Still Standing, an all-new emotional and fiery MC romance from New York Times bestselling author Kristen Ashley, is available now!
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Blurb
When Clara Delany walks into the Aces High Motorcycle Club’s hangout, she’s hit rock bottom. She’s hiding her car from the repo man, she has less than two dollars in her bank account and the only employment she can get is delivering messages for a criminal.
All because of a man. Therefore, she’s sworn off them.
And then she meets West “Buck” Hardy, president of the Aces High MC.
Buck also meets her, and the minute he does, he makes it clear (to everyone but Clara) that they’re starting something. Since Clara doesn’t get that message, she decides to leave Buck and sort out her life in order to come back to him clean.
She’s not gone but hours before life hits Clara with another blow. Which means Buck and his boys have to ride in and save the day. After that, Buck makes no bones about where they stand.
But does he?
Welcome to the first novel in the Wild West MC series which will tell the stories of the brothers of the Aces High MC, the Resurrection MC, and the Chaos MC…and the women who love them.
Review
4 stars
The first book in the Wild West MC series, this is a heartfelt and emotional romance that is sexy and intense, with a nice amount of drama to pull at the heartstrings. It’s an opposites-attract story as a nerdy librarian at rock bottom and an alpha MC President fall hard and fast, and I loved Clara and Buck’s story.
If you’re read Motorcycle Man by KA, then you’ll find a lot of similarities with this one – older, divorced MC Pres with two teenage kids and a troublesome (though mostly irrelevant) ex-wife, and a classy-dressing woman new to the biker world who ends up working in the office of the club’s business, with a best friend in trouble and needing help/protection from a bunch of big-hearted, friendly badasses. Sound familiar? Yeah. But I’m a big fan of KA’s formula, so I was right on board.
After a heartbreaking and lonely childhood spent in the foster system, Clara Delany had finally found her happy until, through no fault of her own, her world fell apart. She has had nothing but heartache and struggle since then, and she’s hit rock bottom to the point where she has taken a ‘job’ delivering messages for a local bad guy in order to make money, and to help her best friend, who is married to said local bad guy. Her latest message delivery takes her to the Aces High MC, and its president, West ‘Buck’ Hardy.
From the moment Clara steps into the MC, Buck lays down his claim. They talk, he teases, there’s lots of meaningful stares and the chemistry is electric, and their evening ends in multiple rounds of mind-blowing sex that rocks both of their worlds. So the very next day when Clara finds herself in trouble, Buck and his boys step in and it’s immediately all on. In grand KA-alpha tradition, Buck moves Clara into his home to protect her, declaring that he wants to continue exploring their epic chemistry.
“I don’t know where we’re goin’, darlin’ What I do know is I want to find out.”
Buck is a real no-nonsense guy He’s upfront about what he wants, and thankfully Clara is right on board, and they have a mostly easy romance. They talk about what they want, and the fact that they want to be something together, and I loved the lack of game playing. Clara is new to Buck’s world, but she claims her space among the club, and his family, and I loved watching them settle into their relationship.
“You stake a claim, you stake it, because you want what you’re claimin’. Then you keep hold, no matter what you gotta do to keep it. I claimed you and I’m keeping hold.”
For the most part it’s all very functional, but they both have tragedy in their lives which has left its mark on both of them, and they have ups and downs they need to navigate as they find their way forward. I did have some eyebrow-raising moments with some of Buck’s behaviour though. He is on the caveman end of the alpha spectrum, and he says some questionable things, he also does some questionable things, some that will possibly be red flags for some readers, and I wasn’t always happy with how that was handled. He always has a comeback to explain his behaviour, but I wanted more acceptance from him that he did wrong, and I needed to see more grovelling.
Having said that though, there will be times when you’ll be mighty pissed with him, but remember that there is more to most things than we’re aware of at the time of reading. Some of these are explained later on, which helps us understand. Clara was quick to forgive… a little too quick, perhaps? But I like that she was so understanding, while also standing up for herself. And given all that the two of them had been through, the way they approached the relationship and dealt with their conflict was understandable.
And in the middle of it all, there is so much love between them. There are moment in this book that are so, so beautiful, and I did love their love story.
“Are you gonna get on the back of my bike?”
“Yes, West. Of course I am. I love you.”
He closed his eyes and his forehead landed on mine with a thud.
Oh my.
He really, really loved me.
There is family drama, personal drama, relationship issues and external drama that they have to deal with, but I really liked the way they handled it all. There is a lot of growth for both of them as they adjust to their new life together, and I loved watching them finally find the peace, love and family that they have fought so hard for.
There’s a great cast of supporting characters (and a couple of cameos that made me smile), and I’m hoping that a certain police officer gets a book soon! I’m definitely looking forward to exploring more of this world.
4 stars.
An Advanced Review Copy was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
Wild West MC Series
Still Standing (#1) (Buck & Clara)
Review
Buy: Amazon
Smoke and Steel (#2)
Buy: Amazon
More books to come…
Excerpt
“Babe,” he growled.
A warning.
Definitely.
I’d gone too far.
I also didn’t care.
“Okay, so then does Tia have to sleep with one, or, say, all of your boys?”
“Don’t do that shit. You know that’s not what I’m talkin’ about.”
“So maybe you’ll explain what you’re talking about.”
“I would, you shut your trap.”
I shut my trap and stared at his shadowed head.
He stared at mine.
Then he muttered, “Christ, need my head examined.”
“You could get off me,” I reminded him.
“Is this shuttin’ your trap?”
I shut my trap again.
“You take of care my house and my business as well as me.”
“What does that mean?”
“That means you move outta the apartment before they kick your ass out. You move into my house. You keep it clean. You keep me fed, that is, when I’m not feedin’ you, and I like to cook, so mostly, I’ll be feedin’ you. You come to work with me and take care of the office, and you go home with me.”
Wow.
Was he serious?
That sounded like…it sounded like…
My God, it didn’t sound like a sex-for-safety arrangement.
It sounded like a relationship.
About the Author
Kristen Ashley is the New York Times bestselling author of over sixty romance novels including the Rock Chick, Colorado Mountain, Dream Man, Chaos, Unfinished Hero, The ’Burg, Magdalene, Fantasyland, The Three, Ghost and Reincarnation, Moonlight and Motor Oil and Honey series along with several standalone novels. She’s a hybrid author, publishing titles both independently and traditionally, her books have been translated in fourteen languages and she’s sold over three million books.
Kristen’s novel, Law Man, won the RT Book Reviews Reviewer’s Choice Award for best Romantic Suspense. Her independently published title Hold On was nominated for RT Book Reviews best Independent Contemporary Romance and her traditionally
published title Breathe was nominated for best Contemporary Romance. Kristen’s titles Motorcycle Man, The Will, Ride Steady (which won the Reader’s Choice award from Romance Reviews) and The Hookup all made the final rounds for Goodreads Choice Awards in the Romance category.
For more great reads, check out our Kristen Ashley Author Spotlight!