As my first book by author Lili St. Germain, I wasn't sure what to expect going in. CARTEL, the first book in the Cartel series jumps straight into the dark and dangerous world of drugs, violence and abuse. Mariana is caught in the midst of it all. As a daughter of a drug lord who has got himself in some serious trouble, she is taken as punishment and used as property to transport drugs and more. There she encounters Dornan, the VP of the Gypsy Brothers motorcycle club and Emilio's son.

Their romance is strange despite the circumstances. Dornan is a character that both scares and entices me. I oscillated from liking and hating both the hero and heroine because neither of them seem to stay consistent throughout the story. Dornan has his softer moments, but then goes on to do some terrible things. Mariana, on the other hand, has his admirable feisty side but that is a double-edged sword because she often causes more trouble for herself with stupid mistakes.

St. Germain creates a lot of tense scenes that start off the book and doesn't really let up at all throughout. While it keeps the suspense, I also thought that there were events that occurred that were simply there for shock value if nothing else. I wished there were more downtime moments where the suspense ebbed a little bit before flowing once again to create that better drive towards the end. Otherwise the level of suspense remains the same and readers can get immune to the climax when it occurs. CARTEL is definitely not for the faint of heart.