Very entertaining and enjoyable. It's dark and steamy with enough drama to keep it interesting. The flow is good and you will not be able to put it down until the end. The characters are good too. They are well developed and it was easy to like or dislike them becasue of how well they were written. Overall a good read worth adding it to your reading list. I voluntarily reviewed an advanced copy of this book.

This is the first book I have read by this author. I truly enjoyed Vicky and Luc's story. The plot flows well and the backstory for both of the main characters is intense and heartbreaking. The characters interact naturally and they are fully developed. Secondary characters are key ingredients in the plot and the sex is steamy. The emotions that Ms. Stephens draws from the readers are all over the map. Romantic suspense is one of my favorite genres and this book has suspense in spades.

This series was amazing. Lots of romance, mystery, and suspense. The characters were so well developed. I loved the chemistry that Luc and Vicky had together. I highly recommend this book.

I loved the plot and the story. Two broken people finding true love.

Love, love, love this book! I was happy that Luc had his own book and we got to see inside his mind. Vicky was a great character also. Reading this book my emotions were all over the place. Great read

Luc was broken because of his past and his action with Alexis. He vowed to never touch a woman no matter what. He was paying he penance, because he couldn't forgive himself even though she did.
Vicky is suffering from the pain of loss, betrayal and brutality. She was a shell roaming around numbing herself with strangers not to connect but to numb the pain.
When he saw her the connection was instant, but his vow kept him away.
When she saw him she saw through to his soul, but she was empty and a loner.
This book is powerful with topics both taboo and aggressive. What make this book special is the way they find each other and find what they need to heal one another.
Luc is still hiding from his past but he pushes on for her, praying that it doesn't result in the same tragedy of his past relationship with Alexis.
The love he share for Vicky is deeper and if he loses her he will lose it all.
I know I am being vague but to much can be given away sometimes in reviews and I want you go through that struggles these characters go through to become whole again for each other. The journey is well worth the tears and nail biting!

WOW! One sign of a great author to me, is the ability to make a hated character in a series, redeemed in their own story. R.C. Stephens freakin nailed it in Wild Cards.

Luc is finally starting over in a new life. He's away from his mafia family, is successful in a legal job, and sober. This doesn't stop him from drowning in guilt and darkness however. He's done terrible things in the past that he can't take back. Vicki is on the road to self destruction by trying to bury her pain with sex parties. Her bad choices have started to become dangerous for her. When she goes to New York at her mother's last request, she meets Luc. They have an instant strong connection, but fight it. Will Luc and Vicki find healing or destroy each other?!

I read the first two books in the Twisted series, and I loathed Luc. R.C. Stephens brilliantly wrote a raw and gritty story that changed my feelings for him. Now I understand the real him, and fell in love. Character development is perfect, as I saw a completely different side to Luc, while watching he and Vicki heal through time. The storyline is well written, realistic, and flowed smoothly. I physically felt the two characters pain while cheering for their redemption. The twists had my heart racing, and didn't see a few of them coming. Wild Cards is a beautiful story of forgiveness and second chances so I HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

