Tag: Katie Ashley

Review: Redemption Road by Katie Ashley

Posted November 24, 2015 by Rowena in Reviews | 2 Comments

Review: Redemption Road by Katie AshleyReviewer: Rowena
Redemption Road by Katie Ashley
Series: Vicious Cycle #2
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: October 6th 2015
Format: eARC
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
one-half-stars
Series Rating: two-stars

The New York Times bestselling author of Vicious Cycle plunges readers into a world of danger and desire in her newest in the Vicious Cycle motorcycle club romance series.

Looking for a walk on the wild side, Annabel Percy, the daughter of a powerful politician, gives in to an attraction to a sexy biker she meets one night.

But she finds herself living a nightmare when she’s kidnapped and transported into a hell on earth she never could have imagined.
Born and bred into the Hells Raiders MC, Nathaniel “Reverend” Malloy lives and dies for his brothers. But when he becomes the unexpected savior of a rival club’s captive, Rev makes it his personal mission to nurse Annabel back to health—and to shelter her from the nightmares that torment her.

Once Annabel heals, she’s stunned to realize she is falling for the seductive man who saved her. Faced with their impossible attraction, can she accept the life he leads, or will Rev walk away from the only life he’s ever known for the woman he was never supposed to love?

From the Trade Paperback edition.

This is Book 2 in the Vicious Cycle series by Katie Ashley and it follows Deacon Malloy’s (hero from Book 1) brother Nathaniel “Rev” Malloy as he makes that trek toward true love. Rev’s story starts at the end of Vicious Cycle. At Deacon and Alex’s wedding, Rev gets a phone call from their brother Breakneck (what a name), the MC doctor who informs him that he needs help. Breakneck’s daughter is a freshman in college at Texas A&M, she’s been kidnapped and Breakneck needs Rev’s help in getting her back because the guys that took her? They’re bad news and in the sex trafficking business. A business his daughter might be sold into if he doesn’t get her back soon.

Rev leaves the reception with his younger brother Bishop and they set off to try and get Sarah back. With the help of the local chapter of the Hell Raiders MC, they storm the compound to save Sarah and end up saving another red-headed captive named Annabel Percy. Rev ends up nursing Annabel back to health and she ends up becoming a bigger part of his life than he anticipated.

With each passing day, Annabel gets better and healthier and she gets even closer to Rev. She can’t imagine her life without him and he’s starting to wonder if she’s falling in love with him or is suffering from some kind of hero worship because he saved her from being the sex slave.

The story itself had the potential to be really good but I don’t know, I just didn’t connect with anything or anyone.

Rev’s head was in the right place but holy cow did he get on my nerves. Same with Annabel. I don’t know what it is about the heroines in this series but I could not for the life of me connect with either of them. I thought Annabel would come out strong and in some ways she did but the jealousy, the attitudes toward MC life, the wanting to change their men and the MC rules to suit their lives didn’t really sit well with me.

I wish that wanting the MC to go straight was handled better. The way that it came about didn’t sit right with me. It was a stipulation of Alex’s to Deacon. If they were going to work as a couple, he had to make sure that the MC went straight. I get that she couldn’t accept the lifestyle that being associated with the MC would bring but why was she so important to the MC? Deacon wasn’t the President of the club. He wasn’t even the VP of the MC. And another thing, why was it so easy for them to go straight? Everything was handled so conveniently.

Even with all of that stuff bothering me, the book was slow. It was like chapter and chapter of Annabel living with Rev and that’s it…and then Rev calls her parents and she goes home, pissed off. And that’s it. I felt like I was waiting for something big to happen and it took too long for it to happen because when everything finally does go down, it felt like it was too late. I was already checking out of the story.

It was good to see Bishop, Willow and Mama Beth again. I was sad for Kim but it was good to see her too but I’ve got to be honest, I didn’t care for Deacon and Alex even in this book. OMG, they got on my nerves. Deacon is just a flat out dickhead and Alex, ehh she still annoyed me.

