Stevie‘s review of Devil’s Game (Reaper’s MC, Book 3) by Joanna Wylde
Contemporary Romance published by Berkley 03 Jun 14
I’m yet to grow tired of biker stories, even if the romance plots aren’t always to my taste, compared to the action plots, which generally are. So, I grabbed this one in spite of not being completely overawed by the rather wimpy heroine who featured in the series’ previous book. Fortunately, Em is far more the sort of biker woman I want to read about; although she starts off as a bit of a Daddy’s girl, she quickly finds her backbone and is more than a match for Hunter, a high-ranking member of the Devil Jacks, a rival club to the Reapers, which Em’s father runs.
Not that Em realises who she’s dealing with at first, of course, encountering what appears to be her ideal man online just as she’s breaking out from her father’s over-protective influence. The Reapers’ President has only shot one of Em’s boyfriends, and he swears that was an accident, yet none of the men Em meets at the club are prepared to date her, much less take her to bed. Online, Liam seems to be exactly what she needs, and they arrange to meet up in a storyline that overlaps with that of the previous book.
Of course, the meeting is a set-up for Em to be kidnapped (along with the aforementioned heroine from the previous book) in the latest round of the war between the club she grew up in and the one that became Liam’s home after he killed his abusive foster father. His associates know him as Hunter – the club’s enforcer – yet deep down he’s already begun to care for Em. So the kidnap isn’t quite the terrifying ordeal it could have been, at least while Hunter’s around to make sure no real harm comes to the women. Em, of course, is busy plotting their escape, even as she tries to figure whether she still has feelings for Liam now that she knows who he is.
Once the kidnapping incident gets resolved, Em moves away from her hometown and tentatively picks up where she and Liam had got to before he kidnaped her. The two clubs are also trying to resolve their issues, a move that proves unpopular with some members of each, and even more so with the Mexican drug cartel that’s trying to move in on the territories of both. Before long, another war is raging, although no one is entirely sure who is behind the shootings that started it: dissident club members or the cartel. Em and Hunter get caught in the middle, and no one is entirely sure who to trust.
This book moves along at a cracking pace, and I don’t mind at all that a fair number of the earlier chapters retell one subplot from the previous book, especially since we get a completely different version of the same events. I’ll definitely be grabbing the next in the series too, since the sneak preview we’re given hints at a different type of biker romance again next time around.
Grade: B
Summary:
Liam “Hunter” Blake hates the Reapers MC. Born and raised a Devil’s Jack, he knows his duty. He’ll defend his club from their oldest enemies—the Reapers—using whatever weapons he can find. But why use force when the Reapers’ president has a daughter who’s alone and vulnerable? Hunter has wanted her from the minute he saw her, and now he has an excuse to take her.
Em has lived her entire life in the shadow of the Reapers. Her overprotective father, Picnic, is the club’s president. The last time she had a boyfriend, Picnic shot him. Now the men in her life are far more interested in keeping her daddy happy than showing her a good time. Then she meets a handsome stranger—a man who isn’t afraid to treat her like a real woman. One who isn’t afraid of her father. His name is Liam, and he’s The One.
Or so she thinks.
Read an excerpt.
Other books in this series:
