Gideon by Ashe Barker

Ashe Parker - Gideon Cover sTitle: Gideon 

Series:  Order of the Black Knights 01

Author: Ashe Barker

Genre: Erotic Romance, Mystery, Suspense

Length: Novel (200 pages)

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (October 5, 2016)

Heat Level: Moderate

Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥ 3.75 – 4 Hearts

Blurb: Gideon Maybury enjoys a life of wealth and privilege, not to mention the advantages his position offers him in his career as a merchant banker and his less public life as a high-class, skilled, and very well-paid assassin for Her Majesty’s government. When his brother dies unexpectedly, he becomes the Duke of Westmoreland.

Michael Mathison has hated Gideon since they were at university together. He’s convinced Gideon had a hand in the death of Michael’s college lover, Christopher, and that he had something to do with the death of his own brother. So he gets a job as Gideon’s driver, enabling him to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of the elder Maybury sibling. At first his suspicions seem to be confirmed, but clues emerge that suggest all is not as it appears at Maybury Hall.

As the mystery deepens, so does the attraction between the two implacable enemies, as does the feeling that they have met before—under dark and terrible circumstances. Each has reasons not to trust the other, but neither is averse to a bit of kinky play. Gideon and Michael end up owing each other their lives, and it results in consequences neither could have imagined.

ISBN: 978-1-63477-708-7

Product Link: https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/gideon-by-ashe-barker-7597-b

Reviewer: Shorty & Pixie

Shorty’s Review: ♥♥♥♥ 3.75 Hearts

I have so many mixed emotions about this book at this moment. Gideon had me cringing with his weird sense of fascination with death. I found it horrifying that he would actually kill animals then move on to humans, no details, just short descriptions, to satisfy that curiosity. It was almost like reading the makings of a serial killer, at least that’s how I saw him as.

Michael thinks Gideon had something to with his ex-boyfriends death as well as Gideon’s own brother. It was hard for me to connect with either of these characters as one was a sociopath and the other I did not understand how he could suspect one of murdering two people yet sleep with him.

Gideon is reborn every time he dies as the result of being a mysterious man’s minion. But I believe he already had the murdering instinct well before his first meeting with the man who changed him. Gideon’s character gave me the creeps at his lack of empathy for human life. 

Did I hate the book or love it, the answer is neither yes or no because I don’t know. It was well written I will say that. 

Pixie’s Review: ♥♥♥♥ 4 Hearts

Gideon is a lot of a sociopath, he takes pleasure in pushing the boundaries in all matters including death, and he uses those skills well in his clandestine job for the Government. When someone seems to be out to get him Gideon has no idea who it might be, and it isn’t long before his new driver comes under suspicion especially when Gideon discovers the man isn’t who he says he is.

Michael loathes Gideon with a passion, he truly believes that Gideon got away with murdering his ex-boyfriend and when Gideon’s brother dies Michael isn’t about to let Gideon get away with murder again.

I enjoyed this story and found both character equally as hard to get, I mean Gideon just seems to have no real emotions for anyone or anything, seeming indifferent to anything that isn’t centred on him. Michael is just as hard to get as he loathes Gideon but quickly changes his tune to f**k him, he seems determined to get one over on Gideon but then seems to be quite blasé when he thinks Gideon is a hitman.

The storyline surrounding Gideon and Michael is a really good one, and I thought that their relationship suited them both as they slowly warmed up to each other. I liked seeing them work together and figure out who is after Gideon even as they are adversaries.

We do get a little information on the Order of the Black Knights… and it wasn’t really what I was expecting at all. It’s all shrouded in mystery, a dash of paranormal and being stuck in a recurring cycle of death. Gideon made a deal which he’s bound by, he has to forgive his enemy rather than kill him to break the contract and with each cycle he gets colder and colder becoming numb to his feelings.

I’d recommend this to those who want something different, with a dash of hot sex and adversaries who turn to lovers, oh and a great ending.