Willow was just as much as delight in this story as she was in Book 1. I really enjoyed seeing how resilient she’s been. You can see her coming into her own as part of the MC family and I really like seeing her happy. She’s come a long way from the girl hiding under her bed in Book 1. She’s stronger now and that’s a good thing. I love her relationship with Rev and Bishop. She’s just a cute little thing. Mama Beth was great too. I just love her to pieces. I think she’s a good Mom who is just accepting and loving and everything that a Mom should be. She supports her kids no matter what they do and when she finds out what happened to Rev all those years ago, my heart hurt for her. She’s not perfect but she’s damn near close.

I read the first chapter of Bishops book that was provided at the end of Redemption Road and I wasn’t a fan of what I read but then I went over to Goodreads and read the blurb and it doesn’t seem that bad but I’m still on the fence on whether to read it or not. I just don’t know.

In the end, I wanted to like these books but I just couldn’t. Ugh.

Grade: 1.5 out of 5

This book is available from NAL Trade. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

one-half-stars

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When It’s Time to Let Go: 5 Series I’m Breaking Up With

Posted October 22, 2015 by Rowena in Discussions | 17 Comments

break up

There comes a time in every book nerds life when they have to make difficult decisions. Decisions like what to read next or who our book boyfriend of the week is and when it’s time to let go of a book or series. It’s never an easy decision to give up on characters before the series is done. I mean, you still have stories to read and characters to get to know but sometimes, it just has to be done.

For me, what it all boils down to are two things. My enjoyment and time.

There’s too many books on my TBR list. Hundreds and hundreds of them and I know that I’m not going to read them all. There’s just no way. So that’s all the more reason to start calling it quits with the series that I’ve fallen out of love with.

Here are the series that I’m breaking up with this…for good.

1) The Dark Hunters series by Sherrilyn Kenyon. This was the first paranormal series that I ever read and that was way back in the day. So long ago that I can’t even remember what year it was. It was back in our years on the JGBB, that’s for sure. I remember when Holly and I used to be obsessed with all things Dark Hunter. We would spend hours upon hours talking about books, characters, share our theories with what was coming up and we loved everything about the world that Sherrilyn Kenyon created for these supernatural characters. Over time though, she started moving away from the rules she created for her own world and our enjoyment of the books started dimming, not to mention she kept writing book after book after book. There’s like 100 books in the series now (not really but you get the idea) and I just don’t see myself ever picking up another book to read. I still have quite a few DH books in my possession but those will sadly go unread. shrugs Oh, well.

2) The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. I know that this series was turned into the hit TV Show that everyone and their Mom loves. I know that Jamie is all kinds of wonderful and is one hot ginger. I had every intention of reading this series because one of my old book friends absolutely adored it and would not stop pimping it to me so I bought the first three books in the series and almost had a heart attack when I saw how big those suckers were. Have you seen how big those suckers are? Their sheer size has intimidated the hell out of me and when I read the first book, I really enjoyed it but thought that it could have been chopped in half and still been a really good read. I even wanted to read the next book in the series but every time I passed it while browsing my books, I always skipped it. That was years ago and so much time has passed that meh, I’m over it. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m never going to finish this series…but I might rent the series and watch that.

3) The Blue Heron series by Kristan Higgins. The first two books in this series rocked my socks. The third book? Not so much. The fourth book? Couldn’t even finish it. So yeah, I’m calling it quits on this one.

4) The Virgin River series by Robyn Carr. I absolutely, positively loved the first book in this series. I loved Jack. I loved Mel. I loved the small town of Virgin River and had such high hopes for the rest of the books. I loved the second book and enjoyed the third but I can’t remember anything about the fourth book but the fifth book? I remember that book. I remember it well. I remember that I spent most of the first read frustrated with both the hero and the heroine but the second time I tried reading it? I didn’t like it at all. Everything got on my nerves so much more than the first time I read it. The heroine? Ugh. The hero? Meh. I didn’t even finish my re-read of the book. I just gave up, on that book and since it’s been years since my re-read, I guess I gave up on the series too because I never read another book. I don’t plan to either. So it’s official, I’m dumping you Virgin Rivers.

5) The Vicious Cycle series by Katie Ashley. As much as I love those sexy ass covers, I don’t think I’d survive another book in this series. The hero and heroine in the first book drove me absolutely bonkers in both their book and the second book. The hero and heroine in the second book had such potential but the entire story just fell flat for me so I think I’m officially out of this one.

What about you? Are there any series that you’re thinking about breaking up with for good?

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Blog Tour: Redemption Road by Katie Ashley

Posted October 14, 2015 by Rowena in Giveaways, Promotions | 0 Comments

REDEMPTION ROAD_Blog Tour Banner

About the Book

Looking for a walk on the wild side, Annabel Percy, the daughter of a powerful politician, gives in to an attraction to a sexy biker she meets one night. But she finds herself living a nightmare when she’s kidnapped and transported into a hell on earth she never could have imagined.

Redemption RoadBorn and bred into the Hells Raiders MC, Nathaniel “Reverend” Malloy lives and dies for his brothers. But when he becomes the unexpected savior of a rival club’s captive, Rev makes it his personal mission to nurse Annabel back to health—and to shelter her from the nightmares that torment her.

Once Annabel heals, she’s stunned to realize she is falling for the seductive man who saved her. Faced with their impossible attraction, can she accept the life he leads, or will Rev walk away from the only life he’s ever known for the woman he was never supposed to love?

Buy Links

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Excerpt

My trembling arms came up to wrap around him. I burrowed deeper into his chest, into his warmth. Closing my eyes, I pressed my face against his skin, searching out the sound of his beating heart. I marveled at the thought that a relative stranger could provide the comfort I so desperately needed.

“You want to talk about it?” Rev asked.

Only with him would I allow myself to go there. I swallowed hard. “It was about that last night with Mendoza . . . how he wanted to kill me.” The tremors ricocheted through me again like I was being shaken by someone.

Placing his hands on each side of my face, Rev pushed my head back so I could look into his eyes. “Believe me when I say that you never have to worry about Mendoza hurting you ever again.”

“How can you be so sure?” I whispered.

“Because I will put a bullet between his eyes before he ever has the chance.”

My heartbeat skipped erratically, as if it was playing a manic game of hopscotch. For a moment, my instinct was to recoil from him with disgust by what he had just suggested. I couldn’t fathom how the compassionate and caring Rev could also be a coldhearted killer.

Rev stared down at his hands. “I’m sorry if I disappoint you, but that’s who I am. I will protect what’s important to me. You need to understand that.” From the look of determination that was etched across his handsome features, I knew he spoke the absolute truth.

I shook my head. “Regardless of what you say you are, I could never let you do that. If you got caught, you would go to jail because of me.”

“It would be worth it to end the life of such an odious creature. Mendoza doesn’t deserve to live.”

Although I wanted Mendoza dead even more than Rev did, it was still hard hearing him say the words. Anxiety ricocheted through me, and before I could stop myself, I blurted, “But if you went to jail, then I wouldn’t get to be with you anymore!”

Rev’s smile once again sent my heart skipping, and it amazed me how quickly he could shift from intimidating to sweet and tender. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“But if you—”

“I won’t get caught.”

“How can you possibly believe that?”

“Just trust me.”

“Rev—”

“Because I’ve done it before.”

My brows furrowed in confusion.

He shook his head slowly back and forth as if he were trying to get me to see the light. “I’ve killed before, and I’ll kill again.”

A shudder ran through me at his words. My savior couldn’t be so soulless. He saved lives; he didn’t take them. He dried my tears and comforted me, which wasn’t part of a killer’s profile. With my stomach roiling in revulsion, I argued, “No . . . no, you’re not like that.”

“But I am.” He exhaled a breath that sounded tormented. “Right now, in your current frame of mind, it’s easy for you to think of me as only a knight in shining armor. But that’s just make-believe.”

About the Author

Katie Ashley is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Proposition Series, Runaway Train series, and several New Adult and Young Adult titles. She spent the last eleven years teaching both middle and high school English, but is now a full-time writer and currently lives outside of Atlanta.

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Review: Vicious Cycle by Katie Ashley

Posted October 1, 2015 by Rowena in Reviews | 3 Comments

Review: Vicious Cycle by Katie AshleyVicious Cycle by Katie Ashley
Series: Vicious Cycle #1
Also in this series: Redemption Road
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: June 2nd 2015
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
Series Rating: two-stars

New York Times bestselling author Katie Ashley revs up the danger and sexual tension in her brand-new Vicious Cycle romance series.

Deacon Malloy’s life is dedicated to the Hells Raiders motorcycle club. Tough, hard, and fast with his fists, he serves the group as sergeant at arms. But his devil-may-care approach to life is thrown for a loop when the five-year-old daughter he never knew existed lands on the club steps.

Alexandra Evans is devoted to all her students—but there’s always been something about Willow Malloy that tugs at her heart. There’s an aura of sadness about her, a girl in need of all the love Alexandra can give. When Willow stops coming to school, Alexandra’s search leads to a clubhouse full of bikers…and a father hell-bent on keeping his daughter always within sight.

The moment Deacon sees Alexandra, he has to have her in his bed—and he’s never met a woman yet who couldn’t be persuaded. No matter how attracted she is to Deacon, Alexandra refuses to be just another conquest. But it’s Deacon himself who could be seduced—into a brighter future for himself, his daughter, and the woman he’s falling for against all odds.

I’m a huge fan of Sons of Anarchy and so I knew that I was going to get into the MC romances, especially when Holly sold me on other MC romances. I was looking forward to reading this series because the covers were hot and the blurbs sounded good.

Sigh.

This review is going to be hard for me to write because while there were things that I enjoyed, for the most part, I didn’t like it.

So this book follows David “Deacon” Malloy as he falls in love with his daughter’s teacher, Alexandra Evans. Deacon is a hard core biker who lives his life hard. He works hard and he plays even harder. Alex grew up with her Aunt and Uncle after her parents were killed in an accident. She’s got nothing in common with Deacon or anyone on the MC compound but she’s worried about Willow, a student in her class that is showing tremendous potential. Willow hasn’t been in a school for almost a week and it’s time to go and meet Willow’s father and have a talk about what’s going on with Willow.

When the book first starts Deacon didn’t know he had a five year old daughter. He meets her and his world is thrown off course. He’s got a lot going on but his family won’t let him not take responsibility for the little girl and you see him come to love the heck out of that little girl. Being the Sergeant at Arms for the Hell’s Raiders Motorcycle Club, he’s seem some pretty bad things. Hell, he’s done some pretty bad things so he’s got no experience with little girls. He doesn’t know how to be tender but when Willow’s nosy teacher starts coming around, she changes him a little bit at a time.

Based on what I’ve already said about the book, you would think that I enjoyed the book but holy cow…both Deacon and Alex got on my hot damn nerves throughout the entire book. They kept making decisions and doing things that pissed me off. Putting themselves in danger, saying and doing stupid things to each other that after a while, I stopped caring about them.

I did like Willow though. I liked Mama Beth. I liked Case and Kim. I liked seeing everyone come together when Deacon and Alex needed them. I am mighty curious about Rev and Bishop. Mostly Bishop. I liked his flirty attitude toward…well, everyone. He seems like a fun guy to get to know.

The romance between Deacon and Alex and then Deacon and Alex themselves found every nerve in my body and stomped over all of them. I stayed frustrated with the both of them throughout the whole thing. I thought that Alex’s plan at the end was stupid. I thought the games she played to “teach” Deacon a lesson were stupid and don’t even get me started with Deacon. I got that he was a bad ass. I didn’t need the first meeting scene with Alex to prove it. The things he thought and the things he did made me want to punch him. He just wasn’t very likable to me and while I hated him less in the end, I still didn’t necessarily like him.

