Challenged by Ryan Michele

Challenged by Ryan Michele

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Writing: ★★★
Story: ★★
Characters: ★★

Overall rating: 2.3

Cade 'Spook' Baker and Trixie "Trix" Lamasters met 15 years ago in high school, they dated for 6 months then Cade had to leave her for the Vipers Creed Motorcycle Club, breaking Trixie's heart.

Fifteen years later, "Trix" has to go to "Spook" for a favor. Trix owns Sirens, a strip club, and one of her girls, Nanette, is hiding out at the clubhouse and she owes Trix a pretty big chunk of change and Trix wants payment in full.

Okay, so I enjoyed the beginning of this book when Trix was pretty much a "stand on my own and own my shit" kinda woman. That started to fall by the wayside pretty damn quick.

Cade/Spook... never much cared for him at all. He was a misogynistic man child. Okay, so I know that one of the reasons we (I) read a good Motorcycle Erotica book is for the fierce, sexy, hot, badass bad boys.. and the sex. But at the same time, I don't want the main male lead to be a giant ass. All. The. Time. And Spook had me rolling my eyes more than once.

There was just no character development for Spook or Trixie.

Another thing that I wish some writers would learn when writing MC books.. not every other word has to be "fuck". I did a search on my Kindle of that word and it came up saying.. "found more than 500 times"... in a 200 page book. Learn to use it sparingly, find another way to get your point across.

Some of the best Motorcycle Erotica books (and Dark taboo non-con erotica), get more attention from me, when I realize that the characters have actually made me connect with them when they didn't have to throw the "fucks" out everytime they spoke.

It gets to be so distracting that I end up rolling my eyes at another "unique use" (not) of "fuck and fucking".

And the sex. While it was hot.. some of the time, again an overabundance of something can overshadow the actual story... which is exactly what happened here. Build the sex *into* the story, not the story *around* the sex. It loses its... well "sex appeal.

They had so much sex that I imagined Trix to be in a constant state of orgasm!

"The only way he'd get between my legs was if he used the jaws of life."

Yeah, Trixie, you shoulda stuck with that thought a few times.

There is a difference between dominating your partner, which is what I think the author was *trying* to go for with Spook, and just being an asshat. Just the way it started when Trix first walked into Spooks office, she'd been there a few minutes and he already had her back pressed against the door, holding her in place, and tongue down her throat, and soon after that he was claiming her as his. While this could have been hot as hell, I just didn't buy it with Spook.

It took to 83% (yes, I kept reading it.. it did have it's good moments), before it really made me sit up and take notice for a little while. While the basic idea was there for a good story, it just fell a bit short for me.

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