Between the Lines: REVIEW: The Untouchables (Ruthless People #2) By, J.J. McAvoy

One Secret. Multiple Casualties.

Everything Melody Callahan has ever been told about her past is a lie. Her father lied. Her husband lied. But like all secrets…they come out. Not only is her mother, Aviela, alive but she won’t stop until she tears down everything Liam and Melody have spent the past year building.

With a new target on their back and the media now focused on their family as the Presidential election approaches, Liam and Melody must fight on two battlefronts. Melody is torn between being in love with Liam and wanting to kill him for lying to her. Being in love and showing love are two different things in her world. Liam wants to do anything to protect his family even if that means hurting the people he loves.

Family is everything… but what happens when they’re out for your blood? Everything they have been through is nothing compared to what is coming...

Warning: This book contains adult language and subject matter including graphic violence and explict sex that may be disturbing for some readers. This book is not intended for readers under the age of 18.

Review

“All the motives for murder are covered by the four Ls: Love, Lust, Lucre, and Loathing.”

-P.D. James

I am going to warn you right now, if you haven’t read Ruthless People, the first book in this amazing series do not read this review. I am not going to lie. To give the best review I can there will be some spoilers from the first book. I am going to try and keep them small but still, they will be there. So go away and read Ruthless People and then come back and read this review.

“Melody and I were the hands that fed her, and if she bit us, we would pull out every one of her teeth.”

When I signed up to be a part of this blog tour with IndieSage PR I read the synopsis to this book and was like,” I have to get my hands on this”! For some reason lately I have been really into the mafia romances. After I filled out the form I immediately went and bought the first one, Ruthless People, and couldn’t wait to read it. After the first chapter I knew I was a goner. I read the whole thing in a night. I stayed up until four just to finish it and then I started The Untouchables. So I immersed myself in this world for a whole weekend and it was totally worth it.

“I fear losing you.” His kisses stopped only briefly before they were at my ear. “My silly wife, you can’t lose me. Nothing is going to keep me from having you mind, soul, and body.”

The Untouchables follows the first book one year after it ends. We continue to follow Mel and Liam towards total and complete domination of Chicago and soon the Presidency. Now their journey has gotten even more complicated with the return of a long lost family member hell bent on taking them out. Mel and Liam are about to go through a roller coaster ride that is filled with sex, murder, violence, corruption, manipulation, betrayal, and more love than either of them ever thought they needed.

“I felt the blood lust; that Callahan blood lust that begged for me to finish him off, to cut his head off and drill into his eyes. It was that blood lust that drove my father and Liam. It was in our DNA. Callahans and blood went in hand. If we weren’t in the mafia, we would all probably be serial killers.”

Liam Callahan has survived his first year of being Ceann na Conairte as well as his first year of marriage. He is even closer to taking the Presidency but now he had to deal with Aviela’s return. Liam Callahan stole my heart in the first book. Even though everything about him shouldn’t have. He was a ruthless chauvinistic asshole but there was more to him. In this one we see him mature and grow as a character. He is still temperamental and ruthless but he also has his soft moments with Mel. He really shows her what it means to be ruthless with the people around but vulnerable to each other. In this book we get even more revelations into his character from when he was younger. You just can’t help but fall in love with him.

“He didn’t tell me it was okay, and he didn’t bring attention to it. He just held me until I was calm enough, and then he never brought it up again. I was grateful for it. It made me feel more in control of myself, in control of my surroundings. It made me feel safe. He made me feel safe when I had never realized I needed to.”

Melody Giovanni Callahan is The Boss of the Italian mafia, wife of the Ceann na Conairte, and known as Bloody Melody. She has had a year of surprises. She found a man that she can be herself with. He doesn’t get disgusted with the darkest parts of her. Now her mother is back and she is going to need to be stronger than she ever has. In most mafia books the hero finds a heroine that can deal with his work. She is strong enough to deal with the killing, clean him up after, and love him anyway. Melody is not that heroine. She is a Boss, so she does her own killing, torture, and dealing. She doesn’t want to be pushed to the back. Liam and Melody are partners in every way. She is strong, deadly, and ruthless. In the first book Melody was a little frustrating to me. Liam was everything she could have ever wanted. He shared the power, he was vulnerable with her, and he wanted their marriage to be more than a business arrangement. He genuinely loved her. Melody put him through so much in that first book but I absolutely love her now. She grew and matured. Melody became vulnerable with Liam, softer. It was absolutely amazing.

“I can’t move. If I move, life continues on and I can’t…I loved him so much.” “Then don’t move,” I whispered to her. The problem with loving someone that much was the fact that it hurt ten times more to lose them. Great love only equaled great pain eventually…that’s why Liam was going to have to die after I did.”

This story was everything I could have wanted from a sequel. The characters grew and the plot was amazing. The Untouchables was suspenseful, shocking, and unexpected. J.J. McAvoy wrote this story in multiple POVs again and it was just as great as the first one. We got to learn about the other members of the family through them. While there are some I love and some I hate it built the tension. It really showed you that Liam and Melody really can’t trust anyone. This series was one that consumed me for days. I couldn’t put these books down and when I was finished I just put my book down and sat there. I was shocked and coming down off of my book high. I didn’t know if I wanted to throw my kindle at the wall or cry. J.J. McAvoy really created a world that is hard to escape from. It sucks you in from the first page and holds you hostage until you are done. Now I’m anxiously waiting for the final installment. It’s one of those books that I am going to obsess over until I see the cover on my kindle. But now there is nothing I can do until March. I need an HEA for these two… by any means necessary. Now block off a weekend and do down there to the reading order section, buy these books, and immerse yourself in this world.

Reading Order