Tag: MC

Romance

Sugar – Jessica Gadziala

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38353681| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: Sugar had known a lot of women in his life. But he’d never met anyone quite like this mermaid-haired, tattooed, pierced, smartass woman named Peyton who made it clear she didn’t want anything from him except as many orgasms as he could give her.

So what was he supposed to do when he realized he did want more? How was he supposed to get this woman who was so committed to non-commitment to take a chance on him? Or convince the loansharks and ex-armed robbers that loved her that he was worthy? All the while trying to figure out how a dead man from his past had somehow come back to life… and why he was coming for him…

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My thoughts:

“So overall I may be a little too generous with the rating, but even though I did not like it as much as the others, I still enjoyed it.”

12 books! 12 books I have so far read in the Henchmen series, and a number of others from the same universe and I love it and I love Gadziala. I love her characters and her easy way of writing but I have mixed feelings for this one. I freaking love Sugar and Peyton and the fizzy chemistry between them. Sugar is cool and layback while Peyton is… well she certainly wins the first price in craziness and is all over the top at all times. But I think the biggest problem with the book is the fuzzy plot. Nothing really happens until like 90% in, and that is over long before it even started. Kind of anticlimactic when you get all that build-up but no real release. It felt rushed and a few parts was kind of boring and in the end there are a few things that didn’t make sense. I will however not dive into that pit of thoughts due to spoilers.

I was just expecting more. Specially sine Peyton belongs to both Mallick and Rivers family, kind of, and I thought the V thing would escalate but that was completely “dead”. So overall I may be a little too generous with the rating, but even though I did not like it as much as the others, I still enjoyed it. And that makes the difference.

Contemporary · Romance · Young, New adult/College

Under Locke – Mariana Zapata

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20613920| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: He was my boss, my brother’s friend, a Widower, an ex-felon, and a man I’d seen casually with a handful of women. But he was everything that gripped me, both the good and the bad. Worst case scenario if things turned awkward between us, I could go somewhere else. I’d gotten over epic heartbreak before, one more wouldn’t kill me.

After moving to Austin following six months of unemployment back home, Iris Taylor knows she should be glad to have landed a job so quickly… even if the business is owned by a member of the same motorcycle club her estranged father used to belong to. Except Dex Locke might just be the biggest jerk she’s ever met. He’s rude, impatient and doesn’t know how to tell time. And the last thing they ever expected was each other.
But it was either the strip club or the tattoo shop.

… she should have chosen the strip club.

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My thoughts: Mariana is one of my favorite authors with her unique writing style and thoughtful plots. And even though I often find it a delight reading her books, I can’t say that it I fell for Under Locke. In my opinion, of those book I have read so far, this is certainly the weakest one. I can see how she tried to achieve some strong, kick ass characters but it fell flat on so many levels.

My biggest problem was really Iris and that she certainly is not an character easy to love. She prides herself with not holding grudges, but like 60% of the books is constant nagging about what a dick one character is, what an asshole another are and it goes on and on and on. I can’t stand that type of self-pity and it drives me nuts that she sounds like a broken record. She is almost 25 years old but often acts like 15. Yeah I know she have had a hard life and so on, but then you would expect a more mature woman.

The plot is pretty straight forward. Woman has troubles with finding job, finds a job working for an asshole. Female fall in love with asshole and lo and behold, he is not an asshole after all. Just a man with many layers. Unfortunately those layers was not as deep as expected.

Overall it is a good book. It is quite entertaining and so on but so much dwelling is annoying to read. This book will not change my opinion regarding Mariana Zapata. I see it as a bad day, everyone has one and this book is just one of Mariana Zapatas bad days. Still okay but not as good as I know it can be.

Romance

Reeve – Jessica Gadziala

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37285282| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: Reeve
I had long since given up hope of the pursuit of genuine happiness. It wasn’t possible after all the sh*t I had been through. I had my siblings, my club, a purpose in life. It was enough.
Until I came across her.
She represented everything that I knew I couldn’t have – stability, a future, a way out of my past.
And, it seemed, the harder I tried to keep her at a distance, to protect her from my reality, she only got in deeper, only pulled me closer.
Then, one night, an old face popped up in Navesink Bank. And everything changed forever.

Rey
I liked my life. I liked the freedom and simplicity of it, even if it was, perhaps, a little lonely.
Then one night, there he was.
With the saddest eyes I had ever seen.
He represented everything my life didn’t need – chaos, violence, uncertainty. But, at the same time, everything it was lacking – companionship, connection.
He tried to fight it, to keep up his guards, to keep me at arm’s length.
But, well, fate had other plans.
That was the night everything changed.
Down an alley, facing down a new, yet familiar, big bad in Navesink Bank, forcing us together, making us confront the reality of what was happening between us.
Trapped together, waiting for the winds to blow over, he finally trusted me enough to let me in, to give us a shot, to invite me into his family.
That is, if all of us survived the upcoming storm…

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My thoughts: Rey was a character I thought I wouldn’t like. To hippy dippy, flower power, peace on earth, mumble jumble for my taste. But god damn she is hilarious. Down to earth, smart, funny and I see a lot of myself in her. And her total love for animals, self-reliance, her easygoing nature and somewhat different lifestyle is just wonderful. I love her and it’s not often I love a female character more than the male one. But in this I did. And I feel almost a little sad that it wasn’t longer because I would have loved to follow her more. She is just that good and Gadziala did a great work without making her over the top.

