Bookish Bluebird: author: kristen ashley

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Review: RIDE STEADY by Kristen Ashley

Title: Ride Steady

Author: Kristen Ashley
Chaos #3
Publisher: Forever

Publication Date: June 30, 2015

The ride of her life...

Once upon a time, Carissa Teodoro believed in happy endings. Money, marriage, motherhood: everything came easy—until she woke up to the ugly truth about her Prince Charming. Now a struggling, single mom and stranded by a flat tire, Carissa's pondering her mistakes when a vaguely familiar knight rides to her rescue on a ton of horsepower.

Climb on and hold tight...

In high school, Carson Steele was a bad boy loner who put Carissa on a pedestal where she stayed far beyond his reach. Today, he's the hard-bodied biker known only as Joker, and from the way Carissa's acting, it's clear she's falling fast. While catching her is irresistible, knowing what to do with her is a different story. A good girl like Carissa is the least likely fit with the Chaos Motorcycle Club. Too bad holding back is so damn hard. Now, as Joker's secrets are revealed and an outside threat endangers the club, Joker must decided whether to ride steady with Carissa—or ride away forever...

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"It was always you. Only you.

I was into you back then Carissa, in a big fuckin' way... And that hasn't changed."

Second chance romance at its best. Ride Steady effectively shot me in the heart and revived my 'must-read-all-KA-books' mentality after a very long KA hiatus. Joker and Carissa's story had everything I love in contemporary romance: family emphasis, endearing friendships, heart-warming romance, sexiness, an alpha male that's alpha in all the right ways, and a heroine that I wholeheartedly rooted for. I thought Shy was my number one biker boyfriend in the Chaos series, but Joker stole my heart and had me swooning to no end. [Side ramble: What is with all these hot biker names? Like Carson "Joker" Steele...*melts*]

Monday, August 18, 2014

Review: THE PROMISE by Kristen Ashley

Title: The Promise

Author: Kristen Ashley

Since his brother's death, Benny Bianchi has been nursing his grudge against the woman he thinks led to his brother's downfall. He does this to bury the feelings he has for Francesca Concetti, his brother's girl. But when Frankie takes a bullet while on the run with Benny's cousin's woman, Benny has to face those feelings.

The problem is Frankie has decided she's paid her penance. Penance she didn't deserve to pay. She's done with Benny and the Bianchi family. She's starting a new life away from Chicago and her heartbreaking history.

Benny has decided differently.

But Frankie has more demons she's battling. Demons Benny wants to help her face. But life has landed so many hard knocks on Frankie she's terrified of believing in the promise of Benny Bianchi and the good life he's offering.

Frankie's new life leads her to The 'Burg, where Benny has ties, and she finds she not only hasn't succeeded in getting away, she doesn't want to.

"You were mine, even when you were his."

The Promise was one of my highly anticipated books after Frankie and Benny were first introduced in At Peace (book 2 of The ‘Burg series). Unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling it. Something about their relationship fell flat for me. I still enjoyed it though, especially with all the cameos!

In At Peace, Frankie was this incredibly bad-ass woman who didn't take shit from anyone. Then in The Promise it was like she lost that side of her completely. On the other hand, I liked Benny. He was protective and had Frankie's back when it came to her crappy family (excluding Cat, I liked her too). I felt the fixing of the breach with the Bianchis was simple and that they accepted Benny and Frankie's relationship too easily, I would've liked for those points to have been discussed some more. I LOVED ALL THE CAMEOS.

"God doesn't care who you let in there, just as long as the feelin's are honest when

you let him in."

KA epilogues make my heart all warm and fluttery, this one was no exception. I liked how we ended in Theresa's pov, a great tie-in with the ending of At Peace. I'm really looking forward to the next book. I want Cheryl to have an HEA, and if Ethan is happy too, that's even better!

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