4.5 stars
Although this book is a third novel in this series, it is a stand-alone. I have not personally read the first two books and was not lost at all with reading of this one. This author asked Jenn if we would please review her book and participate in release of this, her latest book, Wild Cards, and I was the lucky recipient of this ARC (from the author) to read and review. I have to tell you, it pulled me in almost immediately and kept me hooked throughout the entire book.
As you’ve seen in the synopsis, this book does have a pretty intense trigger. It is toward the beginning of the book and although I suppose you could skip it, it would be confusing for you to read the rest of the book; not because this issue continues to happen over and over again, it does not. But the aftermath creates situations a couple of times (where if you don’t know what happened, you might not fully grasp this story). So if you cannot handle a sexual aggravated assault, this is probably not the book for you. And I hope the author doesn’t mind, but this might make some people relax and others know not to read it, but it’s almost a date-assault scenario so if that’s one you can deal with, I recommend you give it a try. This book is definitely worth reading if you can get past this one part!
This book begins with Luc. He’s a young man, and French. He lives in France with his family; his father is a powerful head of an organized crime family. And frankly, his father is an ******. Like HUGELY an *******. He, of course, wants Luc to join the “family” as his oldest son but Luc doesn’t want this. Luc doesn’t want to live a violent life, at all. The things his dad put him through to try to “persuade” Luc to joining the family business were cruel and impossible to justify, yet that’s how he operates, whether Luc was his son or not. Eventually, he earns himself a “break” from the family but always knows in the back of his mind, he might be called back and his time away will be over. He heads to New York to create a life for himself minus the organized crime aspect and is genius at what he does for a living; using his experience, intelligence and skills to better a company with their fingers in many different fields. Luc just happens to be excellent at working on their car design that has many unique features and by working there, he has found a “home” where he can just be himself and appreciated for who he is.
As for Vicky, she’s a small-town girl in the big city! She grew up with a mom and a dad and a brother and they were all very close. But then they lost her mom and their world fell apart; she’s come to New York to try to build something new. But sometimes, some of her choices are questionable. But she has suffered for quite a while and keeps trying to make the pain go away. She is beginning to learn that she no longer wants to take the types of chances with her safety as she did in her past; she’s hoping for happiness and a better future. And when she sees Luc one evening at a party, she is immediately attracted to him…
“Hello.” A man came up beside me and leaned on the bannister. He was incredibly tall, over six feet for sure, with a muscular build…When he looked at me, I felt the need to look away. There was something intense and forbidden in his gaze. His dark hair was wet and slicked back, like he may have stepped out of a Calvin Klein underwear ad…”Hi,” I responded, feeling my legs buckling…”Luc, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” he extended his hand, using that raspy accent that sounded like heaven. “Vicky,” I replied, not allowing my weak-at-the-knees feeling to betray my front. As I extended my hand to his, his tough demeanor was at odds with his gentle response as he took my hand, gently brushing his sensuous lips across my heated skin. My body betrayed me as shooting need burst straight to my hungry core. “Why is a pretty girl like you by herself?” he asked with a slight grin. “I should be asking you the same question,” I replied nervously, hoping to hide how much his presence affected me, and feeling like I sounded stupid at the same time. My cheeks flushed. . .did I just call him a girl? He threw his head back laughing a deep, throaty laugh, clearly amused by my answer…
Eventually, she discovers Luc works in the same building where she will be working; and he’s her boss. But that doesn’t keep these two from being crazily attracted to one another; they have the type of chemistry that could combust at any moment.
But Luc knows he cannot become involved with a woman with the threat of his family, especially his father, hanging over his head. He tries to fight his attraction to her, but that becomes very difficult for him to do as he gets to know her better and feels a compulsion to protect her from a very real threat that Vicky has lurking in her life from her past. When he discovers she lives one floor below him in his apartment building, he eases into her life so seamlessly that I doubt either of them really noticed it at first. But this begins to concern Luc and he tries to keep his distance…
“Why do you keep referring to me as a girl, Luc? It’s irritating the s*** out of me. . .I’m twenty-two years old,” she said with a tone that oozed attitude. “It’s not that I think you are a girl, it’s that I need to think that you are a girl so that you will stay off limits to me,” I admitted hesitantly. “What does that mean?” she snapped. “It means that as much as I want you, I know I can’t have you.”…”How?” she asked, as her forehead creased and she squinted her eyes. Even confused she was beautiful. “Because, Vicky, I am a monster. I have done bad things too,” I said with defeat in my tone. As much as I tried to be good, it always comes down to my sins. “Luc, you’ve been watching out for me since the day I met you. You can’t be that bad. You need to be more forgiving of yourself. Besides, this is just friendship here, right?” she asked. I knew she needed the confirmation because I did too. So even though my dick went hard just watching her I confirmed. . .”Yeah, Vicky, we are just friends. I’m looking out for you,” I answered, wanting to believe in those words more than anything. Really, I wanted to undress her, knowing she wasn’t wearing a bra under her shirt and wondering if she was commando too. Luckily, I had put on a pair of boxers to tame my beast down…
But even the best laid plans can go awry. Eventually these two cannot resist each other for another moment, and it was explosive. This author can seriously write some pretty hot scenes!
I felt so badly for Luc. He’s a really great guy who has imposed a sentence onto himself for several years with the belief that he cannot have anyone in his life because of the very real threat that one day, he will get a call telling him his time in New York is up and it’s time to return to the “family business.” But as we learn at the very beginning of this book, he’s really a great guy. He’s got a conscience. He wants to be a good man. He takes steps to make a difference. They always say we are our own worst critic and he takes that thought to extremes. All he wants is to find someone to love and have a family with her. But he tells himself he isn’t allowed to do that and until he meets Vicky, this was a pretty easy thing to uphold. But meeting “the one” took that thought and blew it to smithereens!
The author states that these are two darks souls. I’m not entirely sure I agree. To me, a dark soul is someone who has given up all hope and when something good comes along, they cannot even begin to see it for what it is because they have lost all faith in the light. That was not the case here. I think both of these characters had given up, yes, but I think there was a small glimmer of hope that neither of them completely extinguished and when the time was right, they began to stoke those embers until they had combustion. And once they came together, there was no going back, for either of them.
But, both of these people had danger lurking around the corners of their lives and they both had to find the inner strength to take care of business when it was required. They gave each other the strength they each needed to face their demons and come out not only alive, but better. Made better by their belief in each other and learning that when push came to shove, they were each willing to be strong to ensure a future together.
As I mentioned, this book pulled me in almost immediately and I got a bit resentful when real life would came a’calling. I wanted these two characters to find happiness, their HEA! I wanted the bad guys to go away. I wanted each of them to experience the love and pleasure that comes from conquering the darkness and moving into the light together. It was easy to invest in these two characters, as well as several of the supporting characters within this book. Actually, I’m really hoping some of them get their own books! They are intriguing to say the least!
I can absolutely recommend this book to anyone willing to brave the darkness at the beginning of this book. Unless it is truly a trigger for you, I would say “Go for it.” I have a couple of triggers too that are similar and I did fine (although it was stressful for a little while). I will truly look forward to reading more of this author’s work. She is truly talented!