Review: Review: Forever Ride by Chelsea Camaron
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 16, 2014
Forever Ride is the second in Chelsea Camaron’s Hellion series. A southern dipped MC series set in the coastal states of North and South Carolina; we are taken on a long hard ride as the Hellions seek to bring two loved ones back into the fold. Heavily character driven, the story is told by our protagonists-Sass and Tank- in alternating chapters. It’s steady pacing and smooth flow engages you right off the bat and puts you front in center into the Hellion compound and their lives. It alternates between the past and the present as our hero and heroine tell us how they came to be at the crossroads they are at now.Their story started in One Ride when a bold Sass makes a play for the Hellion’s self proclaimed playboy, Tank, only to find that what she wants doesn’t factor into his lifestyle. Angry at his games and tired of the life that she feels is deadly, Sass turns her back on her family and finds herself a man who is as different as you can get. Forever Ride picks up with Tank in a coma and Sass trying to live in both worlds.The set up of this storyline is interesting in that Sass and Tank are essentially separated for a majority of the book. It allows readers to get an intimate look at how Tank and Sass feel about each other, their lives, and the events that led them to this point. It also allows them to deal with their individual baggage. Sass is a strong woman but in her haste to live a clean life, free of the MC, she inadvertently places herself in a prison of her own making. She becomes the one thing that she left the MC to avoid becoming-a victim.Tank’s prison is medical based but his mind is going a hundred miles a minute. Looking into death’s eyes has had a radical effect on him. He sees the mistakes he’s made concerning his life and his rough handling of Sass. Like Sass, his past colored his views of the present. Hearing her voice is the only thing that keeps him trying to awake-if only to beg for a second chance.These two extremely stubborn people have a tough road to travel to learn to forgive one another and themselves but Camaron stays true to their journey. My few qualms were that the strong, intelligent, take no bs woman we saw in book one was buried under a mound of vulnerability and low self esteem. I found it hard to buy in to the notion that her need to be safe would turn her into a doormat. She had a strong friend and family base so her acquiescence to Nick made no sense. The caricature portrayal of Nick, Sass’ boyfriend, was also strange. I couldn’t take him as an actual threat because he was ridiculously over the top.The ending comes quickly and rather painlessly as Tank goes on the offensive and gets his woman. Sass finally shows us the fire from book one in the very end. Everything wraps up nice and a little too neat with an epilogue that reassures us that our couple has made it. Over all, I enjoyed Forever Ride. A romantic contemporary that played heavily on the contemporary in the world of bikers and the women who try and tame them. Milder than the average MC story, it still engages with personable characters, an interesting world, and promises of more to come. I am looking forward to book three, Merciless Ride, which is Tessie’s story. We met a new Hellion in here and from the small excerpt I read, he looks to be yummy. Set to release September 8, 2014.RATING: C+