Jane’s newest release combines two things that she’s very good at writing. King’s Ransom is a Daddy story and it’s also the newest book in her Ruthless Doms books involving the Russian & American Bratva.
This book is Stefan’s story. He’s the pakhan in Atlanta, Nicolai’s father. He also officiated at Caroline and Tomas’ wedding. He’s the elder generation, and we’ve seen him in just about everyone’s book. So, it’s about time that we get to focus on him.
So, we have Stefan, who is getting ready to have his second grandchild from Nicolai and Marissa. One day, while Marissa and another Bratva woman were out shopping, some traitors tried to hurt them. What the traitors weren’t expecting is that Nicolai was acting as security for his beloved wife, because he was training in new security. So, he grabbed the guy, called his dad, and brought him home to take care of him. Which, of course, means that he got hauled into a shed and bad things happened to him.
Then, we have Taara. She works as Stefan’s housekeeper. Her mother did the job before her, but now her mom’s hospitalized because of dementia. Taara is happy with her job, because she’s madly in love with Stefan, and she wants to make him happy and comfortable and taking care of him does that, and makes her happy. She sits on the stairs and watches him, and then goes into his bedroom to make sure that his bed is nice and ready for him. I mean, girl has it bad for him. One day, she gets up early to go into the garden to take pictures of the flowers, like she always does, when she hears someone coming. She hides so no one sees her, but then she follows the guys and peeks into the window. That means that she ends up seeing something she shouldna oughta seen.
She gets caught by one of the Bratva guys, who hauls her in front of Stefan and Nicolai and gets accused of being a spy. All her pictures are destroyed and her phone, because she had some accidental pix of Stefan and Nicolai as they were taking the traitor to the shed to be dealt with. So, instead of killing her as some suggested, Stefan ends up caning her, in front of lots of people. Then he decides that he has to test her.
You see, Taara has one huge advantage here. She’s an Afghani refugee. Her mother fled to Russia, and from Russia to the US. And the Bratva’s enemies, the Thieves, have a thriving human trafficking trade. Currently, they are selling Afghani women, and are using that to try to take down the Bratva in the US. Stefan is going to go in and shut it down, and Taara is going to be perfect to use as his slave. It will prove her loyalty.
So, I have to admit that I really kind of hated Stefan at times, which saddened me, because I’ve always kinda liked Stefan. OK, maybe hate isn’t the right word for it. I was definitely grumpy with him though. Mostly because he had his head up his ass. When his head popped out of his ass, every time his head popped out of his ass, he was much better.
Taara is a sweet woman. She’s also got some real strength to her. I thought that she was a little naive though, at times. I think that some of the things that happened would’ve been different if she was a little more practical, but then again, we wouldn’t have had such a good book.
I think that Stefan should’ve told Taara about her mom earlier than he did. It was kinda shitty on his part to wait, I think. I mean, I understand his thinking, but…
OK, that’s all I have to say about this one. Go check it out! Happy reading!
In Between the Pages 