Book Title: KICK (Savage Saints MC #1)
Author: Carmen Jenner
RELEASE DATE: January 26th, 2015
Publisher: Carmen Jenner
Genre: Adult, Dark Romance
Cover Designer: Cover It! Designs
Blurb
When I was ten, my father indoctrinated me into the family.
A brotherhood who would fight, protect, and give their lives for one another. A club whose ties ran thicker than blood, murkier than the dirt and grime that tainted my soul. Stronger than the bonds that connected me to my own family.
A band of brothers where loyalty was kept and paid in a currency of blood.
When I was twenty-seven, I betrayed that brotherhood.
I’ve spent every day since running, avoiding paying back that debt.
My name is Daniel Johnson, and I have betrayed everyone I ever loved.
This is my story—if you’re screwed up enough to want to read it.
Warning: KICK contains graphic violence, profanity, drug use, and explicit sexual situations of a taboo nature. Intended for an 18+ audience only. Not intended for pussies.
“Warriors don’t need saviours.
Warriors save themselves.”
This was my first Carmen Jenner read. All I have to say is that I wasn’t prepared. I think because I had a chance to meet her briefly in the lobby of hotel at BookBash last year and she was absolute sweetheart…. or the fact that I saw the covers of her previous series – Sugartown and thought of lollipops… or the fact that I actually read the preface & was promised to make me feel… WELL… none of those things triggered anything in my brain to prepare for this brutal world of MC via Carmen Jenner eyes.
This story was unique in that it ran 2 stories at the same time, as much as we live for the present time events the past is very significant here. Our anti-hero is a dark character with perverse desires and interests. He is a broken man and like the saying goes ‘like attracts like’… that is exactly what happens with him. In both timelines he seeks something that speaks to him which is a strong woman with a true fight in her even thought she is broken down. It’s not just a cheating husband or bad boyfriends but broken down by the most horrific and vile crime that is mean to break down a woman. In that aspect the book stayed ‘REAL’. It crossed line and is a definite trigger, so be warned.
For 1/3 of the book we start off with Kick’s POV and at certain point I lost hope of getting someone else’s POV just to get a reprieve. Kick is an MC brat, a bastard, an unwanted presence at the club that he didn’t fit in… now he is no better, he is still that but so much more broken now, even 2 years after the events that put him in a new club. Is he a good guy? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!
I love the broken ones because for a brief second, in the heat of the moment, I can forget how fucked up I truly am inside… I am the king of shit, and my throne is built upon the bodies of all I have betrayed; my crown is made of her teeth and tears.
After they’ve used up every hole she has to offer, they discard her like trash. But not me. I like to watch her cry. I taste her tears. I relish them. Because pain is beauty, at least in my world. And everything in my world is pain.
Don’t kid yourself to try to put him in that category to love him. He is an anti-hero and he doesn’t get soft, his past if beyond messed up to even give him a chance to redeem. His mind is broken and for most of the book I wasn’t sure who needs to be saving his messed up women who appear in his life or him. They all deserve each other. In their chaos they find their strength to prop each other up.
The story flashes form the present where Kick saves Indie after spending 3 weeks in torture sessions 24/7 with most vile human hell spawns to ever walk the earth. It is too late for her, she is broken and yet Kick finds something in her as she’s laying there drugged, naked covered in blood, bruises and brain matter. He see that same spark he saw 2 years ago, 2 years of a ghost that haunts him still that no amount of women or drugs or alcohol can drown out. Two years since who was irrevocably got broken trying to lay claim to something he wanted as his but never stood a chance. It is a sad story with no happy ending. But deja-vu… perhaps him finding different woman to safe, same woman with the same ‘fight’ characteristics as Indie can ‘heal’ that. That is the journey of gritty, heart breaking story of ugly truth that is effect of living in the dark side.
Is that why he saved me? Did someone hurt him too? I’ve seen his scars, the perfect circular cigarette burns up his arms, the angry, jagged marks over his hard abdomen. They’re covered mostly by his tattoos, and maybe an ordinary person wouldn’t notice them—maybe the old me wouldn’t have noticed them either—but there’s a silent exchange between victims.
We eventually get POV from Indie, but much later and in a way I am thankful for that. After what she goes through in the hands of her kidnappers and following by being thrown into another fresh hell of the world she knows nothing about, I don’t think I would have been able to process that thought process. Too much of everything… pain, misery, sadness, fear, arousal, defeat… but we get her at fight stage and that is simply glorious.
This story is truly messed up but continues at a great pace. It is a quick read if you don’t need to take mental breaks. It is unlike any MC story I have read so far. You would think oh another dark and gritty MC plot line.. NO! You are wrong!!! This story is real and full of adrenaline rush feelings, mixed in with some drugs and violence and the dark underbelly society that resides outside the white picked fence.
THANKS CARMEN FOR THIS READ…
GIVEAWAY
EXCERPT
I take a deep shuddering breath, close my eyes and stretch my hand towards him. His touch is gentle this time, far more gentle than I’d ever thought someone with so much uncontained violence to him could be.
“Spread your fingers,” he commands. I do, and he lifts the roll of tape, presses the edge to my skin and begins winding it over my knuckles. I close my eyes. The strident sound of it stretching out from the roll makes me want to flee. It makes me want to run as far from his touch—from any man’s touch—as I can possibly get.
The feel of the tape against my flesh, binding, holding, is so much worse. I tug on my hand, but he won’t let go. My heartrate skyrockets, and sweat beads erupt over my brow and upper lip. I’m in that room again, struggling, screaming, trying to fight them off, and failing.
Biker knows it, too. His dark eyes challenge, they dare me to run, but they also implore me to stay. It’s ironic that the only thing keeping me here, keeping me grounded, is the man who abducted me.
He holds my gaze. I don’t know exactly what is hidden in his dark blue one, but it suffocates the panic within me, douses it like water flooding flames. He bends his head to my hand. Taking the paper tape in his mouth, he rips it with his teeth.
I still. I soften. His gaze doesn’t leave mine, not even once. Not even when he starts in on my wrist, gently biting through each piece of tape before pressing it down with his rough hands. I’m mesmerised by his mouth, the piercing, and the soft, full lips. The light catches a silver chain around his neck, something I’ve never noticed before—but then I try not to make a habit of staring too closely at him. Not now, though. Now I watch every twitch, every blink, every intake of breath, and every inch that is swallowed up by his mouth moving closer to my flesh.
About the Author:
Carmen Jenner is a thirty-something, USA TODAY Best Selling Author, doctor, pilot and CIA agent. She’s also a compulsive, flagrant prevaricator who gets to make things up for a living.
While Sugartown may not technically exist, Carmen grew up in a small Australian town just like it, and just like her characters, she always longed for something more. They didn’t have an Elijah Cade, though.
If they did, you can be sure she would have never left.
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Additional books by this author
Welcome to Sugartown
Enjoy Your Stay
Greetings from Sugartown
Leave a Reply