3.5/5⭐️

The Lumberjack is the final book in the Game of Chance series. This was an interesting read but fell kind of flat for me cuz I hadn't read the previous books in the series. So that's partly on me.

I thought this was a standalone that could be read on it's own but there seemed to be a lot of backstory that was already covered in the previous books for Jack and April and it seemed like the scene was already set for them, with them pining after each other for 5 years and already having this bond/connection which I couldn't relate to since, again, I started the series with this book.

However, I feel like the author could've slowly eased us into their relationship rather than getting into it too early in the book which made me feel like I started a book midway through the story, especially with the amnesia trope.

After April suffers from a terrible accident which leads to her temporarily losing her memories and she has no recollection of the last five years of her life, but she feels this sort of familiarity and connection towards Jack. She then finds out that they've both been attracted to each other for years but avoided taking it further for their own reasons. For April it's because he's her boss and after being in a loveless marriage for far too long, she didn't want to get into another relationship and also the fact that Jack was younger than her. For Jack, he had his insecurities that she would reject him and that he would be too intense for her given his past as a Special Forces Soldier, and knowing what a huge role April played in the success of his business that he didn't want things to get awkward and for her to leave. The accident puts things into perspective for both of them about how short life is and how stupid they were to keep denying their feelings for so long.

Jack decides to take April back to his place to recover after she gets discharged and they get into a relationship the same day. It felt too rushed especially not having any backstory or insight into their relationship. I felt too disconnected from these two to relate. Also, they kept mentioning that April was older than Jack and though we knew her age to be 46 yo, but Jack's age isn't mentioned till the end here.

These two get into a relationship and once the dust settles on that, the suspense aspect of the book takes the lead with someone from Cal, Jack, Bob and Chappy's past coming back for revenge and using the women as bait to lure them in. And then it's a race to save these women and how the villain has laid out a meticulous plan that he's worked on for years and has thought about everything to make sure the men can't escape.

Reading the things this guy did to the women was terrible and made me want to beat him up myself. But the women stayed strong and did everything they could to not lose it and fought till the end. April was the real star here with how she managed the whole situation and got them all the help and played the major role in getting them to safety.

We see characters from other series join the men to help them track the women and they plan out the rescue mission and execute it.

The ending shows us how all the couples are doing after a few years and ties up the series pretty well. And reading the little snippets of the other couples has got me interested in their books now.

Thank you Montlake and Netgalley for providing me with this ARC in return for an honest review.