Enjoyed this latest from Jacqui rose following the story of Alfie Vaughn & Alfie but I didn't love it. I think it would be good to see some new material now.

Another fantastic read from Jacqui rose . I couldn't put this book down what a great read . Can't wait for the next one

Rival – All Out War in Soho

Jacqui Rose knows how to write an intense and exciting read, that will keep you on the edge of your reading chair until the last. Once again Jacqui Rose knows how to get under the reader’s skin, and always seems to write excellent thrillers.

Franny Doyle is alone and having to team with Wan to protect her from other faces in the London underworld. That said she still has a bounty on Vaughn’s head, well he started it! It is not until she is told that Vaughn is being given protection in a deal which Wan will not break, she really does realise how alone she it. She tries to contact Alfie, but all her calls go straight to voice mail.

Harry likes slapping his wife around, and this time he believes he has a reason as Tia is trying to gain custody of their children, which is just not going to happen. He has already thrown out Milly their 16-year-old daughter who is pregnant and moved Tammy, Tia’s sister in to provide him with sexual favours. It will not help that she is pregnant with Harry’s child.

Wan is running escorts out of the club, and the death of Sophie by a drug overdose raises Franny’s interest as she tries to talk to Ellie. Wan has groomed his “girls” well as they all seem to love him and will not say or do anything against him. Even though everybody else can see how cruel Wan is and that is only love is money, and the more of it he has the better.

When Franny finds out the real age of Ellie, she is deep in shock, and tries to talk to Wan, but that does not go well. She tries to talk to Sasha another of Wan’s girls and has to tread carefully, when she discovers a diary, she is shocked by what she reads.

When Wan asks Harry to kill, Franny as she has become a problem, all bets are off and now it survival of the fittest. Good job Detective Carter has a plan, and somehow manages to get Franny, Vaughn and Alfie in the same room, can he get them to work together for the greater good.

Well where do I start. Probably by saying the same thing I say every time I read one of this authors books. Another first class read. A fantastic book, Back with familiar characters. Franny Doyle, Harry Jacobs and Alfie Jennings and of course Vaughn Sadler. Characters you either love or hate, I think they are some of the best fictional characters about.
A fast paced book, once you start this make sure your diary is clear, you will not want to put this down once you open it.
JR certainly knows what her readers want and it's delivered in each and every book.
Chapter after chapter this book has it all going on. Gangland Crime at it's best. It will leave you gasping for more.
Has Franny still got fight in her? Read the book and find out.

I have read most of Jaqui Rose's novels and this didn't disappoint. Plenty of content and gritty subject matter. I will be watching out for her next one as usual.

Great to be back with Alfie, Vaughn and Franny.

This is a great gangland book that keeps you on your toes.

Franny has given over all her assets to Wan the head of the Triad gang, she wants protection, she doesn't like it and hates Wan, even more, he dabbles in drugs prostitution, grooming young girls and that's just the start. She loves and misses Alfie who she had an on/off relationship with, in Jacqui's previous books but she won't admit it to him.

Vaughn also wants protection but from the Triads, as he killed Wan's brother and now Wan wants his revenge, so Vaughn is taken on by Harry who is another nasty creature but by being with Harry Vaughn feels safe. Harry is married to Tia but her twin sister Tammy is trying to muscle in on her man.

Alfie is in the background for a lot of the book, but they all come together again to try to wipe out the evil of both Wan and Harry.
Such a brilliant page-turner and an unexpected ending that keeps the reader guessing.

The only negative was the continual mention of designer clothes etc. It was as though she had been paid extra by companies to mention them or she was filling out the number of words in her book. I don't know but it was frustrating. The book itself is worth five stars but because of this, I am only going to give it four.
Thank you, NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book x

A fast-paced story of vendetta and retribution between Franny Doyle, Vaughn Sadler and Wan Huang, amongst others – all gangsters, all violent and all caught up in the underbelly of life.

Wan Huang – a truly despicable character and head of the Triads who is running a club. He grooms young and underage girls, making them believe that he loves them, then profits by lacing them with drugs and controlling them so they sell themselves for sex. Franny Doyle isn’t a particularly pleasant person either if you’re judging her on what she’s mixed up in, but as least she had some form of morals, as does Vaughn and they are trying to stop Wan.

There are plenty of other characters in this book, including Tia and her twin sister, Tammy – who were pulled into the story well. I can’t say too much more without revealing too much of the plot, but there are a lot of threads and sub-plots which all pulled together and were very well done.

There were some excellent twists, including one big one near the end that I didn’t see coming at all.
Obviously, as the storyline suggests – this book is heavy on underage girls, sex, drugs, and strong language and if you have an aversion to cliffhangers, it ends on a massive one!

I am presuming that this is part of a series as there were a lot of things that had happened previously involving many of the characters, but this didn’t affect it being readable as a standalone. I would say though that the backtracking and explanations as to what was going on throughout became a bit over-repetitive and I felt many were unnecessary based on the dialogue present. My only other bugbear was every item of a character’s clothes/shoes etc. had to be branded. E.g “She put on her Moschino denim jacket” or “he wore his Gucci shoes”, which isn’t a big deal but drove me insane!

