Wow. Just wow! Built To Last was an emotional roller coaster ride that had me in tears more than once. I freaking loved Angel. He's a hero to his core and he deserved for 'his time' to finally come. Sonya was perfect for him. Her quiet strength and sweet spirit are just what his troubled soul needed to find peace and I cried again when they found the happiness that they both deserve.

As much as I love the BKI series, I have to admit, I was not looking forward to it ending. The knowledge that this was the last book was disheartening, but I should have known that Julie Ann Walker wouldn't let me down. There is a little teaser that assures me we haven't seen the last of this wonderful group of badasses we've grown to love! This book is the perfect ending to my favorite series and you'd better know I'll read them all again and again. Huzzah!

As the tail-end of Julie Ann Walker’s ‘Black Knights Inc.’, ‘Built to Last’ has an interesting premise and one that reminds me strongly of another book that I’ve read and found confounding, but the lure of black-ops, action and suspense is always hard to resist.

No doubt this has a sweeping narrative arc—a feature of the typical romantic suspense novel that I love—and coming into this so late in the game means that it can be hard keeping the story straight in my head. I lacked the context about the hows and whys of this particular mission and being dropped like this into the story was disconcerting. My bad here.

But this much I knew: Jamin “Angel” Agassi felt like most remote of the lot and as an agent, well, he’s one to be admired and feared for doing his job well. Country above everything. Duty above love. The righteousness of sacrifice being the mantra he works according to, which happens to give leeway to do things using a bewildering number of identities. And that’s all the positive things that I can give about this character.

Walker writes a second-chance romance and I was hoping that this would be one of the rare few that would work for me. The validity of the explanations for the separation and what both characters did in the years are usually the answers that I seek in this trope.

‘Built to Last’ unfortunately, couldn’t satisfy those prerequisites I have.

My scepticism about Angel’s and Sonya’s romance stems from the fact that Angel had buried his head in the sand after he’d chosen his country over Sonya, destroyed the both of them, tried to forget her, then had a woman in every port, all the while saying that he still loved her. And then continued reprehensibly, to lie to her about his identity as she felt guilty about projecting her feelings for a man she thought dead onto him, while knowing full well about the consequences of his own actions that he didn’t want to face.

Perhaps this sits perfectly fine with other readers who like this sort of star-crossed kind of vibe where the number of bed partners they’ve had in the intervening years is inconsequential. This connection between Sonya and Angel, supposedly forged long ago and sparking to life again, wasn’t one I could buy into, more so on Angel’s part, given that he’d done nothing to question his own choices—and wouldn’t have—until he saw Sonya again. For this reason I couldn’t believe that they belonged together, not when Angel (the only one who could but didn’t) didn’t move heaven and earth to be with Sonya. Merely paying lip service to the expansive declaration that he’d loved her for a decade, the regrets he expressed at the end merely seemed too panicky, too little, too late.

In short, less the past romance is crowed about and exalted, the less I feel compelled to argue for the kind of hypocrisy involved in ‘moving on’.

So for the hero that Angel is to the rest of the world, I could only call him a coward.

My beef with characterisation aside, Angel/Sonya’s story, interspersed with sudden flashbacks, POVs from the villain and another pairing, did feel disjointed as well. The sly but strange insertions of humour (?) and exaggerated snark sometimes seemed ill-fitting, bordering the absurd for the situation at hand when all I wanted was a more straightforward progression of the plot and the relationship.

The conclusion as a result, felt abrupt considering the plot juggled more than just a pairing here, but I’m guessing that this would deliriously please the hard-core fans of this series who have been invested in the characters and the narrative from the beginning.

‘Built to Last’ isn’t good as a standalone. Would I have been a happier camper having gone through all the other books? Perhaps. But this swan-song, long-awaited or not, wasn’t one I could enjoy at all, unfortunately.

I'm so sorry to see the end of the Black Knights Inc series! Lots of cloak and dagger spy drama and romance make this a great ending to the series. Angel has been many different people throughout his life but one constant remained - his love for Sonya. Sonya, an Interpol agent, has mourned her love for years and doesn't understand her attraction to Angel. I enjoyed this book immensely especially as it updated me on all the other characters in previous books in the series.

I am very sad to see this series end, but Built to last was a great ending! This book was suspenseful, sexy, sweet, and satisfying. You get two phenomenal love stories in this book. All of the characters were accounted for in the end, and that made me happy.

I loved this series and this last installment did not disappoint. Finding the true story to the mysterious Angel was a great conclusion to the Black Knights. It's sad to see them go. However, the ending left room for Julie Ann Walker to start a whole new series with the same premises, which I would be ALL over. Plus, some more titles for the Deep Six series would be nice too.

Julie Ann Walker ends her twelve book Black Nights Inc. series with a bang in Built to Last. In this novel, fans are finally entrusted with Angel’s story. The man with a sandpaper voice, the face of an angel and a body chiseled to perfection, Angel has been an enigma to the rest of the Black Knights. The world of secrets in his eyes unfold in this story. We are introduced to the dark underworld of international terrorism where money talks and lives are ruined. Sonya is deep undercover in a terrorist organization when she senses a connection with newcomer, Angel. Little does Sonya know that Angel is her former love she saw killed. Angel has undergone extreme cosmetic surgery to change his appearance and fight crime his own way.

Are they on the same side or are they enemies? You’ll have to read Built to Last to find out.

I enjoyed the last installation of this series, and I am happy with the way Julie Ann Walker brought every character to a close in this book. I can move on with my life knowing that the characters I have been reading about since 2012 are all living fulfilling lives. That said, since Angel’s character was always so removed from the others in this series, I never really got emotionally attached to him. I liked the book, but I would not recommend this book if you haven’t read the rest of the series.