♥ The Blurb ♥
Out of Time is book two in a series. It is not a standalone novel. I highly recommend that you read my first novel, Nine Minutes, to be able to understand the background stories of the main characters. There are many twists and turns in both books that can best be connected if read consecutively.
Although I do answer the outstanding questions from Nine Minutes, there is more to this story, and some readers may consider it a cliffhanger. If you do not like cliffhangers, you may want to wait until the third novel is released in 2016. Other readers may be satisfied with the answers and the ending. Regardless of which category you fall into, I hope you enjoy the story.
They thought with his execution it would all be over.
They were wrong.
The leader of one of South Florida’s most notorious and brutal motorcycle gangs has been put to death by lethal injection. Days later, his family and friends should have been picking up the pieces, moving on. Instead, they’ve been catapulted into a world so twisted and dangerous even the most ruthless among them would be stunned to discover the tangled web of deception, not only on the dangerous streets of South Florida but all the way to the top.
In this gripping follow-up novel to Nine Minutes, Out of Time takes readers from the sun-drenched flatlands of 1950s Central Florida to the vivid tropical heat of Fort Lauderdale to the halls of Florida’s Death Row as we finally learn the gritty backstory of Jason “Grizz” Talbot and the secret he spent his life trying to conceal.
Not even Grizz’s inner circle knows his full story—the tragedy that enveloped his early life, the surprise discovery that made him the government’s most wanted and most feared, and the depths of his love for Ginny, the tenderhearted innocent he’d once abducted and later made his wife.
Once Grizz’s obsession and now the mother of his child, Ginny has spent years grieving the man she’d first resisted and then came to love. Now remarried to Tommy, a former member of the gang, the pair have spent more than a decade trying desperately to live a normal existence far from the violent, crime-ridden world they’d once carved out on the edge of the Florida Everglades. For Tommy, especially, the stakes are high. Desperately in love with Ginny for years, he’s finally living his dream: married to the woman he never thought he could have. But even with the façade of normalcy—thriving careers, two beautiful children, and a genuinely happy and loving marriage—they can’t seem to put the past behind them. Every time they turn around, another secret is revealed, unraveling the very bonds that hold them together.
And with Grizz finally put to death, now Ginny has learned secrets so dark, so evil she’s not even sure she can go on.
Will these secrets tear their love to pieces? And how far will Grizz go to protect what he still considers his, even from beyond the grave?
♥ My Thoughts ♥
100 Grizzly stars!
Holly Mother of God, what just happened! I swear that author mixes “Consequences” (Aleatha Romig) with “Black Lies” (Alessandra Torre). What a bed of lies and deceit!
Warning: don’t read this book before reading Nine Minutes. This second book is not a simple “rehash” from the first book told from a different point of view. Yes, we relive some events of the past under a new (and very interesting) light but it’s also the “after” Grizz death.
It spans over decades and we discover all the manipulations, all the twisted moves made by Grizz to protect Ginny and survive in his outlawed or not so outlawed life.
If that was not enough, we also see the story through Grunt’s eyes. How he plotted for years to steal Ginny from Grizz to own her one day. She was not meant to live this life and he did want to escape with her. But what gave him the right to decide what was right and what was wrong for Ginny!?
OK, I know, the same could be said for Grizz as he wanted her and took her, as simple as that.
Yes, Ginny has just been a pawn between these two men. But she has been loved and worshipped above all else.
Ginny and Tommy (aka Grunt) discover many secrets about Grizz: his past, who he really was and who betrayed them. Some revelations and traitors really, really stunned me. I never saw it coming. And I loved it. Others made sense and could be more or less expected but these were few.
Ginny realizes she has been manipulated all along. She knew Grizz protected her from many brutal realities and she chose to go through life wearing pink glasses, not look in what Grizz did. Ignorance is bliss, right? She was young and she chose to be protected from these realities. She had to if she wanted to stay with Grizz. His life went against all she believed in: her religious education, her empathy for others and her fight to protect the weakest.
That’s why Grizz loved her so much: she was his light in the darkness. I loved reading about the child she was. The fire she had in her to save others was incredible. Of course Grizz and Grunt would fall in love with her!
Now, Ginny has matured and she is shaken to her core by the revelations. It’s time to grow and face the music. She chooses to see, really see. She’ll push Tommy/Grunt to tell her the whole story, his manipulations included but she’ll need time alone to process everything.
Tommy talks and talks. It’s hard, it’s raw and he fears losing Ginny but he wants to be honest with her. Poor Ginny, mourning Grizz and discovering all her husband’s lies. Now, she must digest all what’s been said and make a choice: go on with Tommy or not. Could she trust him again?
I did not know if I should hate Grunt as I’m team Grizz through and through even being the conniving and cruel man he could be, or love Grunt. Grunt had such a horrible childhood and loved Ginny from the beginning. For both men, the saying “The roads to hell are paved with good intentions” could not be more accurate when Ginny is concerned. They both loved her desperately and they both wanted to protect her.
But what I could not swallow is Grunt’s betrayal. He always worked behind Grizz back and had an agenda all along. He did not only manipulate Ginny (what Grizz never did, he only protected her but was not deceitful) but Grizz. I wanted to kick his balls so many times!
Each chapter shows another deceit, another lie and clues are coming after Grizz execution. Even in death he remains the controlling man, the puppet master as he orchestrated and foresaw many things.
Honestly Mrs Flynn, I don’t know where you find all these ideas and make them work incredibly well without losing your way. I’m officially starstruck. It’s diabolical and I must have experienced intellectual orgasms as it was soooooooooooooo smartly executed!
But this isn’t the end, it’s just a beginning. Something else is coming and it’s BIG! We stills have many, many things to learn, YAY! But be prepared there is a big cliffhanger ahead! So if you don’t like it, wait for the third installment.
Thank you Mrs Flynn, you took me on a hell of a ride!
