I am so sorry. My grandma suddenly had stage 4 cancer and I picked up my family to go take care of here. I am no longer able to access this title on my kindle and, while it was read, I don't remember it well enough to leave an accurate review. Again, I am so very sorry and hope you will allow me to review future titles - I just needed to make the last months with my grandma the center of my attention.

Faith

With the first three chapters of the book giving readers an adrenaline rush, it was obvious that “Running the Risk” is a thriller. The surprising part is that it is also a romance, though Jude had to watch Ella, the love of his life, die in the early part of the book.

But, like Lazarus, Ella came back from the dead. And this is when Jude and Ella’s love was tested. This is also the time when even as a reader, I am questioning if the “good guys” are actually doing all these things for flag and country or are they being manipulated by a puppet master.

There are so many plot twists and unexpected turns in the book, sometimes it is hard to keep up. But, the love between Jude and Ella always shone through. So, yes, this is a romance and all the action are backdrop for an extraordinary love!

Don’t get me wrong, if you like action, you will enjoy this book, too. Just don’t queasy when you get to the romantic parts. Believe me, it’s worth it.

“Running the Risk” is Rated M for Mature due to violence and some sexual content.

Lee Griffith writes some invigorating romantic suspense, but "Running The Risk" seems to be an exception to this and I'm really not a fan of cliff hangers! There is plenty of action, but just not the right kind to keep Jude Degan in character! For a guy who is a special ops agent, his behavior and reasoning is just not justifiable, and not able to connect with a character is a big deterrent for me to enjoy a book

This is a hard review to write....as in I didn't want to write it. I always try to finish a book but when everyone in the book rises from the dead - I have to stop. Look, I get surprise plots and storylines but seriously there are sometimes when the suspension of what is real in a book just can't be justified. Yes, we read to escape but we're not stupid. This book was written for the sole purpose of making the reader feel stupid...

Wow. This is my first book by this author but it won’t be my last. I liked the unconventional beginning to this story. The main characters, Jude and Ella, are deeply in love, but then Ella is presumed dead and Jude must deal with his loss. A year later Judd discovers that Ella is still alive, and they reunite and must come to terms with their new reality and the machinations that have brought them there. I absolutely loved how devoted Ella and Jude were to one another, and that they both respected each other. Ella never became the helpless female, and Judd, though protective, didn’t become a dominating ass. The story, with its far-reaching plot, was a bit over the top at times, but was just so good that I went with it. I really loved the premise of two smart, strong people who loved one another and encouraged and supported each other through their journey. I highly recommend this book and will be anxiously awaiting more from Lea Griffith.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC in return for an honest review.

After watching the love of his life die a year ago, Jude continues his work with Endgame Ops, although there is a huge whole in his heart. That is until he sees Ella alive and working with their enemy. Since then, a mix of dark emotions war within Jude, causing him to track Ella down and eventually confront her.

Ella hates deceiving her Endgame teammates, but she firmly believes in the mission-within-a-mission that their leader, the Piper, set in motion. However, the deeper Ella dives, the more convoluted the mission and motives appear. Yet, she is determined to stay put within the enemy camp until she determines who Dresden works for, placing her at odds with the man she loves and his personal mission to save her.

Overall, I found Running the Risk to be a thrilling story and passionate romance. Ella and Jude share a strong history, which makes their connection extremely emotional, which worked for me. Theirs is a deep and lasting love, one that the author planted reminders of throughout the book. One of my favorite passages was when Jude brings Ella to his home after taking her from her undercover job. She does something mundane like brushing her teeth, and it triggers a memory of how Jude would make fun of how much toothpaste she uses. It’s a great reminder that although things have changed between the pair, the solid core remains.

While I really enjoyed the romantic storyline, I found the suspense side a bit more difficult to follow. First, I was a bit put off by Ella’s conviction to trust her shadowy boss rather than her teammates and Jude. The author does a good job of making a case for Ella at first, but after a while, it felt flimsy. Especially when Ella figures Dresden knows she’s still with Endgame. Why would she fight so hard to go back to the monster? Additionally, there are so many players in motion and dead teammates who may not really be dead. There are too many characters for me to keep track of, which makes the story hard to follow when things start to get intense. I tried to follow the actions of Ella and Jude only, letting the rest fall away in the periphery. It mostly worked, even though I am generally someone who likes to piece the puzzle together on my own, before the characters do.

In the end, I enjoyed Running the Risk and felt it was a solid story overall. I really liked Ella and Jude’s second chance romance and the strong emotions it evoked throughout the tale. Although I was a bit overwhelmed with the action piece, it was suspenseful and exciting.

My Rating: B, Liked It

Running the Risk is the second book in Lea Griffith's Endgame Ops series. It is packed full of action, betrayal, and suspense that will leave you on the edge of your seat. There is also a lot of things aren't what they seem with people "coming back from the dead" but they are part of an organization that performs secret ops so it makes sense.

