Reviewer: Tracy Tank (Black and Blue #1) by Erin Bevan
Series: Black and Blue #1
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: May 17, 2017
Format: eARC
Point-of-View: Third
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 407
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Series Rating:
Tyler Wilde moves to Black Widow, Texas, to join the Blue Guardians, a local biker club that helps abused women and children. He's intent on starting his life over, but a small piece of his past collides with his present when he runs into the local waitress, Annie Carter.
Annie’s the girl of his boyhood dreams, and Tyler can’t wait to get reacquainted with her. Only problem is, Annie’s engaged. But what has Tyler more troubled than the diamond on her finger is the bruise that graces her arm. To make matters worse, Annie’s abuser and intended husband is also the town’s Chief of Police.
Tyler is determined to offer Annie a safe haven, but she refuses his help until her life is hanging by a thread.
When Tyler Wilde’s grandfather dies and leaves him his home in Black Widow, Texas, he decides to move there. He spent summers there for many years and the place holds wonderfully fond memories for him. He’s also been told that there is a group/biker club that helps abused women and children and he wants to join.
After a couple of weeks of living in Black Widow Tyler heads to the local diner to get donuts for his co-workers and runs into Annie. They realize after talking that she was the little girl across the river that he taught to skip rocks one summer. Tyler can tell almost immediately that Annie is trying to hide signs of abuse.
Tyler becomes a prospect in the Blue Guardians and earns the name Tank due to his size. They end up helping Annie try to get away from her fiancé, permanently. Unfortunately her fiancé is a cop and a well-respected man in the community – no one knows what a monster he is. While Annie stays at Tank’s house her friendship with him turns deeper and they both realize they have feelings for each other. Annie, however, doesn’t know if she can trust any man after what she’s been through.
This is my first read by this author. I was intrigued by the concept of an MC created to help abused women and children. It was a good concept and one I enjoyed reading about. Tank had been abused as a boy and he was still, even as an adult, working through his issues. Because of his background he was especially good with children who’d been abused and I loved that the author gave him a soft heart due to his past.
Annie was a trooper. Seriously – that woman had gone through hell and just couldn’t figure out how to extricate herself from the situation. I was happy that she finally took Tank up on his offer of protection and that the Blue Guardians stepped in as well.
Despite my enjoyment of the Blue Guardians the story did lag at times and I found it a struggle to not skip pages/skim. There were also some things that happened in the book that had my eyes rolling because the characters were so gullible. In the end I found that I liked about half of the book and found the other half just ok.
Rating: 3 out of 5