Review: Risking it All by Tessa Bailey

Title: Risking it All
By: Tessa Bailey
Series: Crossing the Line #1
My Copy: Ebook from Author
BookWhisperer's Rating: 

NYPD detective Seraphia Newsom will avenge her brother’s death at any cost. Even if it means insinuating herself into a rough, Brooklyn street gang and going so far undercover, she’s not sure she’ll be able to get out. Every minute she spends in their midst means the clock ticking down on her life, especially when she overhears something that could get her killed.

Bowen Driscol is the heir to a crime enterprise. He never asked for the job, but with his father behind bars, he has no choice but to step in and keep the operation running. But when the NYPD blackmails him with a piece of damning information in exchange for aiding an undercover cop, he finds himself on the other side of the law for the first time in his life.

Bowen knows the danger Sera is in, and keeping her safe trumps saving his own ass. The problem? She can’t know he’s on her side. And there's the matter of the seriously inconvenient heat sparking between them that's incinerating his resistance. But Sera only sees Bowen's past, and men like him are the reason her brother is dead. If they're to get out alive, he'll have to risk exposing the man beneath, and hope to hell he doesn't blow the whole operation in the process.

I get this uncontrolled excitement when Tessa Bailey releases a new book and it is in my hands for my reading pleasure.  It is one of the best feelings ever because I know that I will not be disappointed in her writing, the characters, the action, and the passion loaded into her books.  Risking it All had all of that and a lot more. 

We know Bowen from His Risk to Take and Riskier Business, which centers around Troy and Ruby.  Bowen, being Ruby’s best (and only) childhood friend, protected her while she hustled pool and we were all left with the shocking news at the end of Riskier Business of who Bowen really is to Ruby. And he got his own book!!!! *happy dance time*

Let’s dive in..shall we?

I was very nervous about the character Sera because in the beginning because, you know that she has bitten off more than she could ever chew but when an opportunity presents itself to take her brother’s killer down, Sera jumps on it. 

Bowen (long side note coming: one of the best alpha-male characters that Bailey has ever written.  I officially believe that he is my favorite on so many levels and I want him for my own) is a complex man who longs for the day when he no longer has to watch his back.  After taking over his father’s ‘business’, Bowen has done some things that he is definitely not proud of so when the chance to help Sera opens up, Bowen jumps for it.

Both Bowen and Sera became amazing characters in my eyes.  Their individual stories were heartbreaking however, together, they turn the heartbreak around when they are with each other and it is beautiful. In Sleepless in Seattle terms, they are “MFEO” (Made For Each Other.)

I don’t want to give too much away because I want you to enjoy all the twist and turns like I did but I will say that I am so excited to say that the ending has opened up and entire new world to these characters and I can’t wait to see what it brings.