Overall the book is a typical Gadziala book with some hot scenes and complicated characters, history and an interesting future. It was nice to know Reeve’s story. I loved his brother and Reeve he had a pretty large role in Cyrus book but you never got to know what his history really was. But everything makes total sense now. And all the side characters is just so fun to follow and get to know.

There was also a huge plot twist that will go on for at least a couple of books forward. Not a major cliffhanger yet, but I’m looking forward do see how that will evolve.

Contemporary · Romance

Edison – Jessica Gadziala

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36357979.jpg| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: Lenny
I have one mission in life.
Revenge.
I didn’t have time for anything else.
Let alone the mysterious, unfairly good-looking member of a local outlaw biker gang.
But Edison is not the kind of man to be easily ignored, and the closer he gets, the more I seem to sway from my mission.
Until the unthinkable happens.

Edison
She’s special.
That has always been my type, women with that ‘something’ that you can’t quite put your finger on. And Lenny with her knife-sharp tongue, stubbornness, and guards thicker than almost any I had ever seen, yeah, she had that thing. And I wanted to put my finger on it.
Finger. Mouth. Tongue… everything on her.
But Lenny is hiding things.
And it wasn’t until her world shatters around her that I finally get to see what was beneath them all along. And it is more than I could have ever hoped for. It’s something I want to hold onto. I guess the only thing left is to get that through her stubborn head as well…

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My thoughts: I have not read a book by Gadziala for way to long and now that my prohibition of buying books have been lifted, of course my first one was one of her books. I have missed her. I have missed her books, her writing, stories and her world in Navesink Bank. I have missed to get to know more of the Henchmen men and see what will happen with all that is happening in the crime capital of USA. Edison was also an character who intrigued me right from the start. He was so dark and mysterious in the earlier books, that I just had to start off with him since he was the next one to read in the series.

This is the 10th book in the series about the Henchmen in Navesink Bank. Gadziala have built a whole world with different series that are linking together. The Henchmen will probably be my favorite. Well I did love the Mallicks family (still have one more book to read) and I can’t wait for The Grassis to be published and the Professionals are also a great series, but it is the Henchmen who made me fall in love. And what’s so great is that it is so different from many other MC series out there. Her books always have a kick ass female character and awesome alpha hero sexy man with a moral compass who points in the right directions and have great female values. It is hard not to fall in love. My biggest problem often are that I find the books to be to short. 😛

Edison was a lot deeper character than I thought he would be and his story about his life and traveling through Europe was just fantastic. And I loved Lenny. She has walls thicker than the earth’s crust and the way the relationship grew between them was just perfect. And the ending was so fitting to it all that I have nothing more to say.

Contemporary · Romance

Crash – Susan Fanetti

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32613951.jpg| GOODREADS | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: Tulsa, Oklahoma. 1995

Conrad “Radical” Jessup, Sergeant at Arms of the Brazen Bulls Motorcycle Club, has life just about where he wants it: he’s free of a bad marriage, and his club is cruising along healthy and strong, their business relationships as solid as their brotherhood. He’s a contented man, riding his road at his speed.

Until a massive highway wreck brings a blonde on a little sportster crashing into his life.

Willa Randall is making a new life in Tulsa, working hard to put a demolished past in her rearview mirror. Trying to keep herself safe, she’s built a life insulated by locks and walls. Inside those walls, she’s alone, but she feels secure, and that’s enough.

Until a big, tattooed biker holds out his hand and helps her up from the pavement.

A love seeded in chaos grows fast and deep. But when chaos is a constant, can any love endure?

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My thoughts: I have read one book by Fanetti, earlier back in 2016, and I can’t remember on top of my head, why I did not finish the Signal Bend series, but I must have had my reasons. Crash is the first book in the series about another MC Club that do exist in the same universe but still are a standalone series from the signal bend series.

It is a good plot and it certainly had potential, but for me, I had problem with connecting to the characters. And I don’t really know why. They are characters I usually love and connect with. Willa is this strong, kick ass woman, who have been in a shitty situation for like the last 10 years. But she has a fighting spirit and with her protecting dog Ollie she feels strong and ready for whatever will happen and she do not need a man to “save” her. Then we have Rad. Hard skinned, stubborn, overprotecting, sexy and hot alpha male who is happy to finally have peace in his life after a bad childhood and an even worse marriage. But he is open to his feelings and when Willa comes crashing into his life he takes the chance to explore and find even more.

How can I NOT love this? It is like I wrote the plot myself. It is like all that I want from this type of books. But still it didn’t do it for me. When I think about the highlights of the book, it still feels kind of grey and bland for me. I read the story but there was not really anything that captivated me. It is a good read. It’s just not a great read. One thing I really liked is that even though it is predictable, I could point out early in the story, stuff that would happen, it did not happen as I first had expected it. So even if it is predictable, it was not as predictable as I had predicted. Haha.