Elle and Jude are a great couple and I really enjoyed reading their story. However, their sexy times happened in some strange places and it felt like the author was trying to force the story to happen. I still can't wait to see who the next story is about and the journey it will take us on.

Jude and Ella were inseparable until the fateful mission when things went to crap and Ella was captured and killed by the enemy. So who's the Ella look alike? Could it be possible that Jude's eyes deceived him? but then Jude's Ella would never play for the enemy? Get ready for an exciting tale when all these questions are answered along with all the ones you never thought to ask.

For a highly trained super spook Jude is distracted and pulls in every favor he can to discover if Ella is alive and then to track her down and bring her home. Unfortunately this Ella has changed. She's no longer his and even worse does not want him any where around her. The deeper Jude digs the more the plot thickens until there is no distinguishing the white hats from the black hats and vice versa.
This is a fast moving adrenaline filled ride with surprises that keep on coming. It's great to catch up with the characters from the first book and meet even more new characters. Can Jude and Ella find their way together past all the betrayals and find the love that once kept them both alive? For fans of romantic suspense this is a keeper.
Can't wait to see what the next book brings especially given the cliff hangar at the end.

This is the second book in the Endgame Ops series, and if you haven’t read the first one, there are an awful lot of characters to get to grips with here, especially since a number of them are stated in the beginning as having been killed in action and then turn out to be mysteriously alive.

And when I say ‘a number of them’ I mean ‘literally everyone’. Starting with one of the protagonists of the book, Ella Banning. She was ‘killed’ a year ago in an operation in Beirut which went south, leaving her lover, Jude Dagan, devastated. Now she’s turned up alive, right hand woman to a notorious arms dealer.

Saying that Jude does not handle this well is the understatement of the year. In fact, he goes completely off the rails, first deciding he has to kill her as a traitor, then that he wants answers. When he finally gets face to face with her, he’s violent, threatening, demanding, and totally mistrustful. Ella tells him to his face that she’s on an undercover mission and he’s endangering everything, and he just flat-out doesn’t listen. And not a single one of his team-mates calls him on it. He even kidnaps her and drags her off to a remote hideaway to… I still don’t know what for. To ‘keep her safe’, he claimed, completely disrespecting the fact that she was doing her job and his actions made it impossible for her to be professional and help people who needed her. And then he didn’t check her for an implanted tracker, despite having the equipment conveniently on hand, leading to them both being almost killed anyway.

There is so much contradictory in Jude’s attitude. It’s stated repeatedly that Ella was broken (and we get a nasty account of the torture she underwent) in order for the arms dealer to trust she’s too afraid of him to betray him. In which case, Jude should absolutely never trust a word out of her mouth. Or… she was never broken in the first place, in which case she is most definitely not ‘soft’, as he thinks of her multiple times. I nearly threw my e-reader at the wall at the sentence “She’d become a better soldier while she’d been away from him, but she was still soft.”

I like romantic suspense and action novels, and I like an alpha male, but this book was a mess of contradictory plot points and Jude crossed well over the line from alpha to a-hole. Despite the cliffhanger ending, I’m not in the least tempted to read any more in this series. It took me four days to wade through a book I should have finished in a couple of hours because I kept losing my temper and having to put it down. Jude’s boneheaded stupidity and conviction that He Knew Best made me want to murder him myself. I’m not kidding when I say I was disappointed when the villain didn’t manage it.

I only didn’t DNF this because I don’t believe in critiquing something without having full and informed knowledge of the thing. Having battled through to the end of this, I can therefore in full confidence say I absolutely hated it and I’m giving it one star - which is more than it deserves.

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Avid Reader – ☆☆☆☆
M/F Thriller Romance
Triggers: Torture, murder, kidnapping

This is the second book in the series and I would say that you for sure need to read book one in order to understand what is going on in this story. All of the characters are repeat and the dynamics between them all is complex. Understanding where everyone comes from and how they meld together is vital in understanding how this story continues forward.

Jude has lost everything that he cares about. Ella was the love of his life and despite knowing that they worked dangerous jobs, Jude can't help but feel the loss. While continuing to hunt for the one who betrayed his team, he finds that Ella is not where she appeared to be – who she appeared to be. Questions crop up and Jude will stop at nothing in order to obtain the answers he needs and feels he deserves.

Ella is living a life of lies. She has been through the ringer and lived to tell about it. However, she is doing everything in her power to protect those she holds dear. But when more players are introduced to the board and Jude's continued pursuit lands her in hot water, she'll have to decide whether or not she can trust her old team again to get her through it all.

This is fast paced and there is a lot going on. I am so looking forward to the next installment and can't wait to see what twists and turns crop up next.

