Loved this book !!! so so good !!! Shana Figuero is such a good writer !!!

Received in exchange for a honest review.

Valentine was still a little selfish in this book but now she was off the rails as well. She was drinking more due to her heart broken and she does reckless things in order to get revenge and take back her world.

She becomes so consumed with wanting revenge that she loses sight of friendships and herself. She even brings Max into the fray so she can get answers. Max was amazing. he was kind and loving. Patient and so honest. I hated to see the spiral he went on over guilt and how things went down.

Max and Valentine together were out of this world. They gave each other strength and helped one another fight for life and each other. I just hated to see the repercussion from their undeniable love and attraction even if Valentine feels manipulated their love rules out.

The story is fast paced and addictive. Valentine may be selfish but you can’t stop reading her story. You want to see if she and Max will fight together and find their way. You want to know who are pawns and who aren’t. What is really going on and why. You want to see if Valentine will mend fences or if she will shatter them and herself even further. It is a great story with characters that draw you in and a plot that keeps you on the edge of your seat hoping things will work out and that Max and Valentine survives the danger and mystery surrounding them. A truly great story.

On my quest for new authors and reads I stumbled upon this series. As much as I wanted to enjoy this series it didn't work out in my favor. Thank you for allowing me early access to these titles.

Retribution is book 2 in the Valentine Shepard series and picks up about a few months after Vengeance ends. Val and Max have broken up and it appears that Max has moved on. Val is juggling cases when one of them pulls her deep enough that she asks for help from her exes. (Yes that is supposed to be plural.)
 
As in the previous book, there is a lot of action, violence, and sex. Although there is more focus on the world building and plot in Retribution and less focus on the sex. Shana Figueroa isn't afraid to kill characters off and I want to call her the Shonda Rhimes of the book world. Seriously, there are characters who feel very important to the story and then WHAM! they are dead and gone. This series is seriously addicting and I can't get enough of these characters!

Val and her boyfriend Max break up and Val is trying to deal with her heartbreak. Val can see the future but she usually only sees death and destruction. Max also had visions. Val has tried to change the future but she usually doesn’t make things any better. Val had been on the run then had a couple of beers when she was at her desk and heard a voice behind her and she grabbed one of her guns as she faced the man. It was Sten who had tried to kill her and Max on three different occasions. Val thought that he had come to kill her but actually he came to give her a message. Sten had never really been concerned for his own safety which made him a perfect soldier or predator. Sten was now working for Delilah a very evil mayor. Val had a vision of a woman in white and Sten told Val she was Cassandra the Alpha - she sees all the possible futures all the time and as far as Sten knew she was the only one in the world that could and Sten was pretty sure Cassandra was insane. There were only fifty who could see the future at all Val included in the world. Northwalk wanted Val to work for them if she did they would take care of Delilah for her. When Val was still with Max she had a vision of Delilah as President of the United States and initiating a nuclear war. But Northwalk was evil also and they had wanted her child. Val has a new case on a girl- Margaret that has disappeared and val had a vision of her dead so she didn’t have long to find Margaret. Val is abducted and can’t remember anything that happened for twelve hours When Val tries to piece together what happens she finds two uploads on the internet of Margaret and her being unconscious and sexually abused. Now Val wants revenge and needs Max’s help max has become engaged since Val pushed Max away and he was trying for a normal life. But he is hiding a drug addiction to bury his real feelings. When Val calls max he is immediately there for her. Abby was the woman Max was engaged to and she was not happy that Max had met with Val.
This was a little hard to connect with in the beginning but as I went on it became better and better. This had a fast pace and very good plot as well as a plot twist. Even though Max and Val had been broken up for eight months neither had gotten over the other. Val had broken her old heart when she had pushed Max away from her. There were a lot of both good and bad people killed in this story kept you turning the pages for sure. I felt so bad for both Max and Val and their heartbreak. At first i really didn’t think I would like this but was pleasantly surprised. I liked most of the characters and really enjoyed the twists and turns of this story and I recommend.

This is only the second book in this series and it is already one of my “must read” urban fantasy series! RETRIBUTION (Valentine Shepherd #2) by Shana Figueroa gave me complex characters, a plot that continues to surprise and kick-butt action. This second book, while still having smokin’ hot sex scenes, is more focused on the world-building and plot.

At the end of the first book, P.I. Valentine Shepherd walks away from her relationship with Max Carressa. Val can see the future, but it is usually only death and destruction outcomes that she sees. She has tried to change the future and has managed a very few times to accomplish it, but usually the worst outcome occurs. She has seen their future and rather than try to change it, she walks away.

Six months has passed. Val has a new case of a girl who has disappeared. As she follows leads on the girl, Val is abducted and remembers nothing that happened to her for 12 hours. When she tries to piece together what happened, she finds two uploads on the internet of the missing girl and herself, unconscious and being sexually abused. Now all Val wants is revenge and she needs Max’s connections and help.

Max has tried to move on and has become engaged and adopted a dog to try and get the normal life he has always craved, but he is hiding an Oxy addiction that he is using to bury his real feelings. When Val calls, he knows he will do anything to help her, no matter the cost.

The first third of the book, I was so involved with Val and Max’s pain and self-destruction. They were both hurting so desperately and wouldn’t admit it to each other. The main plot of the book, a mad scientist with psychic abilities who wants to experiment on Val and Max is resolved, but you still have the overarching series story of the cabal that wants Val and Max together to steal their future child.

The secondary characters are just as complex and you never know if they are helping or hurting Val and Max or strictly out for their own gain. The plot twists and weaves all of these characters into an intense story that moves at a fast pace throughout. I love this series and cannot wait for the next book!

