Review: Desolation Road by Christine Feehan

Posted July 6, 2020 by Casee in Reviews | 15 Comments

Review: Desolation Road by Christine FeehanReviewer: Casee
Desolation Road by Christine Feehan
Series: Torpedo Ink #4
Also in this series: Judgment Road , Judgment Road, Vengeance Road, Vendetta Road, Reckless Road, Savage Road, Annihilation Road, Recovery Road
Publisher: Berkley
Publication Date: July 7, 2020
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Point-of-View: Alternating Third
Content Warning: View Spoiler »
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 480
Add It: Goodreads
Reading Challenges: Casee's 2020 Goodreads Challenge, Goodreads Challenge
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two-stars
Series Rating: three-stars

Take the ride of your life with the Torpedo Ink motorcycle club in this thrilling romance novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan.    Torpedo Ink is Aleksei “Absinthe” Solokov’s whole life. They’re his brothers, his family—his everything. But that doesn't stop him from wanting something that only belongs to him. That’s why the tough biker has spent the last six weeks at the library, reading every book he can get his hands on and watching the prim and proper librarian who makes his blood rush.    For the past six weeks, Scarlet Foley has been fantasizing about the handsome, tattooed man whose eyes follow her every move. She senses he's dangerous. She wants him to get close enough to touch. She wishes she could let him know the real woman, not the one she pretends to be. But Scarlet has a plan to carry out, and she can’t afford any distractions.   Absinthe is well aware that Scarlet is hiding something. She’s a puzzle he intends to solve, piece by intoxicating piece….

Aleksei “Absinthe” Solokov lives and breathes Torpedo Ink. He, along with his brothers and sisters, survived hell on earth to get where they are today. Absinthe thinks he only needs his family, but that changes when he decides to head to the library for some quiet time. It’s at the library that he lays eyes on her. The Librarian. For six weeks he travels between Caspar and the library, all to spend time in the same building as the woman that suddenly and irrevocably caught his eye. Absinthe knows he’s not a good man. Not even that is going to keep him away from the woman that brings his body to life, for the first time in his entire life.

Scarlet Foley has noticed Absinthe in her library. How can she not notice the gorgeous, tattooed stranger that has been coming in for six weeks. Scarlet never thought she would find a man that would intrigue her like Absinthe has. Her feelings about him are irrelevant because Scarlet has someone after her. She promised herself years ago that she would never be put in a position again where someone she loved would get hurt. Scarlet has a past that she’s hiding and she won’t let anyone get close enough to find out her secrets. Until Absinthe.

Their attraction is mutual and fiery. Scarlet never thought that she would find a man that would be her equal in all aspects of life, but that’s exactly what she’s found with Absinthe. What she doesn’t expect is the demons that he has in his past and still carries with him in the present. Absinthe doesn’t want to burden Scarlet with his past and so it seems that the relationship will not work after all. Scarlet wants an equal partner and Absinthe is apparently not going to be that person. Then he tells her everything. Well, almost everything.

As they’re getting to know each other, Absinthe knows that Scarlet isn’t as she seems. She’s not just the sexy librarian that he was first attracted to. She never lets her back face the door, she carries weapons, and she’s more than cautious about her surroundings. Of course, Torpedo Ink being who and what they are, they find out her secrets. Absinthe is appalled when he learns about her past. He would have preferred to learn it from Scarlet herself, but they can’t afford to wait to find out in their line of business. Armed with all the information he has on her, Absinthe can now protect her. And protect her he will.

This was my least favorite book of the series. To say that I hated it would be harsh, but it was so freaking close to hate. Each member of Torpedo Ink have their own horror stories about what they had to go through growing up in Russia. Absinthe had a fetish that carried over from those days. View Spoiler » Like WTAF. This book made me realize that Feehan’s writing has been subtly changing over the last few books. There are some things she won’t touch and sometimes she goes way overboard. Will the real Christine Feehan please stand up?

I always enjoy going back to the Torpedo Ink world, I just didn’t enjoy this book as much as I was expecting to. I really liked Absinthe in the previous books. He was incredibly intriguing and I couldn’t wait to read his book. Now I wish I hadn’t.

Rating: 2 out of 5.

Torpedo Ink

two-stars


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15 responses to “Review: Desolation Road by Christine Feehan

  1. Kareni

    Thanks for your review, Casee. That’s quite the spoiler. I think I’ll pass on this book.