Romance

Making the cut – Anne Malcom

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25442666| GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥|

Goodreads synopsis: Gwen Alexandra does not need a man in her life. Especially not a man who looks like Chris Hemsworth and Joe Manganiello’s love child. One wearing leather, riding a Harley, and covered in tattoos.

Gwen can bet every pair of her Manolos that Cade Fletcher is trouble. From the moment she meets him, the attraction sizzles between them. Gwen has a problem when it comes to attractive men in motorcycle clubs. The last one she got involved with almost killed her.

After healing physically, Gwen decides to get a new start in a small town, half a country away from the man who nearly cost her her life. She isn’t in town five minutes when she runs into Cade, a man that is too sexy and dangerous for his own good.

She tries to keep away from him, to ignore the attraction between them. But the biker has other ideas, soon she is in way over her head. Her heart, and her life are in danger once again.

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My thoughts: I feel that this is gonna be an hard review to write and it will probably not make any sense but I will try my best and hope I can put words on my tougths and feelings.

I had really trouble reading the book. I did not like the way it was written. It was predictable and all the clichés you can think off, they are in the book. I did not really like the female characters either. I feel they were superficial and quite frankly a little stupid. I can’t connect with an character that think fashion is the highest reason to live and constantly thinking about how she or everyone around her looks. And it is described in detail trough out the book. I did not like the relationship between Gwen and Cade and felt that there was no depth and it all was just excessive.

So what did I like enough to give the book a two star rating. I dont know. Really! Even though I wanted to mark it as DNF (did not finish) at 40% in the book, I could not stop reading and I could not stop thinking on the book. I dont know what made me invested in the book but there is certainly something in there that makes it all worth it. I dont know if it is enough to make me read the second book in the series, but it was enough to make me finish it.

Have you ever read a book that you not really like and are on the edge to stop reading, but still there is something unexplained to make you read it anyway? Please tell me.

Romance · Young, New adult/College

Kid – Marie James

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29613668| GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ |

Goodreads synopsis: When Khloe Devaro’s best friend and fiancé is lost to the war in Iraq, she’s beyond distraught. Her intentions of joining him in the afterlife are thwarted by a Cerberus Motorcycle Club member. Too young to do anything on her own, the only alternative she has now is to take Kid up on his offer to stay at the MC Clubhouse. As if that’s not a disaster waiting to happen, but anything is better than returning to the foster home she’s been forced to live in the last three years.

Dustin “Kid” Andrews spent four years as a Marine; training, fighting, and learning how to survive the most horrendous of conditions. He never imagined that holding a BBQ fundraiser for a local fallen soldier would end up as the catalyst that turns his world upside down. Resisting his attraction for a girl he’s not even certain is of legal age was easy, until he’s forced to intervene when her intentions become clear. All his training is wasted as far as he’s concerned since none of that will help him when it comes to Khloe.

Will the self-proclaimed man-whore sleep with a woman in every country he visits as planned, or will the beautiful, yet feisty girl living down the hall throw a wrench in his plan?

My thoughts: Terrible. Is it just me who is getting old and don´t find this type of books that believable and frankly, quite excessive. I mean, come on! It had all the potential to be good. Here you have a young, strong but broken girl/woman who lost her best friend and fiancé. Completely alone in the world and not yet old enough to do something about her situation, makes the depression a factor and the will to live not that strong anymore. In comes the good guy. The good hearted, good guy who just want to help. The guy who sees beyond the walls and layers of barbed wire. They fell in love and….. there it ends. The rest is just immature drama and not really exciting.

The story gets immature and sexually excessive. There is a lot of talk about the same thing from both Kid and Khloe. Then a situation happen and it all just gets worse. And nothing seems real for me anymore. And the whole sexual atmosphere is just to mature and don´t fit in with the characters and its just wrong. No! No, no no. I liked the first book, but this one, no. And quite frankly, I don´t even know if I want to read more of her books now.

Romance

Lazarus – Jessica Gadziala

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33852287| GOODREADS | AMAZON | MY RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ |

Goodreads synopsis: The war was over. The dust had settled. The numbers were increasing. Everything had finally started to calm down. Until one night on a walk, I came across her…

My thoughts: Gadziala is one of my favorite authors if i´ve not told you that before. I love her way to write an her story’s and how many off her series have a connection with each other and that is probably why she is the author I have read the most of. There is always a character in the book that you want to read more about and if that character do not have there own book (yet) you can get glimpses of him/her in the other books. Sometimes I feel like a lovesick teenager when I read her books and gets in love like that. Hehe

This book is number 7 in her The Henchmen MC series and I was quite excited to read it. I really liked Lazarus when he started to appear in sixth book. He was something different and refreshing. Specially after all that had happen throughout the series. Now however i´m a little disappointed. It feels like Gadziala could have done it better. A little deeper, a little more exciting and a lot more suspense would have placed the book higher up on my list. But I´m still glad that i read it and in the book you got to meet a new character who is Weird with a big W. He has his own book and of course I will read it. 🙂