Review: Shade and Lily - the story feels right
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 24, 2014
I've read all The Last Riders books as they came out, and Shade and Lily have been part of the story since the first book.  To be ready for this one, I also read the first two VIP series books since other reviewers were saying that a surprise about Lily popped up in those two books.  I also read Sex Pistol's book since she's Diamond's sister, who is married to Know from The Last Riders. I'm glad I did all that reading before reading Shade's Fall.This is quite a complicated story based on complex characters.  Lily was abused - we knew that something had happened in her past - and the Last Rider books gave a bit of information, and the VIP ones gave a bit more.  But we learn the real entire story in Shade's Fall, and it isn't pretty.Shade has wanted Lily since he first saw her, but he's also definitely in love with her as well.  Because he's not getting anywhere and because he's not happy with how no one (including her sister and her therapist) has helped her work on the abuse problems from her past, he takes things into his own hands.  He uses a D/s relationship in a way that he thinks is going to help her.  At all times, she has the ability to go to a safe place and be safe.  It's tough and uncomfortable going through this along with her, but it does allow her to start working out some of the things that have seriously affected her.Along with dealing with Lily's issues, there is also HOT, HOT, HOT sex with an alpha biker. Lily, because of the past abuse and also because she is quite religious now, isn't comfortable with the open sex of the Last Riders.  We still see the group's sexual behaviors, but Shade handles Lily with kid gloves for a long while with regard to the whole gang and their Friday parties/sexual habits. Knox (and Diamond), with his tendency towards getting hot through voyeurism, plays a big part in one of the scenes.I loved seeing all the other characters - Beth and Razer, Pastor Dean, Vida and Sawyer and the Predators MC.  I've been invested in this story for a while, and I was glad to be able to read it right after it came out. But you will definitely want to read all the other books before starting this one, or you'll be very lost.There are a few surprises in Shade's Fall that probably mean there will be more books to take care of those.  Looking forward to what I hope will be Dean and Willa's story, Rachel's (and King's??) story, and maybe even one for Train and Killyama.The writing itself is so much better than in the first two of the Last Riders' books - I also saw this in the two VIP books and the Sex Piston book.  There is obviously some good editing going on now, and I am so happy about that because I think her books will now be able to command even a broader audience.