Review: Great potential!
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 28, 2013
This book was very good...not great, but the series has promise.Let's get to the basics: Satisfying HEA with a yummy epilogue, no cheating, his/her POV, steamy sex scenes, a few "F" words used sparingly and no words more offensive than the "F" word (no "p" words used), action scenes, a hot alpha male who is completely into the heroine, very little if any misspelled words or "then" and "than" kind of stuff, and great promise for an enjoyable series.**Spoilers**Denise Cunningham is a single mom of 13 year old twins (boy and girl)raising them alone without any assistance from anyone. She's essentially on her own, has lost her good paying job, is working part-time temporary job, has just received notification her house is in foreclosure, and she's completely broke. When she agrees to cover Roni's (co-worker) shift, she jumps onto the radar of the local motorcycle club (Heaven Hill MC) and they decide to recruit her to do their dirty work. Liam Walker, VP of the MC and son of the president, is against it in the beginning, but he has no choice but to cave, though he vows, repeatedly, to keep her safe.At first, I completely got why Denise would take the job--her children's welfare are her primary reason and she feels she has no choice. But this is where it started to lose me and I couldn't figure out why until I'd finished the book. The author had a good start on creating three-dimensional characters, especially with Denise and Liam, but fell short in the motivation department, which resulted in some falty characterization unfortunately.For instance, one of Denise's most important character traits was her devotion to her children and their safety, yet she continually allowed them to be put into danger. Denise kept telling any who would listen that she trusted Liam to keep them safe and that's why she stayed with him. Why would she trust him? He's a criminal and just because he is nice to her and appears gentlemanly at times is not enough motivation, in my opinion, to put my children's lives in his hands. It's obvious she's attracted to him and I could certainly understand it if she was in love with him, but she's not at first. There is some lack of glue here that would make her be unable to leave him. I know...I know, Liam does state that the other MCs will kill her because she's attached to him, but even that doesn't ring true for me, not with the way it was played out.Although I really tried to like Liam and I did, more so in the end, I felt he had an even greater potential for being a three-dimensional character than Denise because of his devotion to the club and the fact that he really wanted to do the right thing and be a good man. In the very first scene between Denise, Liam, and William (Liam's father), William slapped her so hard she had bruises on her face. Liam stood there and didn't retaliate, though he did give his dad a parting warning, but I had trouble believing it. I lost respect for Liam then and there and had a hard time getting it back. I would've much rather seen him slam a fist into his dad's face and his dad lay him out, then at least he would've tried to protect her and it would've shown Denise that her hero was willing to go up against the big-bad for her.The last third of the book appeared rushed and, for the life of me, I couldn't imagine why Denise would be talking smack to a man who had just kidnapped her, a man the club believes is responsible for trying to take them down and severely beating and raping someone close to Denise. Shouldn't she be afraid? Scared out of her every-loving mind? This man is supposed to be DANGEROUS and she's being snarky and baiting him. Once again...character and motivation. I can understand why the author would want her to appear strong and that's fine, but Denise was almost flippant about it. And the one line in that scene where she's thinking she may be able to get some good information that the club could use completely blew me away!!! WHY??? Listen, girlfriend, this man could KILL YOU and you're thinking about the welfare of the motorcycle club. What about your children? All they have is you!Despite a few frustraing moments, there were some wonderful parts of the book that I enjoyed. What few scenes there were between Liam and Denise's children were my favorite. He interacted well with them. Drew, Denise's 13 year old son, has the makings of a true alpha hero and I felt the author wrote his character well (what little we saw of him). The love scenes were steamy and the couple's chemistry exploded during those tender and sexual moments. It was clear that Liam was very into Denise and her vulnerability shown forth, a perfect contrast to his strength and devotion. I loved that he thought she was "cute" and even said it a few times. He reached out and held her hand a lot, which made me want to sigh. There was no doubt Liam was extremely dangerous, but his tenderness towards Denise and her children was also a great contrast to the hard life he lived. He had kill and kills again in the book--but,in his world, the killings are justified.The book was entertaining and had engaging moments. I'm not unhappy I purchased it and will probably purchase the second in the series because Tyler and Meridith seem interesting. They have amazing chemistry, more so than Denise and Liam, actually, and there's a history between them. A painful history that is very intriguing.Overall, I would recommend this book with a caveat that the story is flawed, but is still an enjoyable read.