Title: Running the Risk

Series: Endgame Ops Book #2
Stand Alone Title: yes
Author: Lea Griffith

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Blurb: Survival is crucial.
Trust is optional.
Love is unstoppable.

Jude Dagan's life as he knew it ended a year ago. On a mission gone wrong, he was forced to watch as Ella Banning, the only woman he's ever loved, was killed. Or so he thought.

Jude wasn't the only one who lost something on the day Ella was presumed dead. She sacrificed Endgame Ops, the love of her life, and parts of herself she can never get back. Now she's determined to take down the world's most dangerous terrorist--even if it means working for him.
When Jude and Ella are reunited, they'll battle the lies Ella has been forced to tell...and struggle to save a love that knows no bounds.

Favorite quote(s)/excerpt(s): “We’ve got about an hour hike out of these caves. It’ll still be dark when we exit. I go first, and if there’s any sign of danger, you tuck in and wait for my orders. We clear, Ella? I need your cooperation here.”

“I’m clear,” she said in exasperation. “How the hell did I manage to survive a whole year without you?”

Oh, her sarcasm. He’d missed the hell out of that. He rolled his eyes. “I don’t know. I’m sure it was touch and go.”

Thoughts: Reading this book was like watching an awesome action movie come to life on the big screen. I could almost see some of the scenes flicker to life! You can’t get any better than this - jam packed adventure and action. The good guys against the bad guys. The down and dirty violence that is special ops. Then, with a great helping of romance thrown in there for good measure. And it hits the best of the best in romance, too! That love so strong and vibrant that you can literally feel the emotions of the characters. I don’t know how I’ve never read this author before, but I will most assuredly be remedying that fact! Exceptional romantic suspense! You can’t go wrong grabbing this one!

Rating: A

Other books in this series: Flash of Fury (Book #1)

Griffith provides a sold installment for the series. While a little formulaic, Running the Risk is a fun and suspenseful novel featuring Jude and Ella's story.

Running The Risk is intense, full of action, lies, betrayal and the kind of love that could go beyond everything that’s happened… eventually. I easily got wrapped up in the lives and losses of the Endgame Ops series once again. And because of the way this story plays out I’m not comfortable giving much more than my opinion of the overall story. With this much deception, double crosses, danger, love, loss and gain it would be far too easy to say something that should be left for the reader to discover on their own.

My heart broke for both Jude and Ella – then it broke again before there was any healing in sight. In the middle of all the intrigue, the danger and the betrayals I was left wondering how far I would go for love. Love of self, love of another person, love of an ideal, love of country. Most of us won’t ever have to find out that answer but it does produce a compelling, deep and intense story that will twist and turn your mind and heart around a lot. If you love Romantic Suspense then this is a story that you will fall into. I’d recommend Running The Risk for it’s storyline, the characters, the action and the questions it gives us to think about. I’m loving this series and already anticipate the next journey into this world.

*I received an e-ARC of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley. That does not change what I think of this story. It is my choice to leave a review giving my personal opinion about this book.*

Running the Risk is a tangled, convoluted web of intrigue, suspense and love. It has a cast worthy of War and Peace and most have three names, first, last and call sign and use them interchangeably. Yet I still found myself flipping pages wanting to know what was happening and wanting to know if Jude (Keeper) Dagan and Ella were going to find their way back to each other, wanting to know if the bad guys were going to get theirs and wanting to know who the bad guys were. I didn’t read the first in this series and don’t know if it would’ve helped but once I got into it, it really didn’t matter. This is one heck of an exciting read.

Running the Risk was my first Lea Griffith book. I love action filled romances and this was a good read. Complex is a good word to describe the plot and the characters. Jude believes he’s been betrayed in the worst way by the one and only woman he’s ever loved and who he thought was his soul mate for life. Ella knows she’s broken Jude’s heart, and her own in the process, but it’s because her love for him is causing her to go to extreme measures to protect him and their team. It’s an age old plot but one that always has great potential. The net result that draws readers – the most intense sort of love and our wish for what the characters have.

The plot was extravagant and at time a bit too much but Griffith is very creative and her writing is good so I still enjoyed it. The good and evil characters are the opposite ends of the spectrum and well suited to this story.

Like all good romances, after serious struggles to get there our hero and heroine got their happily ever after. I was glad and enjoyed their journey to that end.
reviewed by Jem

DNF

Too many characters, introduced far too fast to make heads and tails of this story.

Running the Risk by Lea Griffith is the 2nd book in her Endgame Ops series. I really enjoyed the first book in this series, and was happy that Running the Risk was equally as good or even better.
Jude Dagan, a member of Endgame Ops team, has not gotten over the death of the love of his life, Ella, a year ago. When he investigates some rumors of an Ella sighting, Jude ignores his team and is determined to track her down.

