Skull (Serpents of Chaos MC #4)

Chantal Fernando

Blurb:

Skull is a walking red flag.

He's an enforcer for the Serpent of Chaos Motorcycle Club.

He has a newborn daughter with a messy ex.

And he comes as a package with his identical twin brother Bones.

But what can I say? I'm a nurse. I like fixing people.

It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt.

And there's an X marked on my heart.

Themes: Contemporary, MC

Rating: 4 stars

Heat Rating:

Review:

When we learned just what was coming for Skull, and by extension his twin brother Bones, at the end of the previous story, I was unsure if I was going to enjoy this story, being very much not a baby person at all. But I am thrilled to say that while obviously the new single father-abandoned baby trope was crucial to the plot, it was not the written in such a way that you were bogged down in reading it and left feeling preached to about the greatness of babies. Chantal Fernando certainly brings her humor, sexiness, and naughtiness to her characters, plot line and dialogue in this story and I enjoyed it immensely even as I was blown away with the way she managed to incorporate the relationship between the twins and make sure that Bones and Isla found a peace and love of their own. Skull has just learned that he and his twin are fathers and that the club girl who gave birth to their beautiful daughter has abandoned her, so he never imagined that the love of his life would walk into his daughter’s hospital room and blow his heart away. Isla is doing her rounds in the NICU and the sweet baby girl that was left by her mother has already captured her heart, but her sexy biker father is going to be trouble for sure. When he kisses her out of nowhere one night, both of them losing their minds, Isla runs away and does her best to forget the heat that he generates, especially when she learns he has a twin—in a very unconventional and embarrassing way. But Skull is determined to have Isla in his and his baby’s lives, even though it is causing all kinds of confusion because for the first time ever he isn’t willing to share. Can Skull and Bones come to a peaceful understanding, and will Isla truly give him a chance to earn her love or is she too scared because of past mistakes? Skull’s story was definitely one of the type of heartbreaking need for love and connection that makes you understand why some people never find love and fulfillment in a conventional sense, I loved watching as he slowly came to accept that Isla was it for him and while he loved his twin he couldn’t share his woman with his twin. His sexy troublemaking behavior and the way he fights for what he wants and then charms his way out of trouble made him the perfect hot biker daddy and I can’t wait to see more of him in future stories and seeing how long it takes before he’s got Isla knocked up (haha). Isla is obviously a quintessential caretaker, being a nurse, but she was by no means a pushover, fighting and pushing back when Skull and any of the other bikers were being aa$$holes. She is sweet and loving, to Skull, the baby and even to Bones once she understands the true bond the twins share, but she also stands up for herself, her needs, and what she will and won’t accept in the relationship and future she wants to build with them. I am really looking forward to the next in this series, and I hope that Ghost isn’t a heartbreaker before he gets his happy ending because I can already tell that is going to a truly rough read. Not sure how Chantal manages it repeatedly, but she always manages to build a story around the most unlikely of characters but in the end they find common ground and a love that bridges the gaps.

*eARC provided by author for the purpose of an honest and unbiased review. No compensation was provided.

Release (Stingrays Hockey #4)

Mari Carr

Blurb:

He’s her PR nightmare. She’s his forbidden fantasy. Falling in love was never part of the game.

Tank Phillips scores big – on the ice and everywhere else. But when a wild night with two puck bunnies explodes across social media, the team’s golden boy becomes a PR disaster. Benched, blasted, and one headline away from tanking his career, he’s handed one last chance: Fix your image…with a wholesome fake girlfriend.

McKenna Bailey never signed up for this.

She’s the Stingrays’ brand-new social media manager – more comfortable with analytics dashboards than athletes – and now she’s stuck babysitting the team’s most notorious bad boy. Tank calls her mouse, forgets her name, and grins like he’s allergic to consequences.

But pretending to date him?

That’s a level of chaos even her spreadsheets can’t save her from.

Yet the closer they fake it, the harder it gets to deny the spark snapping to life between them. Tank’s charm isn’t supposed to work on a good girl…especially a good girl who’s never taken a risk like this before.

McKenna has her own secret – one that could blow everything up: she’s the estranged daughter of Coach Fields.

When the truth comes out, Coach delivers Tank a stern warning – stay away from my daughter.

Too bad Tank’s always been better at breaking rules than following them--especially when the one thing he wants most is finally within reach.

Themes: Contemporary

Rating: 4.25 stars

Heat Rating:

Review:

Is there anything better than a reformed playboy falling in love with the nerdy romance-reading introvert girl? I love when a story hits me right in the feels and I can honestly say that Tank and McKenna were one of my favorite couples so far in this series. Mari Carr has been one of my favorite authors for a long time now and each new series that she creates makes me more and more happy that I stumbled across her years ago. I love the characters she creates and even more the trouble she manages to get them into before she gives them their HEA. This series is quickly becoming one of my favorites as Mari introduces us to more and more sexy and interesting hockey players and the women that are going to bring them to their knees, but have to say I did not anticipate the way she worked in the surprise for poor tank at the end, and he better be careful he never makes his new woman mad or he’ll be in more than one doghouse. This story begins with Tank Phillips in hot water because his antics are becoming too public and too outrageous for the team and their sponsors to allow him to slide anymore, even if he is one of their star players. Enter the lovely and introverted McKenna Bailey, the Sting Rays’ new social media manager, who is tasked with cleaning up Tank’s image and keeping him corralled for the next few months. But the more time they spend together the more they begin to like and respect one another, especially with Tank behaving himself and not dipping his wick in every available space. Then the task becomes even more involved when they are cast in the role of a fake couple, even though Tank would very much like it to be real, and the connection between them is no longer one they can deny. Can Tank convince McKenna to give into their chemistry while they are forced to play at being a couple? And when the emotions get to be all too real can they overcome their fears and hangups in order to have a real relationship or will McKenna run from the truest love she’s ever found?

Release is one of those stories where you can see the beauty of a chemistry and connection between two people long before the couple themselves can, mostly because they have some kind of block or blinder on. But as they get deeper into their time together both Tank and McKenna come to understand that the other shows only a small piece of their personality to the world, and the core of them is hidden and only given to a select few. McKenna has been hurt by some many of the men in her life, all the way back to her father and she has never really gotten over the pain, but when she finally starts to see that she can’t hold those hurts against Tank, allowing him into her heart is easier. Tank has always had his course in life charted and women have come easy to him, but now he sees that they were easy because he didn’t truly care if he won or lost with previous conquests, but with McKenna he can’t lose her. He will do whatever it takes to change and prove to her that he is the kind of man she can be proud to call her own and have by her side, one that will support and protect her, even from himself and his own stupid mistakes. When these two finally allowing their passions and emotional bond free rein and show one another their vulnerable underbellies, their hearts connect in a way that makes any reader just sigh and reach for the tissues. The passion between them is more subtle, though both are attracted to one another from the beginning, the resistance to that need is what makes the final Release of that heat so combustible. I loved every sweet, sad, sexy, and sweet moment of Tank and McKenna’s story and loved that they finally found a way to understanding and an HEA that will guide them through a lot of ups and downs, holding strong. I am dying for the next story because I can already tell that it will be amazing, and Victor is in for a heck of a ride when he loses his heart. Mari Carr scores a serious hat trick with this new entry into the world of sexy hockey player romances and if you havent read the previous novels yet, I suggest a day off work to binge all four!

*eARC provided by author for the purpose of an honest and unbiased review. No compensation was provided.