Hell for Leather

TEST

The concept of good guy tough biker dudes totally had me excited so I waded into this book hoping for a fun action-adventure romance. What I got instead was a big, fat disappointment.

The Black Knights Inc is a covert, privately run government defense company. The Knights assist Uncle Sam in gathering intelligence and providing the muscle when operations call for it, all in the guise of a motorcycle club. Former FBI agent Bryan McMillan, aka Mac, is an operator with a soft spot for Delilah Fairchild, the lady who owns the biker bar the guys hang around. The attraction is mutual, however they have never acted on it.

But the dynamic between them is changed when Delilah’s uncle Theo goes missing and she needs help tracking him down. Mac and the Knights agree to help her. Their search leads them to a virtually abandoned town where a terrorist cell is holding her uncle hostage. The danger surrounding them is amplified when Theo’s captors decide to use his beloved niece to make him talk.

Honestly the whole novel read like Brockmann fanfic to me, right down to the Izzy clone (named…drum roll please…Ozzie) and the couple desperately trying to be Sam and Alyssa and failing. I didn’t feel like there was any chemistry between the characters, which made all the mental lusting even more tedious. This is not helped at all by Mac’s “poor me” routine wherein he decides that he cannot be with Delilah because he can’t offer her more than a roll in the hay and he was hurt by a woman in the past. It’s mix and match romance tropes in here. In Delilah’s own words: “Jesus, Mac,” she rolled her eyes. “It’s like you’re a walking cliche.” You said it, sister.

Though Mac’s character is over the top and annoyed me with his posturing and mental lusting, the writing is fairly engaging and kept me interested in the story. The plot moves quickly, especially once the group discovers Theo’s location and moves to save him. There’s plenty of action and the terrorist leader is characterized well.

But when Mac and Delilah finally do the deed after all the lusting some of the descriptions are really bad. Ridiculously bad. I laughed out loud when his peen was described as “violently red.” I’m not sure “violent” as a description of genitalia is ever called for. My laughter soon turned to cries of dismay as “the head of him was plump, weeping, twitching beneath her ravenous, startled gaze.” Please don’t cry, peepee. It’ll all be ok. Cockzilla doesn’t listen though and soon she feels “the tip pressed tight against the hard entrance to her womb.” Ouch. At this point I’d say her lady bits have a good excuse to be violent, but she seems to enjoy it. She doesn’t stop him and soon she experiences “the angry red thrust of his once more fully erect penis.” I have no idea just what has his tallywhacker so ticked off, but this is so not sexy to me. At all.

Even though I was pulled into the story and felt invested in the search for Uncle Theo, the lack of chemistry or relationship development between the hero and heroine combined with some of the most ludicrous descriptions of sexual congress I’ve read recently dictates that I cannot give this book a recommendation. Hell for Leather is part of a series, but can be read on its own. Based on my reading experience with this one, it’s doubtful I’ll follow the series further.

Reviewed by Heather Stanton

Grade: C-

Book Type: Romantic Suspense

Sensuality: Hot

Review Date: 25/07/14

Publication Date: 2014/05

Recent Comments …

  1. excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.

I read romance of any sub-genre, but particularly love contemporaries. Well-written stories of any variety interest me though and I'm always on the hunt for my next favorite book. I love smart-mouthed heroines and tortured heroes, unusual time periods and just about anything medieval. On a personal note, I'm a political junkie, Cushing's Disease survivor, mom to 11 rescued dogs and too many cats to actually count.

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