I had lost my mind. Never mind the needless, senseless deaths that were already at my hands over the last few months. Never mind that I had broken promises to others, to myself. Dirty, filthy promises. It was then and only then that I knew I had lost who I was. That every moral fibre that I based myself on was threadbare and I was close, oh so close, to losing all sense of myself forever.
It scared me. I watched Luisa leave the room and though I was reeling from her own words, the callous ones that reached deep inside me and left a scar, I knew I might have damaged her beyond repair. I could heal myself in time, but could she? Would we?
I didn’t think so.
Karina Halle never ceases to amaze with her writing! She can take a reader from swoony, sexy contemporary romance, to stories like Dirty Promises, a brutal, rough, gritty and violent story that is incredibly gripping, sexy and readable.
Javier Bernal is a cruel man. Yet I still felt sympathy for him (it’s true!) because if you have taken the journey with this character, you will know he is the product of his history and background. But make no mistake, this book is violent and is set in the world of drug cartels. If you are looking for a different read, with fantastic writing, then I highly recommend this series.
Javier and Luisa have a marriage that is on the brink of falling apart. Their story here is an incredibly wild ride and is most definitely NOT for the faint of heart. But if you are willing to take a risk with your reading, then you will be immensely rewarded. I did not know what to expect with DIRTY PROMISES because I knew this would be a gritty story, maybe even more so than the other books in this series. Karina Halle really delivers the goods with this book and if you are a fan of dark, action-packed stories with a very damaged “hero”, then please read this series. The books and the characters are unforgettable!!
(ARC provided by the author in return for an honest review.)
For Luisa Chavez, a twenty-three year old former beauty queen, a better life has always been just out of her reach. Sure, she’s had men at her feet since she was a young teenager but she’s never had the one thing she’s craved – security. Having grown up in near poverty, her waitressing job in Cabo San Lucas can barely let her take care of herself, let alone her ailing parents. Every day is another unwanted advance, every day is a struggle to survive.
Karina Halle is a former travel writer and music journalist and The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling author of Where Sea Meets Sky, Racing the Sun, The Pact, Love, in English, The Artists Trilogy, Dirty Angels and over 20 other wild and romantic reads. She lives on an island off the coast of British Columbia with her husband and her rescue pup, where she drinks a lot of wine, hikes a lot of trails and devours a lot of books.
Halle is represented by the Waxman Leavell Agency and is both self-published and published by Atria Books/Simon & Schuster and Hachette in North America and in the UK.
Hit her up on Instagram at @authorHalle , on Twitter at @MetalBlonde and on Facebook. You can also visit www.authorkarinahalle.com and sign up for the newsletter for news, excerpts, previews, private book signing sales and more.
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