The only major problem I found was with the formatting. Now, I may have had a corrupt copy or it may have been rectified since I received my copy, but all the chapters merged together and everything was left-aligned with no paragraphs. Dialogue between two characters ran together on the same line and in a good percentage of the book the lines were broken, so a sentence would have one or two words on each line, making it twenty lines long. This I found very distracting, making it difficult to read in places, so I do hope that this was just my copy with that issue.

To sum up – a good, fast-paced and gritty gangster read of which I enjoyed and will be looking for other books in this series. Thanks to NetGalley, Avon and the author for the digital ARC. My opinions on the book are unbiased, honest and voluntary.

This is my first read of Jacqui Rose and I am stunned that I have missed out so far so that will need to be put right.

This had me gripped from the first few pages. The story follows Fanny Doyle, who is involved in gangland crime and punishment for those who betray you.

The plot twists and turns at a rapid rate and I thought, if I knew the characters better from the previous books, I would have seen somethings coming; maybe not though.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Avon Books and Jacqui Rose for the ARC of ‘Rivel in return for my honest review.

Good read. Highly recommended.

A brilliant and highly enjoyable read once more from Jacqui Rose. The story follows the previous books featuring Alfie, Franny, Vaughn and the rest of the characters still standing from the previous novels. This time around, a few characters discover some home truths, some of which cut too close to the bone in a story that is riveting, engrossing and leaves the reader asking for more.
The book sadly loses one star in my rating as I found the climax to be a bit rushed and hurtles a bit too quickly to reach an ending. But this is a minor quibble in what will be an£ should be, another best seller.

Franny finds about the truth about Wan and Harry’s dealing
Franny Doyle has one thing in common with wan Huang that they want Vaughn Sadler foot under
I had an ARC

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. Not sure what to say about this book in my review, it was basically just okay but I have read so many that are on similar lines and probably was not one of the better ones to be honest.

I have enjoyed this series so far and it was good to catch up with Franny, Alfie and Vaughan again.

Franny and Vaughan are still getting themselves in all sorts of trouble but when they are asked to team up to take down the notorious leader of a Triad gang, they will need to put their feud behind them. How will they react to working together again and can they let bygones be bygones?

Another excellent instalment in this series. Fast paced and gritty. Looking forward to the next one.

What can I say? Another killer read by a very talented author. Jacqui Rose is up there with the likes of Kimberley Chambers and Mandasue Heller - so just do it! Highly recommended.
TB

Wow - where do I start

My own fault for not reading the rest in the series to know what is going on or who the characters are did this put me off? Absolutely not, it now makes me want to go back and read them all.

I have read Jacqui's early books taken and for some reason I never went back for more but thanks to Avon books for giving me the opportunity to review this one I was totally blown away and this is gangland crime at it's finest.

I was immediately drawn into the characters with a great plot against Harry and Wan. I really felt for Tia and Vaughn.

The story was full of suspense twists and turns and kept you guessing which way it would go, what a cliffhanger to be left on.

Praise for Jacqui I cannot wait for the next installment.

Thank you to Netgalley and Avon Books UK for the arc of Rival.


This follows Franny Doyle whom has one thing in common with Wan Huang who is the head of the notorious Triads gang: the thing is that they both want Vaughn Sadler six feet under and DEAD! Then When Harry Jacobs brings in Vaughn into his own business and his fold, his life is protected but for now at least but why at least for now...... But when Franny ends up finding out the real truth about Wan and Harry’s dealings, All hells goes crazy in Soho. And Vaughn is the key to helping Franny with what she needs to do....

4 stars
recommend

Thank you so much for letting read this book pre publish day. What can i say if you love Martina Cole you will love Jacqui Rose even more. Brilliant gangland book and love how you feel you know the characters personally

This was a superb crime thriller that kept me engaged throughout the entire journey. The writer’s depiction of the characters was spot on. Highly recommended.

Another fabulous fast paced installment of this series following Franny, Alfie, Vaughn and Harry. The plot is gritty, the characters ruthless and the addition of the Triads makes the story full of suspense. Ending on a corker of a cliffhanger, I cannot wait to see what happens next...........

Thanks to Netgalley and Jacqui Rose for allowing me to read this Arc.
Absolutely beyond brilliant!! I have only recently discovered the genius that is Jacquie Rose and what a discovery it is!!
I am devouring all her books. I was lucky enough to be granted an arc of Rival which is a gangland thriller. I only put it down to grab forty winks at night.
I would highly recommend everyone to dive in to her books. Once you do there's no going back.

This was a real page turner
Got me gripped from the first chapter
Read it in three hours
It's about gang land crime and the characters are all favourites from the previous book
Franny, Harry and Alfie are all back and I was dying for franny and Alfie to get back together
Wan and Harry are the baddest ever and poor Vaughn is working with them although he hates it
Plenty of action within the book
Tia and Tammy the twin sisters are backwith Tammy being her usual despicable self and Tammy still sticks up for her and loves her , but is it too late ?

Oh I did thoroughly enjoy this
Five stars
Please buy