  2. Sam

    I read this book already….and in my review I state that the violence and sexual aggressions and proclivities are getting more graphic …and the change in writing is as though there is more than ONE person now writing her books. A few years ago she was struggling to write and now, she is putting out 4-5 books per year, and thanking her ‘kids’ for the help….me thinks someone is helping her write especially with the uptick in violent story lines and sexual assault details

    • A few years ago she was struggling to write and now, she is putting out 4-5 books per year, and thanking her ‘kids’ for the help….me thinks someone is helping her write especially with the uptick in violent story lines and sexual assault details

      I couldn’t agree more, Sam. I’m curious to read Dark Song to see if it’s outrageous like this book was.

  3. Dianne Jones

    I did not enjoy this book. Had been looking forward to his story since he was such a strong character in previous books. The sexual content was way over the top and detracted from the story. I felt that the ending for Scarlet of her tormentors was too short compared to the lengthy drawn out sex scenes. Very disappointed. Will not save in my personal library. If I donated to public library it would have to be in porno section.

    • Dianne, I completely agree with you that the sexual content detracted from the story. That’s why I think it’s not strictly CF writing these books anymore.

    • Lynn

      I agree with the less than stellar reviews above. CF skirted (well, maybe more than skirted with Ice’s story). I’m not sure who is doing the writing but Ice’s story was the limit for me. Desolation Road goes way beyond.

  4. Lynn

    I agree with the less than stellar reviews above. CF skirted (well, maybe more than skirted with Ice’s story). I’m not sure who is doing the writing but Ice’s story was the limit for me. Desolation Road goes way beyond.

  5. Tammy

    I was also very disappointed and actually felt cheated by Absinthe’s story. I was expecting so much more than what was served. I listened to the audio book and found I had to skip out quite a bit, especially the “pet scenes.”
    Totally different style of writing from original CF.

  6. Tammy

    Yes! I was also very disappointed and actually felt cheated by Absinthe’s story. I was expecting so much more than what was served. I listened to the audio book and found I had to skip out quite a bit, especially the “pet scenes.”
    Totally different style of writing from original CF books that I couldn’t get enough of.

  7. The increasing depiction of physical, sexual, emotional & psychological abuse made this book hard, tedious work. The frequent chapter-long sex scenes with the ‘kitten play’ ain’t my thing and crucially, was at the expense of the character development. Also, this could’ve ruined my joy at actual feline kittens like my my beautiful tuxedo kitten Magnus! Totally didn’t work for me.

    Anyway, it felt like this was written for shock value, almost like each book in this series is trying beat the previous on terms of shock value which baffles me. I’m not buying any more from this author. It’s just not enjoyable to me. Hard pass.

  8. I have enjoyed CF’s books since I started reading the Carpathian series. I have read all of the Torpedo Inc books as well and find them to increasingly be devolving into smut and near porn. This one is the worst. What is sooo disappointing is that in the first 8 chapters I thought she had turned the corner after the awful reviews on Vendetta Road. Instead she presents a character of strength, determination, endurance, and resilience and then turns her into a mindless sex object. The scenes of what was earlier a woman to be admired for her survival capabilities turned my stomach to see her portrayed as crawling around on her hands and knees with a collar around her neck, not being allowed to speak, but rather meow like an animal. I was thoroughly disgusted with the gratuitous and over the top sex and her constant portrayal of the women in her books as mindless sex sluts. I will never buy another one of her books for more than .25 cents at a yard sale or flea market

  9. Shima Shash

    I loved the Carpathian vampire story line! Finally something original! But I quickly figured out to skip all the graphic sex…the same stuff over and over. Get past it already!

    With Desolation Road, I read roughly half of this book and then threw it in the trash. I like a good storyline FIRST, and she used to have that. Now it’s all sex, sex, and more sex, and even worse with this one with all the violence. I literally skipped over 20 consecutive pages of a sex scene…I’m so over it.

    I will not be reading any more from Ms Feehan, ever. I’ll be looking for something much less trashy.

  10. Linda

    I completely agree. I was so looking forward to this this series of books and I’ve been nothing but disappointed. Each book has become more sickening than the last. There’s nothing romantic about the abuse and perversion she heaps on the “heroines” at the hands of the men who supposedly love them. She took a strong, resilient woman and turned her into a weak, mindless sex toy. Something she’s begun doing in her her Leopard and Shadow series lines. If her Carpathian series starts following this trend I’m DONE!

  11. deborah

    I don’t think she is writing these. I think she has an outline and her children are writing them. Their is no story just sex scenes that do nothing for the story. Meow? really a cat fetish. I love the old stuff. This new series is not her evolving but rather devolving.

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