Book Review: Fast (Burns Brothers) by Gillian Archer

Fast by Gillian Archer is the second book in the Burns Brother world. I did not read the first book, but this book can be read as a stand alone.

Family means everything to this tattooed bad boy--good thing since he's about to start his own. I wanted her the first time I laid eyes on her. But what starts as a fun time, quickly gets serious when the stick turns pink a month later. My life is already chaos with my recently paroled father popping up and the usual drama at the family business building custom motorcycles. Plus our reality show just got picked up for a full season. But it really hits the fan when I discover that the new woman in my life is the daughter of the President of the West Coast Kings, the baddest motorcycle club in Sacramento--and our biggest client. Think he'll like being called Grandpa? Life just got hella complicated.

Fast is a contemporary romance that deals with some hard issues, but felt sweet and heartwarming.  Ryan is an alphamallow- all hard edges and tattoos on the outside but a softy at his core. On the surface Hope is sweetness and confidence, but she has a core of steel.  The compassion and care for others is something they shared, and something I loved to see expressed by each of them so differently. They each have huge father and family issues, but I loved the way they found comfort together and worked things out. The surprise baby was done very well- I liked how honest and realistic the complications of that were handled. The switching perspectives helped keep track of the worries and fears they each had, and the circumstances that made things more complicated. The heat is on high, but so is the danger and the sweet. I liked how well balanced the different elements were, and there were a few times that characters surprised me and took an unexpected path. I was never bored, and am looking forward to going back to read the first book and continuing to follow this series.

Fast has a nearly perfect balance of danger, sweet, and heat. It is a must read for fans of the author.

Book Review: To Have and to Harley (Bikers & Brides) by Regina Cole

To Have and to Harley is the first book in the Bikers & Brides series by Regina Cole. Bethany Jernigan owes her bestie. So when wedding planning overburdens the bride-to-be, Bethany steps in to handle the nitty-gritty. But the guy in charge isn't anything like she imagined. He's gruff, tattooed, and 100% male. His staff is even rougher around the edges, and it's not long before she feels as if she's stepped into some kind of crazy alternate reality. Trey Harding never wanted this to get so out of hand. One little lie somehow snowballed into a world of dresses and flowers and food and holy-hell-he's-in-over-his-head. But it's not like he can confess he's not the wedding planner he's pretending to be--especially now that he's falling for the maid of honor and his long lost mother is also the mother of the bride! His charade is becoming a farce, and as engines rev and ribbons fly, Trey's running out of time to figure out how to tell the truth without losing his new family, his crew or the woman of his dreams.

To Have and to Harley is so much more than the blurb led me to believe. Trey looks like a hard man, because life has made him that way. Found as an infant in a gas station bathroom and moving through the foster care system has left him with physical and emotional scars. He has formed his own family, a group that works to keep drugs of the street, and protecting others in less than law abiding ways. Suddenly he discovers his mother has been searching for him, and in an effort to make a good impression he claims to be a wedding planner rather than a motorcycle gang leader. I love his balance of sweet guys and burly exterior- but I have to admit that every biker I have ever know was also a teddy bear no matter how big or scary he might appear- so that seemed par for the course. Bethany has not had an easy life either, and I liked the slow forming friendship and burn between our wounded characters. I like that Bethany is strong and sweet, she also has a vulnerability and determination dichotomy that just made me love her right away and cheer her on. I also enjoyed how she stood up for herself and those she cares for, even when she gives in to the attraction and budding relationship with Trey- she puts her loved ones first. I do think that she was a little naive on more than one occasion but I found the ride firmly enjoyable. 

To Have and to Harley is a fast, fun, and heart warming romance. I liked the balance of sweet and surly and am looking forward to reading more from this series and author in the future.