Book Review | Her Rough Ride (Red Dragons MC #2) by Heather Van Fleet

Her Rough Ride
By: Heather Van Fleet

Genre: MC Romance
Publisher: Bookouture
Release Date: September 2nd, 2019
Format: Arc received through netgalley

Blurb:

These days they call me Slade. I’ve become a man, got tattooed and ripped to hell. My face bears the scars of all the fights I’ve seen. I’ve done real bad things. Things I thought I wasn’t capable of. But the club is at war, and I’ll do anything to protect my brothers. The last thing I need is to see her again…

Eight years ago, I got patched into the Red Dragon MC. I was damaged and my brothers fixed me, but I never told them it was because of a woman…

Sweet, beautiful Maya. The only girl I ever opened up to. And it won’t happen twice.

Why do I have to ride halfway across the country to pick her up? Because she’s the niece of our president. Eight years ago, she ran away. But now she has to come back for her own protection. And I’m the only brother who can be trusted to keep her safe.

This woman is my goddess. She’s also my curse.

I need to focus on getting her home. I have to keep my distance. But as soon as I see those curves, that smile, our eyes lock, and my gear box has other ideas. We’ve always had this unstoppable chemistry…

And she’s looking at me all kinds of ways.

Then I realise: the scars, the tats, the muscles. I look nothing like the boy she once knew and she doesn’t even recognise me. I could tell her who I am. Or I could have a little fun with her first…

I can handle her.

Her Rough Ride is the second book in Heather Van Fleet’s Red Dragons MC Series. This novel is based on Slade and Maya’s love story and is told from both point of views.

Since Maya was a girl, she detested the club life. But all that came to a turning point when she met Sebastian Lattimore. He was the boy that told her stories and chased away all the nightmares that came lurking in the dead of night. He was the boy who gave her the first taste of what true love is all about. He was the boy she saw forever with. But he was the boy that she kept hidden away for the night time. When Maya realizes she needs to be open about her feelings for Sebastian she goes to tell him, and that trip ends in utter heartbreak with her packing her bags and taking off in the middle of the night to the one place she’s always dreamed of going. California.

Now with all the trouble brewing within the club, Maya’s Uncle Flick sends Slade to California in hopes of bringing Maya back home for the time being. Bringing a woman who despises the club life, back home to the club life should be an easy peasy task……right? It’s easy, until Maya learns of Slade’s true identity. Never in a million years would she have seen this blast from the past coming.

I was beyond thrilled when I learned Maya and Slade’s romance was the next to be told in the Red Dragons MC series! BEYOND THRILLED! Given the fact that Maya was Niyol’s ex-fling/best friend, I had a feeling the drama in this one was going to be through the roof. In reality though, the drama pertaining to this situation was on the low side of the spectrum. Which I actually really liked. I went into it expecting friendships to be torn apart and fights to break out, but these people were seriously mature and worked their shit out the right way…Legit! I loved the fact that there wasn’t any unnecessary drama to put a break in Niyol and Summer’s relationship. I’m a happy camper with the end game situation.

Now onto how I truly felt about the main characters. Because this novel starts off with a Sebastation chapter, let’s start off there. At first sight, I loved Sebastian/Slade. This man is totally different than the norm MC badass. This man is not only street smart, he’s also book smart. I loved the first chapter before the MC lifestyle and as the novel progressed I felt his character start to retreat into himself. His character changed from a bright and brilliant young man and into a badass with a chip on his shoulder.

Then we have Maya. Maya is a firecracker in every way possible. She’s hell bent on living her life the way she wants and if anyone has an issue with it they can go straight to hell. I liked, but didn’t love, Maya. Honestly, I was so wrapped up in Slade and all of his angsty moments, that I didn’t have time to catch the vibes that Maya was throwing off. I needed a bit more from her character in order for me to truly connect with her. I wish there was more talk about her career and wanting to become a tattoo artist and living her dream of one day owning her own business. Bottom line, I needed to know more about this woman and not just her feelings revolving around Sebastian/Slade.

I felt the first initial connection between he and Maya was really strong and they had a bond that felt like it could never be broken. And then shit hit the fan and wires were crossed and lines were blurred. Sebastian thought one thing and acted out on his anger and Maya thought another and acted out on her anger resulting in her moving miles upon miles away and crossing him out of her life forever. Sometimes the miscommunication vibe starts to get on my nerves, especially when dealing with adults, but because Maya and sebastian are still young and learning the ropes on feelings and such, I rather enjoyed this moment and I felt the angst as they reflected on what went down all those years ago. Young love is a hard path to navigate when you don’t have strong role models in your life.

Overall, there were parts of Her Rough Ride that I really enjoyed, and parts that I could have done without. I found myself skipping through a few predictable moments. I wanted a bit more adventure like the first book (Her Wild Ride) brought to the table. I just needed a little bit more to push me over the edge of the ‘needing to know what happens next’ cliff.

Amazon US:  https://amzn.to/2IzSHMM
Amazon Universal: http://getbook.at/HerRoughRide

Peace Love and Happy Reading,

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