Review: Pretty good start to the series :)
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 6, 2014
3.5-4 starsThis was a pretty good story. I liked Dawg and Edie and found their story interesting. This is the first story I've read by this author. Based off this, I plan to try the next book in the series (which I borrowed for free from Amazon Prime).FYI - There is marijuana use in this story. It's not heavy in the story but if reading about people smoking a joint every once in a while bothers you then you may not want to read this book.Edie is a young woman with a damaged past. She grew up under the thumb of a very controlling and abusive father and she killed him when his threats finally went too far. Edie was cleared of charges, as it was clear what her father had put her through but she spent a lot of time recovering. For years, Edie has been traveling around the world trying to discover herself and heal as much as she can. Edie has a sister, Melanie, who is 15 years older than her. While Edie has been traveling, Melanie emailed her regularly to tell her about her life in an effort to try to keep in touch and let Edie know she always has a home to return to. After 6 years of traveling, Edie finally decides it's time to go home.Dawg is a good guy and a patched member of the Marauders MC. His dad was actually a founding member and president of his chapter of the MC but Dawg went to the Greenville chapter of the MC so he could earn his place just like any other prospect and without the preference of people he's grown up around. As his name indicates, Dawg is a big man-whore. He sleeps with many girls, sometimes in 2s and 3s and rarely even knows their names. If he does, he doesn't remember them for long.Edie knows from her sister's emails that she's married to the president of the Greenville chapter of the Marauder's MC, Brick, and they have a daughter together and are raising his 2 sons from a previous marriage. Edie shows up at the MC club/garage the day after Melanie's 40th birthday. She'd been aiming to get there for her birthday but got held up. They have a happy reunion and Edie's able to stay in a guest room and get settled in as part of the family. There's some mention of her background but not much is mentioned and most people just know that Edie has been traveling for years. Everyone in the MC is curious but it's made clear that she's family and off limit's. Dawg has been gone for a bit and just gets back to the MC the day before a cookout. When he gets to the cookout he focuses on Edie but she shows a definite disinterest and blows him off. He's still curious about her but soon gets the news that she's off limits. Even though he knows he can't sleep with her, Dawg can't help trying to learn more about Edie but he has limited success. Edie finds Dawg attractive but isn't interested in being a notch in his bed post and decides it's best to stay away from him. She actually succeeds for a while but he friendship with the "grandfather" of the MC, Vasco, ends up bringing her in to more contact with Dawg. Although she tries to stay neutral to Dawg, figuring he'll never change, Vasco encourages her not to write him off yet. Dawg is actually struggling because he finds that he actually likes Edie. He wants her but is worried that he'll sleep with her and still want other women and he doesn't want to hurt Edie so he has a hard time figuring out if he can trust himself and the feelings he's starting to feel for her. Edie and Dawg don't start out as lover but instead end up spending more and more time as friends and becoming close that way.Unfortunately, a tragedy hits that affects both Edie and Dawg deeply and in their shared grief they end up sleeping together. After Edia falls asleep, Dawg freaks out, thinking he took advantage of Edie in her grief and in a huge bout of relationship stupidity, he leaves her bed in the night so she wakes alone and doesn't contact her for days. By the time he tries, she's taken off to see friends overseas. Melanie isn't happy about the problems between Dawg and Edie and Brick convinces Dawg that when Edie comes back, he needs to back off for a while and give Edie a chance to seek him out. The problem is that Edie doesn't and instead just decided to wallow in her misery, even after Dawg breaks down and finds Edie long enough to apologize and ask her to forgive him. This doesn't seem very likely but when Dawg experiences another loss, Edie finally lets go of things and gives him another chance. Dawg takes it with both hands and holds on, now convinced that she's enough for him because of how much he missed her while they weren't talking. They start seeing each other but they have issues from Melanie because she's unwilling to let things go in regards the Edie's problems with Dawg and Melanie still being convinced he's bad for her sister. This issue gets resolved but there are other conflicts that Edie and Dawg have to figure out how to deal with as their relationship progresses, and pretty much all of these are on Edie's side. Once Dawg gets Edie back, he doesn't fool around about wanting her...if anything he wants her too much and this causes Edie to balk at times. While Edie and Dawg are dealing with their relationship issues, the MC has issue with a local gang trying to take them down in an effort to take over their pot trade. Things get rather stressful at times and the club even has to go on lockdown while some things were going down. Through it all, Edie seems to handle everything well and once the danger is passed, Dawg asks Edie to be his old lady and tells her about the club "business". Unfortunately, this almost sends her running again but the timely intervention from Brick helped her deal with things. Edie decides to stick around and she and Dawg stay together, eventually deciding to get married and planning out their HEA.Overall, this was a pretty enjoyable story. I liked the story and liked the characters (including the secondary ones). For someone that starts out a real man-whore, I really liked Dawg and thought he was great outside of his one big moment of stupidity. I liked Edie as well. She had a rough background so I could understand her having issues (because of her past) but I didn't like the fact that she seemed to have problems getting past her bad behavior and instead kept repeating it over and over...like her tenancy to run away when things went wrong with Dawg. Even in the end of the story it indicates that she might still run but would always come back. She would never fight things out, she'd just run and come back sorry and sweet. I don't know...I liked Edie but had issues with some of her behavior. Regardless, I was happy with the way things turned out and will be reading the next book in the series. I'd recommend this book.