Reviewer: Tracy
Custom Built by Chantal Fernando
Series: Fast & Fury #1
Publisher: Carina Press
Publication Date: November 23, 2020
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Point-of-View: First person
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 208
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After losing her job, saying goodbye to a lifelong dream and having an all-around cruddy year, Bronte Pierce needs a break. A job at Fast & Fury might be just the thing to reset her life, even though she knows nothing about custom motorcycles. But taking a job isn’t the same as keeping it, and her fresh start quickly turns into a fresh nightmare.
Starting with her boss. Crow is hardheaded, stubborn and brutally honest. He may be easy on the eyes, but he runs with an MC and he’s anything but friendly to Bronte. She suspects he has a softer side—just not for her.

Her whole life, Bronte has known that the only person she can truly count on to save the day is herself. But when a single murder turns into a conspiracy and the threat to her life is more than she can handle alone, it’s Crow who comes through—and her newfound family might just become her greatest strength.

Bronte has been let go from her job as an assistant to a private investigator.  The PI is one of her good friends so she understands, but it still hurts.  She’s cautiously excited when she gets a job at a custom bike shop (through her uncle and cousin).  There she meets Crow.  She thinks he’s hot but he’s not very nice to her.  He seems to like everyone else but her, which sucks.

Crow is part of the Knights of Fury MC, which owns the shop and he pretty much runs the place.  He is attracted to Bronte from day one but knows that he shouldn’t get involved with an employee.

When Bronte’s dad dies she is devastated, and Crow is there to take care of her. This strengthens the ties between them that have started to grow, and they finally come together.  When Bronte decides that her dad’s death wasn’t an accident and decides to look into it, Crow and the rest of the MC back her in any way they can.  They are determined to get to the bottom of it and Bronte and the MC are all in.

This was a good story, though pretty simple.  It was definitely a fast and easy read.

Bronte and Crow were pretty darned cute in this story.  They started off not exactly enemies, but definitely not friends.  I loved how he came to take care of her after her dad died.  He was sweet, caring and I loved him.  Bronte wasn’t a bad character, but I just didn’t like her as much.  They were adorable together though, so that saved it for me.

I’ve read Fernando previously (the Cursed Ravens MC series) and while I liked the story, I wasn’t a big fan of the writing in this book. Especially toward the end of the book, there were scenes that I thought were superfluous for the overall story.  Very everyday kind of things that while mildly interesting, but didn’t further the story at all.  I kept thinking the story had ended but it kept going and added even more of Bronte in distress.  It was a bit OTT for my liking, but that’s just my opinion.

In the end a decent read.  I’ll probably read the next book in the series because I liked the other secondary characters.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Fast & Fury