Shade

When this book was first announced I have to say, I was nervous that it wouldn’t be everything that I hoped. But Jamie Begley went above and beyond my expectations! Shade was one of my favorite characters (along with Viper) from the very first book but he was one of those characters that you loved but couldn’t connect with. This book allows us to gain that personal connection we have craved throughout the series and to understand and love even more the man who always remained such a mystery. Shade (the book) goes from that first sighting of Lily and we see certain key scenes from the previous books from Shade’s view and while some may have an issue with that, I didn’t because I always wanted to know Shade’s inner thoughts during those scenes. I have to say that if you have not read the previous books that you think about that before reading this book. The scenes with the other women didn’t bother me because we still felt Shade’s love and devotion and once he committed to finally pursuing Lily nothing could stop him.

Let’s give a moment to that epilogue because it was the most beautiful but heartbreaking thing ever written and I LOVED it. Where can I find a Shade in real life?

Things this book cemented for me:
– My obsession with this series
– Shade as one of my all time favorite heroes
– Jamie Begley as one of my favorite authors
– My absolute hate of Bliss (please Literary Gods get rid of her)
– My wish that Train and Killyama become a couple (let us all take a moment and wish for a Last Riders- Biker Bitches book)

Things to consider:
– Who will win the heart of Rider?
– Lucky. Oh Lucky, how I loved you throughout the series but you were knocked off your pedestal in this book. If Willa becomes your love interest I hope you prove yourself worthy in your book because you were kinda a douche in Shade.

I loved this book so much, I don’t even know where to start with my review!!!

First of all, please be aware that you need to read all of Jamie Begley’s books in the order she suggests before getting to this one, or there will be things that will not make sense to you if you are only following The Last Riders series, and not the other ones. I completely understand the readers who complained about having to go to the other series in order to follow the stories in this one. But it’s worth it 🙂

I have been a huge fan of Shade’s since book 1 in this series, couldn’t wait for his and Lily’s story, and was sort of disappointed by it, which happened in book 4, Shade’s Fall. I did not write a review for that one because I couldn’t make myself to trash talk him, because he was not the man I thought he would be once he had finally decided to “court” Lily. He so redeemed himself in this book!

The entire book (with two short exceptions) is being told from Shade’s point of view, and it goes back all to way to book 1. For those of you that are only reading this series, it’s not that long. For the rest of us that have read the books from the other series which are intermingled with this series, it felt like forever ago that I read Beth and Razer’s story. So anyway, Shade pretty much gives us a recap off all books from all series while also giving us an insight into some of the action from them which had not been detailed prior to this book. The recap part was about 80% of the book. I am a very fast reader, and I have to admit that this book kicked my butt, took me days and days to finish even though it was hard to put down in spite of being familiar with everything that was happening. The final 20% of the book covered the part after Lily tells Shade that she’s pregnant and all the emotions that he had convinced himself he didn’t have, while he was trying to come up with a plan to get rid of psycho Brooke, who in turn was trying to show her love for Shade by trying her hardest to get Lily killed. There was another turn in the story which involves a character that should not have been around anymore, which I had not seen coming. And I’m dying to tell you who it is, but I will contain myself so that I don’t get hate mail from those of you who want to be surprised :))

The end about did me in. There were 3 epilogues. Epilogue 1 made me chuckle, Epilogue 2 made me smile, and Epilogue 3 got me all choked up; it actually hurt trying not to cry. I don’t want to give anything away, but it was so emotional, at least for me, that when I finished up, I went to my husband and threatened him with bodily harm should he not give me a big hug and a kiss. I finished reading this couple of hours ago and I am still thinking about it, feels like I actually know these people and now I want to go and give them a hug as well.

I hated the first part of this book. It was a copy-paste of different scenes from previous books in the series, and only a few shed light on some unresolved bits.

The rest was good enough, but it didnt feel very well executed, it wasnt that amazing TBH. However, that ending… it was too much, it was perfectly bitter sweet and… okay, Im crying, dont judge.

So Im giving it 5 stars just for the epilogues, particularly the third one, it destroyed me and now I need something happier, but no regrets.

(Spoilers)
The negatives before I get to the positives……the ending……we all no people die in old age, nobody wants a love story to end this way! Or at the very least I don’t. It didn’t need to happen and was completely unnecessary for the story. It could have simple ended with them having grandchildren and that bring it. But the story ended on a low, which you don’t expect from these types of books and really just left me as a reader on a downer.
On the plus side to this book! Finally shade makes sense to me, if your reading lily and shades book and thinking WTF then you need to read this book straight after, jump over the others to come to this. It’s ridiculous these books were not put together for it to actually make sense. I hated Shade with a passion in their first book. All I saw when I read that story was an abuser who got off on abusing a woman he professed to love and a sister who placed her in harms way to be abused. Lily was so fragile and you couldn’t help but break your heart for her fear of shade. The fact he was so emotionally and occasional physically (Spanking) abusive was extremely disturbing as she had grown up with abuse. Then you get to this book and he changes your opionion completely. It become clear how much he adores lily and will literally do anything for her. The emotional abuses, domination that he shows are all to help lily get more control of her life. He’s extremely caring and protective of her. I loved this book and would definitely read it again. The way these books have been placed in the series and the way the characters have been portrayed have done no favours to the author. I seriously was not going to read this book but because I felt my review of the first Shade book was so harsh I felt the need to give the author another chance because quite frankly I hate leaving bad reviews. I still am not 100% about this author and will never read another book but the 3 I have read have been ok, Shade POV being the most helpful on getting me to invest in these characters and their stories.

Simply my favourite out of all the books i’ve read whether it be JB or not.
Read this many many times .
From just one look comes an obsession that will last a lifetime.
The antics and deviousness that Shade pulled of to get Lilly showed through until the very end, and what an end. JB wasn’t afraid to take it to the next level and show us the true shade and his pure devotion for lily and her beautiful kind soul.

A well crafted story from Shades pov which i’m super glad JB came through with after reading Shades fall which i loved but this one knocks it far out the park.

Shade is the one i will always reach for and re-read when i get into a book funk and need to set the bar high again.
i loved it that much.

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