[ARC Review] Deceptive Knight by Sienna Snow

Reyhan King has been looking for Lilly Lennox ever since she loved him and left him years ago. But Lilly's ability to go under cover and fly under the radar is unparalleled, and even a CIA agent like Rey couldn't easily track her down. But Lilly is finally back in his life, and Rey will stop at nothing to find out what happened all those years ago and, more importantly, if Lilly ever loved him the way he loved her or if he was only just a job to her. 

Deceptive Knight was full of action and suspense, starting at page one. This novel was billed as being able to be read as a standalone, but I truly felt like I started in the middle of the action with this one, even if the previous books did not focus on Lilly and Rey. There were definitely some events from previous books I feel readers should be aware of, and so many characters from the previous books appear as secondary characters in Deceptive Knight; I would highly recommend reading the first two books in Snow's Street Kings series prior to starting this one. Readers can enjoy Rey and Lilly's story without reading the other books, but I feel like Deceptive Knight is much more enjoyable having read the prior books. 

As I mentioned, this plot is full of action; Rey and Lilly always having something going on, either with their respective agencies or fighting their feelings for each other. This pretty nonstop action made the plot move quickly, and I found it hard to put this story down just because I needed to see the action through. 

While I really enjoyed the action and loved seeing what came next, Rey and Lilly were unfortunately not my favorite characters to feature in a Street Kings book. I did think they had interesting stories, but I sort of wish more plot was spent developing their relationship rather than focusing so much on action. If you haven't read the other Street King titles, I especially feel like more time could have been dedicated to this fast (and almost obsessive) romance. 

Overall, I loved Rey and Lilly's story, but not as a standalone. I feel like you have to have too  much prior knowledge from the first two books to fully enjoy the lives that these main characters are leading. The romance was a little darker, but I felt like it was mostly overshadowed by the constant action around them. This is a good series, but I would highly recommend reading the first two before diving into Lilly and Rey's story.

A huge thank you to Social Butterfly PR for proving a review copy of Deceptive Knight.

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Release date: 2/10/22
Format: eARC
eARC provided via: Social Butterfly PR