Title: Ruthless
Series: Lawless # 1
Author: Lexi Blake
Release Date: August 9, 2016
Christine’s Review
RUTHLESS is a fantastic spin-off to the Masters and Mercenaries series. I loved these brothers and sister. The way this novel started broke my heart and just thinking of it now is making me emotional all over again. This family has endured so much and deserves justice.
I really loved Ellie. My heart hurt knowing that she had to be hurt in order for the family to receive justice. I loved the fact that she has rose coloured glasses on. She believes that she can make things right and take her father’s company to a new level. Not even her own father’s admissions to her on his death bed can change her outlook on the world. It’s not until Riley comes along and rips those glasses off that she sees people for who they really are. I almost wish, though, that she can put those glasses back on and regain that naivety.
There were several quotes that were very humous, mostly coming from Mia. But the one that I found very fitting was “The sins of the father were about to be visited on the daughter’s doorstep. Ellie Stratton would have to pay her father’s debt.”
Even though I want to hate Riley for what he was about to do Ellie, I knew that he needed to stay loyal to his family in order to move on with his own life. Drew keep him focused while Bran keep him grounded. This family works so well together but even they can’t plan on the people that they are going to take down having an agenda of their own.
There were a lot of great moments both humorous and serious in this novel. I’m glad that we got to see the continued story of Mia and Case. They are so good together. It felt like Case was the voice of reason for Riley which really nice to see how he grew as a character.
In closing, I really enjoyed this story and can’t wait for book two.
My Rating: 
Lulu’s Review
RUTHLESS was a fantastic read, even though I now know some of the major OMG secrets and explosive moments yet I know if I picked this up (which I will be doing before book 2 gets released) there would be other clues perhaps given that I may have missed. I was so glued to watching Ellie miss all the signs and willing her to see all these awful people that I am sure I missed parts which I have so many questions especially regarding the Lawless family and I cannot wait to read book 2.
I was beside myself throughout the first half of this book knowing and waiting for Ellie to have revealed to her all the players. The surprise boardroom meeting scene is just epic and threw the whole storyline wide open – I was in shock I put the book down for 5 minutes I was so angry and hurt for Ellie.
My favourite quote came from Mia (the boys sister) talking about wanting Ellie to fall in love with her brother Reilly as she was sick of the “Sausuage Fest”, I mean anyone who can put Sausage Fest into a mystery/suspense novel and make me laugh while still having my heart broken and being scared for other characters being hurt by the bad guys – yeah I loved it.
Now moving onto the sex scenes – look we are given great moments – quickies on the desk at work, the first time they “do it”, my favourite was after Ellies emotional heart to heart with Bran and then she and Riley sleep together, now it was not so much the sex but the actions of Ellie to enable Riley to sleep all night with her – just kind of cemented them for me as a couple and I knew deep down they were going to be okay – well until the next curve ball was being thrown Ellie & Reilly’s way – I mean your heart does not stop beating until those last few pages – will we get a HEA for these two – I will not ruin the surprise – you need to pick this up!!
Vicki’s Review
RUTHLESS starts out with the Lawless children grieving the loss of their parents who were murdered, but whose deaths are being ruled as a murder-suicide. They spend the next twenty years planning their revenge on all those involved and now it’s time to start putting their plans into action, starting with Ellie, the daughter of one of the men involved. Riley is sent in to get close to her, but his desire to make her pay for her father’s sins quickly changes when he discovers that she’s the polar opposite of her father.
I really liked Riley who, despite his desire to make those responsible pay for their crimes, wasn’t blinded by twenty years of hate and revenge. When he gets to know Ellie, he was adamant that she not be hurt and he was devastated when that was exactly what happened. I liked Ellie, who was very kind and caring, and my heart broke for her when she believed she had been robbed of everything and had no-one she could turn to or trust. But while she’s intelligent enough to be the CEO of a multimillion dollar business, she did some really stupid things that annoyed me.
RUTHLESS is told in dual POVs and is part of a series where the books will not be able to be read as stand-alones. It’s the first book in the spin-off from the Masters and Mercenaries series, but as someone who hasn’t read any of those books, I was never confused or overwhelmed by characters I should have known about. The story starts off slow, but it really picks up with the boardroom scene just before the 50% mark, and after that scene it was really hard to put this book down. I loved the mystery and suspense, and I felt that that side of the story overshadowed the romance side. In fact, when it comes to Riley and Ellie’s relationship, I couldn’t understand how they both fell in love when we didn’t see them spend a lot of time together, except when they were at work…working. I have a really out-there theory as to who the other person involved might be, and I’m definitely interested in reading more of the Lawless books to find out if I’m right. Bran Lawless gets the next book, target and girl.
