This was awfully fluffy for a book that deals with sex slavery/trafficking. ( )

When Annabel is kidnapped and taken to Mexico to a local drug cartel, she is tortured and raped repeatedly until Rev and his brother, Bishop of the Hell's Raiders MC stumble on her while trying to find the daughter of one of their members who was also taken. Annabel is told that she can't go back to her previous life because the leader of the drug cartel will come after her, so to be safe, she must go home to her overbearing parents in Virginia. When Annabel refuses to go back, Rev sees no other alternative but to take her back to their club in Georgia where she will be safe.
There are parts of this story where emotions run high, but generally they overflow into melodrama. For a smart girl who lives on her own, Annabel is incredibly naive and makes choices that put her in danger. After being rescued from her ordeal, she is extremely upbeat and happy, stretching believability to the limit. The dialogue was unrealistic and the characters stereotypical. Overall, I didn't enjoy this story and wouldn't recommend it. ( )

Didn't draw me in as much as her books usually do. Still a good read. ( )

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: Sex trafficking, and motorcycle clubs, can they save each other before it’s too late?

Opening Sentence: “The whirring sound of his mother’s ancient hand mixer drew Nathaniel’s attention away from his homework.”

The Review:

Rev is back and the focus of this second installment of the Vicious Cycle books. He and his brother’s are planning a raid on Mendoza’s compound to rescue Sarah from sex trafficking. Annabel was kidnapped from the University of Texas A&M several months ago. When Rev kicks in the door and finds her, he feels he has no choice but to rescue her even though she isn’t who they are looking for. Breakaway is devastated when he finds out the building that was holding the girls including his daughter Sarah was rigged to explode killing all inside.

Breakaway is also the club’s doctor and he has to work on Annabel to save her life from the trauma that Mendoza inflicted upon her. When she wakes up and finds out she will never be able to physically carry her own child, she loses it and attempts to kill herself. Rev saves her by telling her his secret and the trauma he has carried for years about his own rape, and his father killing the man who did it to him.

Annabel decides she can’t go back to her life, so she makes the trip with Rev to Raiders compound in Georgia. As she starts to fit into his life and they fall in love, will she be safe from Mendoza or will he find her and kill her in the end?

I like the first book, Viscious Cycle, but I actually liked this one quite a bit more. I feel like the author handled the trauma and the aftermath in a great way. I almost felt myself in tears a time or two and that isn’t my normal reaction to a romance read. So is this book heavy? Oh yes, it is but I really feel like you connect with the characters and their experiences. You find yourself cheering for them and hoping it all works out in the end.

I am not going to lie, I loved Sons of Anarchy, but I feel like motorcycle romances tend to kind of make it appear that the lifestyle is better than it is, so I am not always a fan of that. However, I do like that the author shows them as rough men, ready for violence but always willing to make changes due to all the violence in their lives to make the lives of the people they love better. So I have to say, I am really digging this series, the books just keep getting better and better and I can’t wait for Bishop’s story in the third book, The Last Mile.

Notable Scene:

“He had been desperate since three nights ago a personal tragedy within our club allowed him a tiny glimpse at my long-buried secret.”

“As far as suffering from PTSD, the lifestyle I had known before I went into service had prepared me to deal with the horrors of war.”

“But a the moment, money, status, prestige, didn’t mean shit.”

“As I closed my eyes, I wished that Rev had never found me, and instead had allowed me to die on the floor of Mendoza’s compound like the worthless trash I was.”

FTC Advisory: Signet/Penguin provided me with a copy of Redemption Road. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )