Motorcycle Man by Kristen Ashley

4 Stars

I read this book in spurts.  I enjoyed the beginning, then between 25-50% it dragged then I really enjoyed the last half.   But between 25-50% I would just read some then read something else, then come back to it.  I am glad that I finished it. 

Tack “Kane” Allen is the president/leader of the Chaos Motorcycle club.  We met his first in Mystery Man, and he also showed up again in Law Man.  He first meets Tyra at a Chaos party where they hit it off and end up getting it on.  But then Tack bursts Tyra’s “dream man” bubble by kicking her out and sending her on her way. 

Also, Tyra is Tack’s new office manager.  She knew this before hand, but Tack did not, and he doesn’t date people who work for him.  He wants to fire her and she gets mad and insists on staying (although at this point she believes he is a big jerk and wants nothing to do with him).  Also at this point, Tack changes his mind and decides that Tyra is a keeper. 

As with all books in this series, the heroine is under siege.  In this book, it is not her crap that is drawing the attention.  It is either 1.) her best friends fiancé (kidnapping by association) or 2.) Tack himself.  Tyra ends up taken multiple times.  I actually love those parts.  Not that I like for women to be kidnapped or beaten or stabbed, but I love how the KA heroes go crazy without their women and do anything to get them back.  My only complaint is that the actual action last about ten seconds.  Tack’s boys drew the fire away from him, he went in and bang, bang and the action is over.  I want some fighting or nasty villain dialogue in which Tack can smack him down. 

I loved that Hawk, Mitch and Brock were all in this and willing to do anything to help Tack get Tyra back.  We even Saw Hector and Sadie once too!  I love the “posse”, but it is obvious these girls aren’t as close as the Rock Chicks.  I am excited that Shy and Tabby get their own book and that means the start of a new series. 

Favorite Quote:

Hmmm…this is harder than usual.  I went through my clippings and I only had two from motorcycle man and neither were appropriate for a blog.  I also remembered that Tack and Tyra would make grand proclamations of love and it got old because people don’t talk like that. 

Mystery Man by Kristen Ashley (Dream Man Series #1)

So many people have raved about Kristen Ashley's books and I finally decided to read one. I was blown away. I'm still living in Cabe and Gwen's world.

Summary:
Gwendolyn Piper Kidd is a book editor. She went through an ugly divorce. She loves her father and step-mother. One night, she meets a man in a bar and he goes home with her. She doesn't get his name and he is gone by the morning. Then this continues to happen for the next 1.5 years! No name, gone by the morning.

One of Gwen's sister's friends (friend's name is Darla, sister's name is Ginger) shows up on Gwen's door and freaks Gwen out. Ginger is in trouble (again). Gwen tries to figure out what is happening and try to help and in the process puts herself in the line of fire. At this point, Gwen's mystery man shows up and demands that Gwen drop the Ginger stuff. Mystery man starts investing much more time in Gwen that slipping in at night.

The rest of the book is about the adventure of trying to help Ginger while keeping Gwen safe and Gwen and mystery man's growing relationship.

Mystery man (Cabe "Hawk" Delgado) is the ultimate alpha male. I liked this more than I thought I would. I thought I would be annoyed, but Kristen Ashley did it in such a way that it was almost endearing. He always referred to Gwen as "babe". When Gwen would be upset and ask Hawk a question, sometimes his entire answer was, "babe". This made me laugh! I did like that Hawk called her "babe," but it got old that everyone seemed to called everyone else, "babe". One person using that term can be funny and just part of their personality, but everyone was too much.

I read this one in three days. I can't wait to read the next one!

Wild Man by Kristen Ashley (Dream Man #2)

This booked was lended to me on kindle. I don't own it, and I didn't love it enough to want to buy it after reading it. Not my favorite KA book. It took me a while to finish it, and I kept moving on to other books, but I just couldn't leave this wounded soldier behind so I finally got it finished. I was glad it wasn't as long as other KA books.

I didn't feel like there was a lot of action in this book. In Mystery Man, there was constantly something happening to Gwen. Most of the action that happened to the heroine, Tess, happened before we ever meet her. A little drama at the beginning and then a few pages at the end.

Not my favorite hero...

I like the name "Brock Lucus". It's a good name. However, we met Brock when he was undercover in Mystery Man. He was having sex with Darla who by all accounts was nasty and he hated every minute of it, but he did it for his undercover case he was working on. That didn't set well with me when I read Mystery Man, but then I found out Brock was the hero for the next book in this series, then it really didn't sit well. Then the other part that I didn't like Brock from Mystery Man was that he had Gwen kidnapped. Those things do not add up to someone that I want to read about! He was fine in this book, but I will always have Darla in my head when I think of Brock.

I did like the idea of Brock working on Tess as part of the undercover deal and falling in love with her and her finding out that he was undercover! That was the best part of the book, however, it happened right in the beginning, then Tess went off by herself for three or four months, then Brock walks back into her kitchen and her life and basically tells Tess to get over it. He should have had to work for it a lot longer, but I get that KA was designing a heroine that didn't play games and was super sweet, but she just got over it instantly, and then she got over learning about Darla instantly.

Both of their ex's are people you just love to hate although Olivia takes the cakes with that one. I was sooo relieved that we didn't have to deal with Brock buying into all her conniving schemes! There was only once when you question whether Brock is buying that crap.

I liked Brock's family, his boys, his brother's-in-law (maybe more than his sisters). I liked that we got glimpses of Hawk, Mitch, Hank, Vance and Hector. Not enough because I loved all of them more than Brock.

Law man by Kristen Ashley (Dream Man #3)

4 stars

Super Short Summary:
Detective Mitchell James Lawson (love that name) lives across the hall from Marabele Jolene Hanover. Mitch has had his eye on Mara and takes his shot with her when her faucet is leaking and she needs some manly help to fix it. Mara is pathologically shy and has also had her eye on Mitch for years (for four years to be exact!) and has watched women come and go from his apartment the whole time. The problem is that she believes she is a 2.5. Mara has a point system for everyone, it is firstly based on looks then personality, etc once she knows someone, and Mitch is a solid 10.5. So in Mara World, Mitch would never be interested in Mara. The drama keeps coming as Mara's cousin's kids call her from a convenient store because they are hungry and Mara's deadbeat cousin has no food, no money, no phone and is strung out of his gourd. Thus ensues the battle to get the kids out of that situation, and get Mara and Mitch on the same page. The Trailer Trash Twins (aka Mara's mom and aunt) make many appearances and while I must say some of KA's descriptions get a little long and I don't care, the descriptions for the Trailer Trash Twins was perfect! I could absolutely picture those two nasties in my head!

Cons:
KA's books tend to be a bit lengthy and towards the end I started skimming sections just looking for when they were talking. There is a lot of descriptions for peoples clothes, apartments, and tons of examining of feelings that sometimes feels redundant. I never ever skim books, but I did towards the end of this one.

Mara wasn't my favorite KA heroine, but she wasn't my least favorite either. Mitch is a lot like Hank Nightingale, but I liked Hank better. I didn't feel like I got to know Mitch quite as well as some of the other KA hero's.

The real drama with Tack and the Russian mob doesn't happen until the very end and I always wish that part lasted a little longer.

All's well that ends well and KA's books always end well! I loved, loved, loved the epilogue. In fact, I think this was my favorite epilogue that KA has written. Bud and the Rockies! And the way Mitch acted with grown up Billie and her shorts was right on!

Since I read this long winded book in ~3 days, I would say overall, I loved it!

Favorite Quote (this one makes me chuckle everytime I read it):

"But now I wondered if he'd think he'd walked into a Two Point Five setting the mood for an illegal maneuver on a Ten Point Five."  --Mara