Grade: 1.5 out of 5

This book is available from NAL Trade. You can purchase it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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Guest Review: Vicious Cycle by Katie Ashley

Posted June 15, 2015 by Tracy in Reviews | 0 Comments

Guest Review: Vicious Cycle by Katie AshleyReviewer: Tracy
Vicious Cycle by Katie Ashley
Series: Vicious Cylce #1
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: June 2nd 2015
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
three-stars
Series Rating: three-stars

Deacon Malloy’s life is dedicated to the Hells Raiders motorcycle club. Tough, hard, and fast with his fists, he serves the group as sergeant at arms. But his devil-may-care approach to life is thrown for a loop when the five-year-old daughter he never knew existed lands on the club steps.

Alexandra Evans is devoted to all her students—but there’s always been something about Willow Malloy that tugs at her heart. There’s an aura of sadness about her, a girl in need of all the love Alexandra can give. When Willow stops coming to school, Alexandra’s search leads to a clubhouse full of bikers…and a father hell-bent on keeping his daughter always within sight.

The moment Deacon sees Alexandra, he has to have her in his bed—and he’s never met a woman yet who couldn’t be persuaded. No matter how attracted she is to Deacon, Alexandra refuses to be just another conquest. But it’s Deacon himself who could be seduced—into a brighter future for himself, his daughter, and the woman he’s falling for against all odds.

Tracy’s review of Vicious Cycle by Katie Ashley

Deacon is the Sergeant at Arms of the Hell’s Raiders MC. He loves what he does and isn’t looking for anything with a woman to soften him up. Of course life has a way of crashing in on you when you least expect it and that’s what happened to Deacon. His 5 year old daughter, Willow, the one he never even knew existed, showed up at the clubhouse when her mother was killed. Deacon’s mother helps out with her care as Deacon doesn’t know what to do with her. When her kindergarten teacher, Alex, shows up concerned that Willow hasn’t been at school for more than three days Deacon thinks she’s someone else and practically molests her.

It turns out that Deacon is concerned for Willow as there have been threats against her – a rival club trying to get to Deacon – and he plans on keeping the child home until the threat is removed. Alex and Deacon work out their differences and Alex agrees to home school Willow until the threat is gone.

As Alex and Deacon spend more time together they seem to be more attracted to each other but the people who are trying to get to Deacon won’t stop at Willow – they go after Alex as well. Once Alex has been hurt Deacon realizes that he cares more for her than he thought but their different lives might be the thing that ends up keeping them apart.

This is my first Katie Ashley book and it was a good read. I had some issues with Deacon and the end of the story as well as a few others but in general it was a decent book.

Alex was a strong character but overall pretty lackluster. I’m not sure how the author wanted us to see this heroine but I’m pretty sure I didn’t grasped her entirely. She was a kindergarten teacher and someone who I would never in a million years see with a biker, especially after knowing some of the things he’d done. He wasn’t a kind and loving person and I guess I didn’t see what she saw in him.

Deacon could be a good guy but for the most part – and for most of the book – he wasn’t. He didn’t know what to do with Willow, which was understandable, but I thought by the end of the book we would have seen some growth in that department and we didn’t. Deacon building a dance studio in the basement for her, in my eyes, was all about Alex and watching her dance and making her feel comfortable – not Willow. I guess I thought if the author was going to bring the child into the picture that we should have seen some more tolerance and love on Deacon’s part and that just never happened.

The secondary characters were mostly Deacon’s family, his mother, Mama Beth, and his brothers, Bishop and Rev who I actually liked quite a bit. Bishop was portrayed as a ladies man/manwhore but he seemed like a good guy and not quite so rough and gritty as Deacon. Rev. was just a big teddy bear and I’m looking forward to reading about him.

IMHO Ashley really went for the more authentic, rough, violent aspect of the biker world which didn’t me quite speak to me like other biker novels have done in the past. While I didn’t love this book I’ll be reading the next in the series to see how that one pans out.

Rating: 3.25 out of 5

This title is available from NAL. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

three-stars

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