Review: Two Tricks (Hidden Empire Series Book 1) by Elizabeth Knight

Two Tricks by Elizabeth Knight
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Two Criminal Gangs

This is the first book in an ongoing series. The book does end on a cliffhanger but it comes at a natural break in the story so it’s not too annoying.

Dax is a tattoo artist, business owner and enforcer for a criminal enterprise, the Hidden Empire. She’s petite, fierce and very dangerous. She lives with her best friend/family Weston, who is also her partner in the tattoo parlour and with the Hidden Empire. Weston also happens to be an incredible hacker and their different sets of skills complement each other very nicely. Her other friend, Harper, was her roommate in college and is completely unaware of the Hidden Empire because Dax doesn’t want that to touch her fashion designer friend.

A lot of people have their eyes on Two Tricks, the head of The Hidden Empire and one group, the Phantom Saints MC, decide to take a rather unusual approach to get Two Tricks to agree to work with them. Two Tricks never works with MCs so their unusual approach is something that may be the only thing that would work.

I’m not usually a fan of 1%er MC fiction and I’m definitely not usually interested in main characters who are ‘bad guys’, however, these bad guys aren’t as bad as they first appear, or at least they are shown as less bad in the way the author writes.

Dax is ruthless and crazy but the Hidden Empire’s smuggling operation also works as protection for the neighbourhoods in which they work. The Phantom Saints MC may be a 1%er club, but they protect the families of the men they work with and they have a strictly hands-off approach to women and children.

There is plenty of violence in this book, mainly from Dax, but with the MC both they and Dax almost see it as a weird sort of courtship ritual. The alliance that the MC want with The Hidden Empire becomes wrapped up in a personal relationship between the leadership of the MC (five men) and Dax. Dax isn’t overly fond of romance and has cut herself off from those kinds of feelings after the death of her twin, but the MC leadership seem to wriggle between her defences without her really noticing.

Dax’s relationships with Weston and Harper are her anchors, even though Harper is unaware of her criminal side. Weston, however, knows Dax better than she knows herself and there is no end to his loyalty towards her. I really liked Weston and thought he was an interesting character. Harper was a bit more superficial and girly and got Dax into trouble without realising it, however as she was unaware of Dax’s criminal activities it’s to be expected she might drop her friend in it without realising it, so I forgave her.

This book is high action, with plenty of violence and tonnes of hot sex. It’s got a few interesting plot twists and I liked the craziness of the characters. The book is entertaining and diverting and the characters are strangely likeable despite their criminal endeavours. The book reminded me somewhat of A.J. Macey’s The Aces series in spirit. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for future books in the series.

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