Ella Banning, our heroine, who was assumed dead, is now working for the enemy, Horace Dresden. When she sees Jude from afar, she does everything in her power to run away and keep her distance. Ella has become a powerful assistant to Dresden, and is now considered a traitor, but Jude cannot walk away. He still loves Ella, and wants to find out the truth, even if he feels she has betrayed them all. But is Ella really a traitor? They (Endgame Ops) left her and others for dead, leaving them at the mercy of Dresden and his evil mercenaries. Ella was tortured, and broken by one of Dresden’s men, and she slowly became his powerful dangerous assistant, handling their associates. What Jude doesn’t know is that Ella is actually protecting him, since Dresden holds that over her head…if she doesn’t do what he asks for, he will have Jude killed and Dresden always gets what he wants.

When Jude finally catches up with Ella, she tries to explain that she too has her own mission, besides saving his life. When the founder of the Endgame forces Jude to stay away from Ella, Jude knows that something more is going on. He will convince his teammates about getting Ella, and learning what Piper (Endgame founder) is hiding.

What follows is a very exciting action packed adventure that will also bring some surprises, as well as conspiracies. When Jude and the team capture Ella, they will need to learn to trust each other, in order to get the main target..Horace Dresden. Something that is almost impossible, with his ties throughout the world, not to mention possible political betrayals.

Slowly Ella will earn their trust, despite her determination to go back to where Dresden is hiding to rescue another woman held captive. The team realizes that they were also at fault for leaving her, and two others for dead; allowing them to be captured and tortured. These revelations will bring them all together to fight the enemy.

The romance between Ella and Jude was sizzling, as they had great chemistry. Their love for each other was all consuming that even with the terrible things that have separated them, their love has never faltered. Despite his anger at what he assumes to be her betrayal at not coming to him earlier, his love of Ella was so strong, he could not let her go, as in time he would forgive her.

I loved Ella’s strength, perseverance and ability to fight off anyone who threatens her. She survived the worst, and still wants to save the woman held captive and also kill Dresden. She earns her former teams trust, and together they will all go to try to destroy the enemy, as well as find out the truths of who is behind what has been happening.

The final half of the book was intense with so many lives in danger. Just when you think they were safe, the danger escalates with both Ella & Jude’s life questionable. The exciting climax had me holding my breath to see who will survive. Lea Griffith has done it again with a fantastic suspenseful storyline, wonderful great couple, awesome secondary characters and an edge of your seat thriller. I suggest you read this series, and start with the first book, Flash of Fury.

This story is a little more over the top than most when it comes to second chance romance and betrayal. The author puts the two main characters in interesting places to have sex and at times I wanted to laugh where she had placed them.

This story is in a series that don't end with the end of this book but the Happily Ever After for Elle and Jude does.

Lea Griffinth has the ability to keep readers hooked to the main story while they wonder what will happen in the next book and who will come out unharmed in the process.

The Lea Griffinth has the ability to write a complex story that will keep on going well past book 2 and readers will eat it up wanting more.

Thank you to the publisher, Netgalley for the advance copy of Lea Griffith Running the Risk (Endgame Ops #2)

I thought the first book in this series was amazing, but RUNNING THE RISK just blew that assessment out of the water and in my opinion, has cemented Lea Griffith's status as a rock-star in the romantic suspense genre! This is exactly what I want to read when I pick up a book in this genre: non-stop, explosive action, edge of your seat suspense and an undying love story all wrapped on in one.

Jude Dagan's life ended the moment he watched the only woman he ever loved die in a mission gone wrong and for the past year he's been going through the motions, only to discover that she not only lived, but willingly walked away. She's always been his number one priority and he's ready to blow up his mission, to keep her safe in spite of her lies and deception.

Ella Banning gave up her life and freedom for pain and torture in the service of love and country, but now that Jude knows she's alive, she needs to stay a step ahead of him to ensure that the mission she gave up so much for is completed. But with the smart and well connected foe they are facing off against, joining forces may be a better option.

The multilayered plot of this story makes it hard to separate the characters into good and bad categories, and other that the Endgame team itself, everyone else is suspect. Their motives, their goals and their methods are all questionable, especially as people who were thought to be dead are really not and we are getting tiny pieces of the picture that point to a massive high stakes plot that is sure to rock the very foundations of the world as we know it, once the full extent of it is revealed.

Ella and Jude's love for each other is undying and would be a tad melodramatic, except for the fact that the pace of the story itself is frenzied and fast, and the shadowy forces they are up against seem more like fiction than reality.

I really am excited about this series in a way haven't been about any other in the last year and I can't wait to see what Ms. Griffith has in store next. RUNNING THE RISK can be read as a stand-alone, but with the overarching plot, I would recommend starting with the novella that introduced the series and reading in order.