RIDE STEADY by Kristen Ashley
Chaos #3
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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 damned hard. Now, as Joker’s secrets are revealed and an outside threat endangers the club, Joker must decide whether to ride steady with Carissa—or ride away forever . . .
Aaaaah and with the ending of this book I declare Joker my NEW Favorite Book Boyfriend. Even better he is now in my top 3 KA Alpha, badass, best written men “alive”. There really should be awards for this! It has been a while since I wanted to crawl into a book and live there. No matter how sad the story was I would still endure it all (and it is a tough story!) just to have Joker waiting for me at the end with his noble metal steed, of course. I am a self proclaimed Kristen Ashley junkie but even this has to be her best work since… well I don’t know Daddy Knight (Unfinished Heroes Series book 1) and Dax Lahn (Fantasyland Series book 2) for me.
“I think I might be falling in love with you,” I blurted and watched his face change to an expression I would have rushed to my phone to capture if I wasn’t captivated by it, not wanting to miss an instant.
“Then quit thinkin’, Carrie, because I know I’m fallin’ for you.”
Kristen Ashley EXCELS in delivering emotional reads. Sometimes she would just drop this huge revelation that is a crazy foreshadowing that totally destroys that characters and in a way reader’s as well. She drops you at such a low and the lower it is the better her story line is. This is a modern day romance. The dream guy who is everything but you just have to work at cracking his hard shell only to find the sweetest gooey middle. I have not met a single KA book that didn’t make me tear up.
So with that the PROLOGUE to Ride Steady just about broke my heart. CARSON‘s life is given to us in a flashback to the years before he ran and established himself as a patched member of CHAOS MC. Before there was brotherhood and essentially power for him there was nothing but abuse at his father’s hand… and foot.. and whatever else available. The only bright light in his life was his HS crush, CARISSA, beautiful and silent cheerleader who was different that the regular popular clique group she was only part of because she was dating popular football player.
So he ran to save himself, he ran from the girl who he wanted, he ran from the neighborly old woman who took care of him and fed him, he ran from his older neighbor Linus who was his friend and confidante in a way… all into the arms of dark future that thankfully eventually leads him back on the path to true family. CHAOS… MC that he always admired and observed through the metal fence and imagining himself there among family. So he left hoping that everyone will continue living their life in HEA type of ending without him around.
Except… that’s not how life works in KA land and I have to say I wouldn’t have it any other way. How else are you suppose to see people’s true nature? How else is our hero suppose to prove his worth to his one and only love? Why in the world would we want to miss the show as he bulldozes through her life and setting all the wrongs right? No how… that’s how! This would’t be KA, this means I wouldn’t constantly telling everyone to read KA if her writing just didn’t hit the spot for me!
“A man is defined many ways. One of those is the woman he picks to be at his side.”
After Kristen done tearing my heart out with the Prologue we get the story we wanted and didn’t even knew it. Carissa’s life has not turned out how she has planned it or even how Carson has wished it for her. Marrying her HS sweetheart (that same popular football player who used to pick on all weaker kids… but don’t judge her) has proven to be a wrong path in life. Our Carissa is a bit broken herself coming from tragic beginnings. So the life that was suppose to be cushy has turned into a nightmare. She finds herself stranded on a side of the road with her precious baby boy to her ex-husband’s house who has cleaned her out financially and adding more salt to the wound hooking up with a model who takes care of their baby during the times he has custody. So while contemplating her choices (as in no choices) our noble steed arrives… problem is she doesn’t recognize who he is as he is no boy but a burly biker with a full on beard and dangerous air around him.
What starts out as simple tire change turns into KA-type hostile takeover of her life. The best part of KA is all the men and women in the book get together and start helping out our heroine. Setting her life on a right path. Giving her a break and giving us much needed comedic relief with their antics. While she gets more ingrained into the life she gets closer to Joker… aka Carson.
I won’t be saying more but I enjoyed the journey of Joker and Carissa. I loved him to bits with how he handled Carissa (and her boy as well) and how he took on his role of an alpha. It was a painful journey for them both as the revelation of WHO exactly Joker is take a while so Carissa has no idea why growly biker won’t just GIVE IN TO HER! This story absolutely blew my mind!!! From every little bit and detail and every visit from all her previous series’ characters, which are the BEST!!!
So overall this book is my #1 TOP read of 2015. I honestly don’t think anything can top this one. So go right ahead get your copy. Delve in but just remember DIBS on Joker!
Kristen Ashley was born in Gary, Indiana, USA. She nearly killed her mother and herself making it into the world, seeing as she had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck (already attempting to accessorise and she hadn’t taken her first breath!).
Kristen grew up in Brownsburg, Indiana but has lived in Denver, Colorado and the West Country of England. Thus she has been blessed to have friends and family around the globe. Her posse is loopy (to say the least) but loopy is good when you want to write.
Kristen was raised in a house with a large and multi-generational family. They lived on a very small farm in a small town in the heartland and existed amongst the strains of Glenn Miller, The Everly Brothers, REO Speedwagon and Whitesnake (and the wardrobes that matched).
Needless to say, growing up in a house full of music, clothes and love was a good way to grow up.
And as she keeps growing up, it keeps getting better.
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