Blog Tour Review: Deadly Addiction – Kristine Cayne

Deadly Addiction by Kristine Cayne
Series:  Deadly Vices #2
Release Date:  April 2012
Publisher:  Kristine Cayne
Source:  Bewitching Book Tours
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A proud people. A nation divided.

Rémi Whitedeer, police officer turned substance-abuse counselor, dreams of restoring order to his tribe. Violence and crime are rampant throughout the unpoliced Iroquois reserve, and a civil war is brewing between the Guardians, a militant traditionalist group, and other tribal factions. As the mixed-race cousin of the Guardians’ leader, Rémi is caught in a no-man’s land—several groups lay claim to him, but all want him to deny his white blood.

A maverick cop on an anti-drug crusade.

When she infiltrated the Vipers to take down the leader of the outlaw biker gang responsible for her brother’s death, police sergeant Alyssa Morgan got her man. But her superiors think she went too far. Her disregard for protocol and her ends-justify-the-means ethics have branded her an unreliable maverick. To salvage her career, she accepts an assignment to set up a squad of native provincial officers on a reserve.

A radical sovereigntist bent on freeing a nation.

Decades of government oppression threaten the existence of the Iroquois Nation. But one man, Chaz Whitedeer, is determined to save his people no matter what the price, even if it means delving into the shadowy world of organized crime.

When Rémi and Alyssa uncover the Guardians’ drug-fueled scheme to fund their fight for true autonomy—a scheme involving the Vipers—Rémi must choose between loyalty to family and tribe or his growing love for Alyssa.

Can Rémi and Alyssa leave everything behind—even their very identities—for a future together?

Reviewer’s Thoughts:
Wow!  That was my first thought when I got to the last page of this one.  And now, a day later, I still feel the same.

Having read Kristine Cayne’s first book of the series, Deadly Obsession, I knew I was going to be in for a thrill ride.  I have to say, I was not disappointed.

Alyssa Morgan, a very white, very blond, sergeant for SQ (Surete du Quebec) knows how to work sticky, uncomfortable assignments, but I don’t think anything could have prepared her for what she was going to experience going into her assignment with the Blackriver tribe.  Purposefully given limited information by her superiors, she tasked with creating an SQ lead police force within the tribal lands.  Unfortunately, no one bothered to tell Alyssa that the tribe would not want anything to do with any police force lead or trained by SQ.  Knowing that her job is on the line (thanks for a lovely blackmail threat from her boss’s boss), Alyssa will use whatever she has at her disposal and her relationship with Remi Whitedeer to complete her task.

Remi Whitedeer, may have experience from his days with the Montreal Police force,  but nothing prepared him for Alyssa Morgan or the threat that someone on the reserve was behind the rise in drug use and theft they’ve recently seen.  But as Remi helps Alyssa investigate what’s happening he soon finds himself having to look much closer than he’d like to who might be behind what is happening and more so about where he fits in the Iroquois Nation.

As with Deadly Obsession, Kristine Cayne has managed to push the envelope when it comes to thought provoking storylines.  While I loved the storyline and the romance between Alyssa and Remi, it was also hard to read when it came to the discrimination we saw with Alyssa.  She had some pretty awful things said to her and done to her all in the name of maintaining the purity of the tribe.  But what was even more disturbing was the prejudices Remi had to face, not from other members of his tribe, but from his own family because he was only half Iroquois.  To read someone laying into Remi because of who his father was and have other family members simply stand around and say nothing was a very bitter pill to swallow.  My heart broke for Remi each and every time he has someone bring up something because of who he was.  Add to that his relationship with Alyssa and it was enough to make you wonder what it would take for Remi to do something.

Alyssa had her own basket of issues, but her’s had more to do with the fall out from avenging the drug related death of her brother.  She had lost everything to her need to get back at those that took her brother away, but when she finally was able to take a step back and look at the events that had recently played out over the past few years, she realized that doing what she did was not the wisest choice.

This was one that I could not put down.  Alyssa and Remi were an awesome team and an even HOTTER couple (wish I knew exactly what that move was the Remi had named after him).  If you like a suspenseful read with a man who’s not afraid to show his emotions.  This is definitely one you should pick up.