Lost Hearts by Lexi Blake

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Title: Lost Hearts
Author: Lexi Blake
Series: Masters & Mercenaries: The Forgotten #1
Published by: Blackstone Audio
Release Date: December 11, 2018
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Ryan West
Length: 12 hours and 42 minutes
Genres: Romantic Suspense
Source: Hoopla
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2023 Audiobook Challenge, Lenoreo's 2023 COYER Chapter 2
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iTunes ✩ Libro.FM ✩ Chirp
My rating:

Blurb:

Six men with no memories of the past
One leader with no hope for the future

A man without a past

Jax woke up in a lab, his memories erased, and his mind reprogrammed to serve a mad woman's will. After being liberated from his prison, he pledged himself to the only thing he truly knows-his team. Six men who lost everything they were. They must make certain no one else gets their hands on the drugs that stole their lives, all while hiding from every intelligence organization on the planet. The trail has led him to an unforgiving mountainside and a beautiful wilderness expert who may be his only hope of finding the truth.

A woman with a bright future

River Lee knows her way around the Colorado wilderness. She's finally found a home in a place called Bliss after years lost in darkness. The nature guide prefers to show her clients the beauty found in the land, but she also knows the secrets the mountains hold. When she meets Jax, something about the troubled man calls to her. She agrees to lead him to the site of an abandoned government facility hidden deep in the forest. She never dreamed she was stepping into the middle of a battlefield.

A love that could heal a broken soul

Spending time with River, Jax discovers a peace he's never known. Their passion unlocks a side of himself he didn't even know he was missing. When an old enemy makes his first move, Jax and River find themselves fighting for their lives. But when his past is revealed, will River be caught in the crosshairs of a global conspiracy?

My Review:

4 stars — This was totally entertaining, and while I bet I would have enjoyed the cameos more if I’d read the original Masters & Mercenaries series, I didn’t feel lost.  Just like I don’t think anyone would be lost without reading the Nights in Bliss series, but you definitely got some fun cameos out of it if you knew it.  Heck, it’s been awhile since I read those books, and so I kind of forgot certain bits, but it was still fun.

I worried I’d get annoyed with River with her walls protecting her heart, but it felt like they made sense and the author didn’t drag out too many back and forths based on her history with her ex.  Just enough to see her vulnerability and understand that she’d been burned and was still wary.  I appreciated the point where she finally let herself grieve her father’s death, it hit for me.

Jax was pretty solid too.  I appreciated the mix of innocence and definitely NOT innocence in him.  I thought his character balanced that line well.

And I enjoyed them together.  It was quick, sure, but I still felt the connection and as it developed.  It worked for me.

There were a lot of little plot lines concerning the Lost Boys, from what they went through, the different factions of the CIA, the other stuff from books in other series, and hints of where it would go.  It almost felt a bit much for me.  But I’m still interested in checking out the next book.

Obviously, as Ms. Blake does so well, there were a ton of fun secondary characters in this one, from background to strong secondary.  The other lost boys are interesting, though I’m wary of a few.

And Mr. West’s narration was solid, he even did a good job with River’s POV.  Occasionally it would take me a minute to understand the POV had shifted, but I think that’s because I sped up the narration a teensy bit.

I might go back and read the M&M series since I already have a few of those books before reading more in this.  I feel like I would just get a bit more out of it, you know?  Otherwise it was fun, funny, tense, and steamy goodness.