BONE DEEP – NO MERCY #3 by LEA GRIFFITH

“I will not break!” It was a scream from the very heart of her.
“I will not let you but neither will I let you break me,” he whispered

We could wax lyrical about Lea Griffith’s writing and the world she creates in the No Mercy Series but whatever we say would not adequately do her words justice.

‘She was a velvet promise that you reached for with eager hands, the stroke of her presence in your life soft but brutal.’

Her sweeping narrative engrosses us, yet we have to pause and reflect at the talent of this phenomenally gifted storyteller. Lea Griffith takes words and spins them into stunning passages that have us torn between wanting to ravenously wanting to get to the end, yet at the same time wanting to savour ever single beautiful word.

Lea Griffith certainly puts us through our paces! She keeps us guessing, throws in suspense, mystery and revelations at an astounding rate, yet never once does she lose us with the speed in which her story progresses!  Not at all!  From Russia to Australia from London to America, Lea has taken us on a gripping, intriguing, suspenseful and heart breaking journey with four women whom we’ve come to care about as each of their stories breaks us just that little bit more.

‘Her face was a testament that there was a God and he knew beauty. Her tone was proof there was a devil and he’d built her from the ashes of despair.‘

We won’t cover too much of the story being this is the third instalment, the reader needs to experience each woman’s story as it carries a piece of the puzzle to complete their stories. Conspiracies are discovered, lies told, truths bent and all come back to the ‘First Team’ of four women, Bullet, Arrow, Bone and Blade. Women raised to kill, to show no remorse and be black of heart.

‘Better to kill with the ice of hate, than with the fires of rage.’

Bone’s story was just as tragic and heartbreaking as Bullet and Arrows. Each story begins with their point of view in a tragic scene that is the catalyst that sparks off a chain of events in which the women (and many others) seek retribution. Honestly, each time we hear this painful, harrowing event from one of the women, our hearts break even more, never failing to shed tears at this harrowing and heartbreaking scene.

‘Pain is nothing but a reminder that I was created for death.’

Dmitry Asinimov is a man with his own painful past and whose life is intrinsically tied to the sisters. Dmitry is a man on a mission, on a quest to uncover the truth regarding his family. He is seeking his own answers, his own revenge and in the process shadowing Bone and falling for the woman he sees beneath the heart of a killer.

‘Only he was allowed to feel lust for her. Only he was allowed to hunt her. Only he would be allowed to break her. ‘

Their love story was as torturous as it was beautiful as two damaged souls seek to find the strength to love and will to hope. They each need their own brand of healing.

‘She knew every way to kill it seemed, but this man made her want to live and it hurt.’

This was an exquisitely told story and the only issue was a couple of times it came across a  little repetitive. We understand the need to revisit parts of previous books, but as we’ve been there from the beginning, the retelling of some events only seemed to halt the flow of the story for us. Also; the women are their own person yet seem to blend into one in some ways. The same mould but varying attributes. We understand that these women lived ‘as one’ in many respects however; not much sets them apart.

Other than that, this story delivered and it delivered brilliantly.  The writing was nothing short of breathtaking. The story exhilarating. Bone and Dmitry’s love was passionate and their story was engrossing. Once again we were mesmerized and extremely emotionally involved. The No Mercy series IS NOT TO BE MISSED!!!