4.5 Lieverd Stars ⭐
Spicy Level: 🌶️🌶️/5

“To the girls who see guns as potential sex toys, why stop there? It’s time to get laid while using a rifle”

Avina St. Graves has such a fantastic ability to make a short book feel so much better, so much more well-founded with a stronger character and plot foundation that I have seen in some books twice the length. Yes, Scorpion is pretty fast-paced but fuck me if I wasn't inhaling it like air, her words the literal thing keeping me alive.

𝙎𝙮𝙣𝙤𝙥𝙨𝙞𝙨:
When Zalak ("Zuh-luck") was 17, with plans to go to university and study political science while secretly dating her rich (white) best friend Mathijs ("Ma-tays") her controlling mother gave her a choice. Marry the man she has chosen - not Mathjis (because no daughter of hers will ever marry or be in a relationship with a white man) - or walk out the door and never come back. She chose to leave and left her life and Mathjis in the past. Now 10 years later, 2 years after being discharged from the Army following a tragic disaster that took the life of her best friend, as well as losing her sister in a tragic plane crash; our former sergeant Zalak (and one of the best Snipers in history) is one step away from being homeless with nothing to live for. That is until Mathjis comes back into her life with a proposition she cannot refuse. He needs a bodyguard, and who better than the only woman he has ever loved, the one that got away but the one he has never forgotten?

𝙏𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙁𝙚𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨:
Zalak my girl, GOSH my heart broke for her! She's lost everything! TWICE... her life and then everyone who ever mattered in it. She's utterly broken as life has not been kind to her. A shadow of herself tortured by her past and beyond traumatised from her experiences. She's volatile and feisty and while in the past she tried to shape herself into an actual lethal badass, now she's nothing but a shell of who she used to be. She is very proud, stubborn and doesn't like to accept help easily. I love that she chose to stand up for her morals and eventually wouldn't let anyone push her around or control who she is or the decisions she makes. But after all her trauma she is fragile, battling with survivor's guilt, PTSD, grief and emptiness at having nothing. She is exceptionally hard on herself and the standards she lives by to the point that any vulnerability or failure is not acceptable.

Mathjis is like the biggest green flag golden retriever MMC I have ever seen Avina write, I mean HE'S STILL GONNA HAVE LIKE 100 RED FLAGS BUT STILL.... While he does skirt on the side of organised crime and doesn't bat much of an eye when bullets fly, severed heads cross his path or someone is being tortured in front of him... with Z he is a literal sweetheart (almost SIMP). My HEART MELTED FOR THIS MAN! He was so sentimental, kind, CONSIDERATE and genuine. There is and has never been anyone for him but Zalak. Yes, he technically stalked her every move. But the pining and the longing and the fact that he looked after her and ensured she had everything she needed, both physically and mentally for her to heal from her trauma and PTSD was stunning!!! ABSOLUTE BEST BOOK BOYFRIEND material and the best man I think Avina has ever written!!! It also helps that he's basically a sexy Draco Malfoy that with one look will make your panties melt off and have you dying to listen to him when he says "Spread Those Legs" in his sexy Dutch Accent....

The relationship between Zalak and Mathjis was spectacular. He is extremely straightforward with her, to the point that even her logic cannot argue with his. Yet he's also so careful with her, knowing she's holding herself together with hopes and ducktape. He never takes her choice away and while he might manipulate their interactions to his favour (he often feels 10 steps ahead of Zalak), he is never seen as pushy or making her do something that she doesn't choose. He is a man of consent both sexually and out of the bedroom (though most of their intimate scenes seem to happen everywhere but between literal sheets). The banter between them had me squealing and kicking my feet at how funny, witty and quick their back and forth could be!

DO NOT BE FOOLED in thinking that because this is a "Novella-Not-Novella" (It's Short) it's not going to have elements of heavy! There is darkness in these pages that can be triggering and it's sometimes difficult to stomach and read, especially with regards to Zalak and see how she constantly breaks herself down and tortures herself to feel something because of how empty she feels.

𝙏𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙨:
▶ Forced Proximity
▶ Second Chance
▶ Dual POV
▶ Billionaire Romance
▶ Indian Girl X Dutch Boy
▶ Organised Crime
▶ Multiauthor Interconnected World
▶ Reverse Body Guard
▶ Black Cat X Golden Retriever Vibes

𝙈𝙞𝙘𝙧𝙤 𝙏𝙧𝙤𝙥𝙚𝙨:
▷ Gun Play
▷ Rolles Sleeves
▷ Mine

Ultimately BLOODY GOOD READ!!! While this is not my favourite Avina St. Graves Book (Deaths Obsession is still number 1), this came VERY VERY CLOSE to taking that spot on the podium because I loved it so much! It had everything I needed, plot, emotionally driven characters, steamy spice that was a little risque to make it exciting and one of the BEST MMC'S I HAVE READ ABOUT IN A LONG LONG TIME!!!!

Thank you to Avina St. Graves for my gifted copy.
All thoughts and opinions are my own.