REVIEW: Last Hope by Jessica Clare and Jen Frederick

Last Hope by Jessica Clare and Jen Frederick: Rafe and his friends are on a mission to save their friend and they can’t afford any distractions. Except Ava seems to be in the middle of the current mission. She’s under the very watchful eye of the two men they need to get to. Ava’s only priority is to cooperate long enough until she can figure a way out for herself and her best friend, Rose. She never wanted to become a mule and things are escalating with the men holding her.

Ava is very lonely when she meets Rafe for the first time. He’s a breath of fresh air as another American, but he makes her nervous. She knows she’s being monitored and can’t afford to upset the men she was blackmailed into working for. Then suddenly she’s being moved and flying to another city. The whole flight is a nightmare, which gets worse when the plane goes down.

Ava and Rafe survived the plane crash and are somewhere in the Amazon. Ava doesn’t know if she can entirely trust Rafe, but he’s her best (and only) chance at survival. The Amazon is miserable without the appropriate supplies and both sustained injuries in the crash. They get a chance to know each other as they work together to look for food, supplies, and other necessities.

“We’ll have pretzels for dinner, unless you object.”
“And here I was hoping we’d dine on bugs,” I say lightly, and step in.
“That’s breakfast,” he teases back.
It’s so ridiculous that I laugh, and he smiles at me in the twilight.

Rafe has been attracted to Ava since the beginning, but he’s vowed to stay away for her own sake. He believes he’s cursed, refuses to hurt another woman, and knows his life and work isn’t conducive to a relationship if he could even find the right woman. Ava comes to trust Rafe and she wants to take their partnership to the next level. She doesn’t understand his reticence, but she’s determined to seduce him anyway.

“I was swimming in a river, thank you very much. And you didn’t mind how I looked five minutes ago. I saw you checking me out.”
“Five minutes ago, I didn’t feel weird about having an erection. In front of child mercenaries I do.”

Last Hope is an interesting story of two people who are determined to save their friends and find more than they bargained for. Last Hope can be read as a standalone. Jessica Clare and Jen Frederick created two well matched characters in Ava and Rafe as both are incredibly loyal. Ms. Clare and Ms. Frederick painted a vivid picture of the scenery and locations throughout the book. Fans of Lauren Smith will enjoy Last Hope.
 

Book Info:

Publication: Expected publication: September 29th 2015 | Berkley | Hitman #4

In the explosive new Hitman novel from the bestselling authors of Last Kiss and Last Hit a jungle mercenary and a female target find love on the run…
Mendoza: I grew up in the slums and lost everything I loved to poverty, illness, and death. I had only one skill to leverage myself out of my circumstances—violence. Being hired out as a mercenary hitman brought me money and built an empire. But all that I’ve fought for is in jeopardy. My next job: Steal secret information that could bring down world governments. Find my target. Destroy it. But then, I meet her.
Ava: Karma hates me. When my best friend Rose is kidnapped, I have no choice but to take a job as a mule for a pair of criminals intent on selling top-secret information to the highest bidder. I should have known that bad luck tends to cling, because the plane I’m on goes down. That I survived a crash-landing was a miracle. And so was being rescued by Rafe Mendoza—hot, sexy, dangerous. The thing is, he wants the information that I need to free Rose. I can’t let him have it, but I need his help. And I need to fight this crazy attraction for this mercenary with hungry eyes. Rose is depending on me, and I won’t let her down, no matter how appealing Rafe is.