Book Review | Ride Steady – Kristen Ashley (Chaos Series, Book Three)

Ride Steady
By: Kristen Ashley

Series: Chaos
Book # in Series: 3 of 8
Genre/Trope: MC Romance
Publisher: Forever
Publication Date: June 30th, 2015
My Rating: ✮✮✮✮✮
My Reading Format: Paperback

Synopsis:

The ride of her life . . .
Once upon a time, Carissa Teodoro believed in happy endings. Money, marriage, motherhood: everything came easy–until she woke up to the ugly truth about her Prince Charming. Now a struggling, single mom and stranded by a flat tire, Carissa’s pondering her mistakes when a vaguely familiar knight rides to her rescue on a ton of horsepower.

Climb on and hold tight . . .
In high school, Carson Steele was a bad boy loner who put Carissa on a pedestal where she stayed far beyond his reach. Today, he’s the hard-bodied biker known only as Joker, and from the way Carissa’s acting, it’s clear she’s falling fast. While catching her is irresistible, knowing what to do with her is a different story. A good girl like Carissa is the least likely fit with the Chaos Motorcycle Club. Too bad holding back is so damned hard. Now, as Joker’s secrets are revealed and an outside threat endangers the club, Joker must decide whether to ride steady with Carissa–or ride away forever . . .

It never fails after I read a novel written by Kristen Ashley I always feel so damn happy and warm and fuzzy inside. Ride Steady takes the cake when it comes to my favorite Kristen Ashley novel and let me tell you why. Carson ‘Joker’ Steele! One name should be enough but let me clarify.

Joker hasn’t had a good life…at all. He had a mom that abandoned him when he was still in diapers leaving him in the clutches of his abusive father. Growing up he was neglected, abused, and told he was no good, by the one man who was supposed to care about him and love him unconditionally. Carson ran away from home at seventeen and eventually found his home with Chaos ‘a motorcycle club’ thus eventually gaining the nickname Joker.

The one thing I loved about Joker is even though he had a pretty shitty life growing up, he didn’t allow that to influence the man he wanted and was determined to be. Yeah, i mean he did have the typical guards put up not letting anyone in and what not but he treated women right, he loved kids, he was a typical all around good guy.

I thought Carissa was the perfect match for Joker. She also had a shitty life but in the opposite way than Joker did. When she was a little girl her sister was involved in a freak accident. Her mother passed away when she was a teenager, and she had an ex-husband that was set in his ways to make her life a living hell. But even though she had a messed up last few years she still had the ability to make people smile and to bring an air of sunshine around wherever she went. I loved how she adored her son and wanted nothing but the best for him.

Joker and Carissa have a past that Carissa is unaware of but throughout the novel recollection starts to sink in and then she finally realizes who Joker really is. I’m not going to lie, this scene worried me. I thought Carissa would end it and storm out leaving Joker to go off and mess things up. But then the novel took a whole new direction. One that i was very pleased with!

I loved the nickname for Carissa ‘Butterfly’ Sigh I’m a half step to a nuthouse away from asking my boyfriend to call me butterfly! I thought it was so sweet! EEEK i’m still swooning over it!

The one thing that really connected Carissa and Joker (out of about a million other things) was Travis (Carissa’s 9 month old son) I felt all warm and fuzzy reading the scenes where Joker and Travis connected. I loved seeing Joker’s soft side. That is ultimately what made me fall in love with this novel.

I hated Aaron (Carissa’s ex-husband) with a passion throughout this novel. I thought he was a vindictive piece of shit, but he did care about his son, so he had that going for him. The ending however, made me see Aaron in a different light and in a way i felt really sorry and hoped for a good outcome for him.

Throughout this novel we get a small inside look into Tacks (The Club President) thoughts. I loved how protective of Joker, Tack was. Joker was like his non-biological son. I really felt the family vibe, especially during the epilogue when Tack stepped in and had words with an unwanted guest! I was hoping Tack would throw a few punches maybe pull out a switchblade, but it didn’t go that far.
There is still one book left in the series and I’m hoping like hell I’ll get to see Tack’s ‘badassary’ shine threw!

If you have not read the Chaos series….I strongly recommend them all!

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Read Today:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/36LYOJn
Amazon World: http://viewbook.at/ridesteadyka

Peace Love and Happy Reading,