REVIEW - BRICK - COOPER CONSTRUCTION BY JEN DAVIS

Title: Brick
Series: Cooper Construction
Author: Jen Davis
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Suspense
Publisher: Limitless Publishing
Release Date: 5th February 2019

BLURB from Goodreads
I’m used to getting my hands dirty. During the day it’s mud and grime on the construction site. At night…it’s the blood I spill. A drug lord’s enforcer does what needs to be done. It’s my obedience, my loyalty to the boss that keeps my family alive.

I know I’m teetering on the edge. I’m losing my humanity, I can feel it. It’s changing me, and it’s only a matter of time before the darkness takes over.

Then I meet her. Liv. The only person who sees past my busted knuckles and brutal exterior. She sees…me. But being with me will get her killed. The only way I can keep her safe is by staying away. Until her own actions catapult her into the center of my world—a world which will swallow her whole.

Now I’m forced to be the ruthless bastard I’ve been for so long. Only this time it’s not to destroy…but to defend. 

Goodreads Link

PURCHASE LINKS
Amazon US
Amazon UK

REVIEW

I thought it was time for something different than my usual go to genres. I am reading more contemporary these days so decided to give this book a go. I hadn’t heard of this Author Jen Davis either before reading this book, so it was a new book & author to me.

The cover features the heavily tattooed visual of the main character in the book, Brick. As I said above the genres listed for this book are contemporary, romance and suspense, which after reading the book I totally agree with.

The main character in this book is Brick, begins the book has a really tough, dark, bad boy, reputation. Seeing as he works as an enforcer or the top drug dealer in the area called Sucre De La Cruz, Sucre for short. Brick also takes part in bare knuckle fighting rings too. He “wins” when Sucre tells him when to “finish” the fight. Of course, Sucre runs the betting at these fights so he makes a lot of money out of them. Having said all this Brick is not as dark as he seems as he is only acting as Sucre’s enforcer and doing the bare knuckle fighting to raise enough money to disappear with the one living person he cares about, his grandmother. Brick’s grandmother is in a nursing home, but Sucre knows where it is and somehow has access to the home and Brick’s grandmother, which means he can take locks of hair, photos of bruises, or of her sleeping in bed. These photographs etc are used to blackmail Brick and keep him exactly where Sucre wants him, at his beck and call.

During the day Brick works on a building site for Cooper Construction building houses. The guys on site know Brick has a reputation but so long as he turns up for work on time, they are okay with him. Brick keeps himself to himself as anyone that knows him or becomes his friend would be at risk of being used for leverage by Sucre. Being on Sucre’s radar is not good for anyone. The last thing Brick is looking for is a relationship. However, when the whole of the building guys, are invited for drinks to celebrate Will’s birthday by his younger sister Liv he goes along, just to maybe do a little flirting. Olivia is determined to make a fuss of her brother now she can as he has recently finished a ten, year prison sentence. Without revealing much more Brick & Liv end up in a kind of relationship, there’s a lot of minor things that Brick thinks he has money etc hidden away from Sucre but it turns out he hasn’t.

The characters I really adored in the book were probably quite obviously Liv, Brick and Devon. Though I have to admit to enjoying loathing Sucre and Tre. I thought the relationship between Brick and his grandmother was so realistic and loved the way Brick really respected his grandmother and took his duty to mean he should look after her as best he can even if it means doing or taking part in situations he finds undesirable.

The book is written from the points of view of Brick, Liv and Tre. Tre is the trainee enforcer that Sucre has tasked Brick with training. Some of the descriptions that Jen Davis uses as the character of Brick says reveal a softer side to him such as, “His eyes drank her in when he walked in the door like she was water in the desert”.

To sum up I really did enjoy this book and I think I would like to read more in the Cooper Construction Series. This book had a great ending to an action-packed story that had plenty of twists, turns, suspense and thrills within it.