Thanks very much to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) and Net Galley for allowing me to read an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

a so, so read

Retribution,  Shana Figueroa

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre:  romance,

This is classed as Romance by genre but it’s also paranormal and fantasy as both Val and Max have visions of the future, and have found there are others like them, with a group known as Alpha seeking to control them.
Somehow I missed book one of this trilogy, but read the amazon sample, which gave me enough to understand the characters, and most important, their visions and the Alpha group, who seem to have far reaching tentacles.

In Vengeance they went through a harsh time, got close, came together and then parted. Val felt Max deserved more, someone better than her, that being together would give in to the Alpha group who want them to have a child so they can take and control it....she wanted him to be happy, and it seems like he is, he’s to be married in two months to Abby.
All is not how it seems though, Max is trying to have a normal life, but however hard he tries he can’t forget Val and what they had, can’t let go of his anger that she wouldn’t fight for them.
Abby seems to know something is wrong but is taking an ostrich approach, ignore issues and all will come right – except they don’t. Max is abusing medication to deal with his issues, and hiding it, telling himself he’ll stop soon.
Even though I missed book one I can still feel that Max and Val belong together, there’s a pull whenever they meet, a feeling that they are two halves of a whole, something that’s missing when he’s with Abby or Val with Sten, her Ex, currently not a friend but not a total enemy either.

Val gets a new case for her and PI partner Stacey. A local young lady, Margaret, has gone missing. As soon as her mum shows Val a picture she recognises her from a recent vision, murdered and washed up on a local beach. She knows it hasn’t happened yet but there’s only a short window before it does, so she needs to move fast. She does a bit of enquiring and finds she needs to attend a rich mans secret club, and calls on Max to help her get entry.
Abby isn’t happy to find out Max met with Val when she asked for his help, but he tells her Val just wanted money, and as usual she turns a blind eye to anything else.
Of course being Max he checks things out first and that brings him into real danger again.

I’m not sure about Abby, whether she really loves Max, or just wants the position as his wife, and the prestige. She comes from a wealthy family so doesn’t seem like its money, but she just seems blind to the turmoil and unhappiness Max is in. Maybe he just hides it well, maybe she just doesn’t know him well enough?
Val of course thinks he’s found the nirvana she hoped he would but can’t help being jealous, wishing he was still with her, she still loves him. Meanwhile she’s in an odd sort of sex only relationship with Sten, a crooked cop who may be working for the people who want to control Max and Val. Strange eh?
Many of the characters in this book all seem to have weird connections, Val was in a relationship with Stacey for a while in their youth, before deciding she preferred men, though Stacey is still into women, and Max hasn’t told Abby he’s been with a man before.
There’s lots of quirks like this is the book, so you can never guess just quite what’s going to happen, with whom, what will come out about the past, and where the story is going next.
People have the oddest of connections, and they key players here have more than one between them.

Its a tough and gritty read at times, sex without love, without Like even at times, people dying who are integral to the story I thought, and then they’re gone. Shana isn’t afraid to kill off people, so even the “good” guys die here. 
Its a scary read, the lust for power is a very human thing and its what makes books like this so realistic, there are people who will happily do anything to be at the top, to have control.

I enjoyed the way the story played out, the twists and turns, the weaving together people who seemed not to have a connection and then....
There’s lots of dangers to almost all the major characters, and Val’s visions of both her and Max keep having different endings, though sadly ultimately not happy ones, and she wonders how she is affecting the future. She's unsure if it is possible to change bad events to happy ones, especially the ones involving her and Max. She can’t sit back and do nothing though, and once more she and Max are involved in a dangerous scenario, risking their lives.
 .
Stars: Five, a great read, and sometime I want to read book one, but for now am waiting :-) for the final part!

ARC supplied for review purposes by Netgalley and Publishers

3.5 stars

Well. I give this to the author: she doesn't pull any punches. When the scenario asked for it that the heroine need to be invested in the case and feel the pain, pain and suffering she got. Poor Valentine. After all the thing she had gone through in Vengeance, and to fall victim here like that... whew.

The story picked up a few months after Vengeance ended, with Max (seemed to) move on and Val juggling between cases. One pulled her deeper than she could handle that she reached out to her exes for help. Notice that I use plural on the EX? XD That surprise the heck out of me, but if you've read Val's previous book you could (maybe) understand her reasons.

This series is one of the twisted story I read in a while. There is no simple black and white, reader could expect help coming from unlikely source and vice versa. This series is riddled with grey characters. Even Val was a rather selfish and terrible friend here that I often thought she deserved bad things that happened to her. The concept of "best friend" only apply when one needed help, otherwise said friend could be gone for days and she wouldn't care. Until the friend really did up and leave.

Despite the number of times it was said on page - back in her Army days or something like that - I still couldn't get that tough Army persona from Val. In fact, she shed a tear more than I care to count here. The bad thing that befell her was a good excuse, but STILL!

As a pair with foresight gift, I felt - especially for Val - that they didn't use the gift to the best of their ability. I mean, what good are their gifts if once they got premonition or something - they didn't do something to prevent trouble from happening or being extra cautious! The pair were still sitting ducks to their enemies, that's what I'm feeling. I guess on one hand that did built up the suspense, on the other hand it really annoyed me, that utter hopelessness...

This second book still hadn't shed any light on the organization that orchestrate Val and Max's life or the Alpha. I could only hope the final entry in this trilogy would be epic, that Val and Max (and someone else I'd rather not mention) would get their true Happy Beginning in peace. Fingers-crossed. ;-)


Advanced copy of this book is kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.