Review: Inked by Anne Marsh

Title: Inked

Author: Anne Marsh

Mills & Boon imprint: Dare

Year of publication: 2018

The heroine: Banker Harper George

The hero: Tattoo artist/Biker Ash ‘Vik’ Ilin

The blurb: Harper, a buttoned-up banker, is a tattoo virgin before Vik draws her first ink. And once the bad-boy biker lays his hands on the beautiful canvas of her body, he’s addicted! Harper says the two of them could never mix outside of the bedroom—but she’s finding that she wants the feeling of Vik’s touch to last forever.

Standalone or series: Book two of the Hard Riders MC series, but can be read as a standalone

The review: We met Vik very briefly in book one of the series (and it was nice to see Rev pop up in this one), and so I’m guessing that book three will feature Romeo, who popped up a few times in this one.

Vik, so named because he has long blonde hair and is tall and built because of his Norwegian heritage (Viking, geddit?), is a tattoo artist. When drunk banker Harper shows up at his tattoo parlour in Las Vegas at two in the morning, she wants a tattoo to celebrate a new her. She’s just been kicked out of her home by her douchebag ex after she found out he was cheating on her and she wants to let loose a little. So she lets Vik pick the tattoo, a firebird he puts on the small of her back (can anyone say tramp stamp?). She quickly realises he doesn’t remember her – they had sex in the back of his car in high school.

Vik is floored that he’s had sex with Harper before and can’t remember her, because she’s gorgeous and he wants her. When he hears her sad tale of woe, he offers to be her booty call. She finds that she can’t resist and they’re soon hooking up every chance they get. Over the course of the book, Harper realises she’s in love with him and it’s not just sex for her. She tells him this, and what does he do? Pushes her away. Bikers are not one of my favourite themes because I find the whole ‘I don’t need just one woman in my life, even though I want to settle down, because I’m a tough biker and can have any woman I want’ trope to be getting rather tiresome. And so it is with Vik, who refuses to admit he is ready to settle down with Harper and does love her, even after his fellow bikers tell him what a tool he’s being. He eventually gets the memo and the way he attempts to win her back is rather amusing. I really liked that Harper didn’t cave straight away, either. She was hurt and it showed.

Can we talk about the cover? Vik is a blonde Norse God. The cover model, while attractive, is not. I also noticed that Harper gets this massive tattoo on her back in the wee hours of the morning, but then spends part of the next day swimming. Vik also takes her up against the glass in her hotel room, which her back is up against. Surely her back would be tender? Being banged up against some glass and going swimming would be off the menu, I would have imagined. Not that I have a tattoo, mind you, but that would seem like common sense to me.

Vik and Harper get their happy ending. I really liked Harper, but I oscillated on Vik a little. I think I liked Rev and Evie from the first book better. Still, this one is worth the read, but be warned – there’s a lot of graphic language.

 

 

 

Ruled by Anne Marsh

Title: Ruled

Author: Anne Marsh

Mills & Boon imprint: Dare

Year of publication: 2018

The heroine: Party planner Evie Kent

The hero: Biker/Former SEAL Jaxon ‘Rev’ Brady

The blurb: Jaxon Brady of the Hard Riders MC has sworn to protect Evie Kent from a rival gang. His hard muscles and black leather motorcycle boots are a sharp contrast to the girly dresses Evie wears for her successful party-planning business. Their instant attraction is magnetic, and their lust keeps them glued to each other’s side…but is it a dangerous distraction?

Standalone or series: Part of the Hard Riders MC series, but can be read as a standalone.

The review: Dare is the newest imprint from Mills & Boon, launched for the February release. It’s touted as their sexiest yet… and they’re not joking!

Evie Kent’s younger brother, Rocker, is part of a motorcycle club and it turns out he’s been doing some pretty shady stuff that Evie knows nothing about – he’s been running drugs through Las Vegas for a Colombian cartel, but has also made the mistake of double crossing them. She runs a party planning business involving princesses and tries her best to protect her baby brother.

Jaxon Brady, known as Rev, is part of a rival MC that wants to shut Rocker down, because not only is he breaking the law, he’s running the drugs through their territory. Jaxon decides to check out Rocker’s sister, in part to use her as bait to get to Rocker and in part to keep her safe from the Colombians, who might kill her to get back at her brother.

Jaxon is attracted to Evie straight away, and Evie feels the same, especially since Jaxon is hot and she’s had a bit of a man drought. Before they know what’s going on, they’re all over each other, and Evie finds out that Jaxon’s body is not the only thing that’s big and hard – this guy has a twelve inch dick. I kid you not. So they can’t stop having sex with each other, but neither is sure they want a long term commitment – she has doubts because he’s in a rival MC and he’s not friends with her brother, and he has doubts because, well, he doesn’t do commitment.

Speaking of dicks, let’s talk about sex, baby. This book was R18+. The language and sex scenes were so incredibly graphic that I had to look at the cover a couple of times to check I was reading a M&B book! There’s oral sex, vaginal sex, and anal sex in this book, all of which are described in detail, and a lot of dirty language. If that sort of thing doesn’t float your boat, this imprint may not be for you, but since it floats mine and it has one of my favourite tropes in romance books – bad boy/good girl – I really enjoyed it. I look forward to reading more books as they come out; it appears there will be four new releases every month.