Ride Me Hard by Shari Slade (The Devil's Host MC, Book 1)
04/30/2015
Star is waitress at dead-end diner. She hates her job and is close to losing her apartment. Star has no one good in her life, her boss is awful, her cousin a low-life and the local cop keeps his eye on her not because he wants to protect her but because he wants to feel her up. In walks Noah, big, bad bruiser and enforcer for the Devil's Host MC. Everything about him signals danger and destruction but Star is fascinated even as she comes close to being paralyzed with fear. He is not there for Star, but for her cousin who owes debts to his club. When her cousin runs out the backdoor, Star is left behind alone.
Ride Me Hard is first of a projected five installment biker-romance serial following the same couple with a HEA at the end. The first story was short but action packed. Slade uses many familiar biker tropes to good effect and introduces a heroine that is believable even as she makes extremely risky choices.
Star's lack of self-preservation instinct is convincingly presented as being fueled by having nothing to lose and her desire & attraction to Noah. Noah is harder to pin down. Protective but undeniably dangerous, the king of mixed messages, reassuring her one minute, saying something scary to his club brother the next and Star doesn't know if she can trust him. Whether Star has misread Noah, and what he plans to do with her beyond continuing to sex her up are questions left to be resolved in the next installments.
I thought it this was great start, interesting and hot, establishing the stakes and the characters well and I liked what I read enough that I will return for more.
I received a review copy of Ride me Hard from the author Shari Slade.
Ride Me Hard will be available at all the usual places on May 1st.