BLOG TOUR EXCERPT & REVIEW: Rough Ride (Chaos #5)

I have missed my bad ass Chaos bikers.

Rough Ride (Chaos #5), by Kristen Ashley
Publish Date: February 13, 2018
Publisher: Evil Eye Concepts
Format: e-ARC, provided by the author and Inkslinger PR
Genre: adult contemporary romance
To Buy: Amazon

Rating: 5 STARS

(Synopsis) Rosalie Holloway put it all on the line for the Chaos Motorcycle Club.

Informing to Chaos on their rival club—her man’s club, Bounty—Rosalie knows the stakes. And she pays them when her man, who she was hoping to scare straight, finds out she’s betrayed him and he delivers her to his brothers to mete out their form of justice.

But really, Rosie has long been denying that, as she drifted away from her Bounty, she’s been falling in love with Everett “Snapper” Kavanagh, a Chaos brother. Snap is the biker-boy-next door with the snowy blue eyes, quiet confidence and sweet disposition who was supposed to keep her safe... and fell down on that job.

For Snapper, it’s always been Rosalie, from the first time he saw her at the Chaos Compound. He’s just been waiting for a clear shot. But he didn’t want to get it after his Rosie was left bleeding, beat down and broken by Bounty on a cement warehouse floor.

With Rosalie a casualty of an ongoing war, Snapper has to guide her to trust him, take a shot with him, build a them...

And fold his woman firmly in the family that is Chaos.

This book - this whole series - is so spectacular. It's everything I've come to love about the MC trope. It highlights family and loyalty and dedication. It is a little dangerous and a lot sexy and romantic. These Chaos men know how to treat their women like queens and their women in turn support their men in all they do. It's easy to love these characters, especially with the way Kristen Ashley writes them. 

In Rough Ride, we swing back around to Rosalie, who we met in the very first Chaos book. When Rough Ride opens, we see that things have gone horribly wrong for Rosalie, and she's in very desperate trouble. She turns to Chaos - and Snapper in particular - for help. And once they deliver that help (as they should, since she found herself in that situation because of Chaos), she is ready to get out of the MC world for good since it's caused her nothing but both literal and figurative pain. 

But, Snap is there to remind her of all the wonderful parts of MC life that she'd be turning away from. No - it's not perfect. But, no way of living is. Plus, MC life comes with him, and he's spent a very long time loving Rosalie from afar while she belonged to someone else. He's done with that, and he's now dedicated to winning her over. 

I don't know any woman that would be able to withstand Snapper when he really pours on the charm. He treats her like gold, even when she swears she hates him and his club. He puts her needs and safety above his own. And when she starts to break down, he shows her his best moves. It was all over from there. 

Now - I'm going to warn you. Rough Ride ends in a somewhat confusing cliffhanger. If I were you, I would read all of it except for the last page. Seriously - just ignore it for now. Then, this summer, when Wild Like The Wind (Chaos #6) comes out, go back and read that last page then. You will thank me for this advice. Because I'm going out of my mind for that sixth book. And not reading the last page of Rough Ride will not affect your enjoyment or grasp of Snapper and Rosalie's story in the slightest. 

Kristen Ashley has put one more incredible book under her belt, and I'm one step closer to thinking she can't do anything wrong. 

An old-style flip phone.

A burner.

We’d joked about it, Snap and me. He’d called me Scully. He had a burner too, so there’d be no caller ID when he phoned me. So I’d called him Mulder.

I was going to call him.

Not because I was working for Chaos anymore. I wasn’t. That officially ended on that cement. Definitely not because I was protecting Bounty. I’d tell the police. Absolutely, I’d tell the police my boyfriend’s motorcycle club beat the snot out of me. It didn’t matter that I broke the code, and knew it. It didn’t matter that I’d betrayed my man, and done it deliberately.

I was trying to save him. Save his brothers. Save his club. Save everyone.

I closed my eyes tight, my thumb moving over the phone from memory, knowing the way on its own, I called him so often. That was why I was calling him now rather than 911. I knew how to get to him. To Snapper. And the effort would be less. I could dial the digits to get him up on speed dial in my sleep, so I could do it lying on a cement floor, beat to hell and practically unable to move.

I couldn’t lift the phone to my ear so I just shoved it across the floor closer to my face, listening to it ring.

“Rosie?” Snap answered.

I closed my eyes tighter as understanding hit me with a blow almost as brutal as every strike I’d just taken.

God.

I hadn’t done it to save Beck. To save his brothers, his club…everybody.

At first, I’d done it to make Beck into Shy.

And then I’d done it to make him be Snapper.

And last, I’d done it to make his club Chaos.

“Rosie?” Snap’s Eddie Vedder baritone got sharper.

Oh no.

No.

The black was creeping in again.

“Sss…” was all I could get out.

“Rosalie,” he bit out, curt, alert, alarmed.

“Hurt,” I whispered.

And then, again, I blacked out.

Kristen Ashley was born in Gary, Indiana, USA and nearly killed her mother and herself making it into the world, seeing as she had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck (already attempting to accessorize and she hadn't taken her first breath!). Her mother said they took Kristen away, put her Mom back in her room, her mother looked out the window, and Gary was on fire (Dr. King had been assassinated four days before). Kristen's Mom remembered thinking it was the end of the world. Quite the dramatic beginning.

Nothing's changed.

Kristen grew up in Brownsburg, Indiana and has lived in Denver, Colorado and the West Country of England. Thus, she's blessed to have friends and family around the globe. Her family was (is) loopy (to say the least) but loopy is good when you want to write. They all lived together on a very small farm in a small farm town in the heartland. She grew up with Glenn Miller, The Everly Brothers, REO Speedwagon and Whitesnake (and the wardrobes that matched).

Needless to say, growing up in a house full of music, clothes and love was a good way to grow up.

And as she keeps growing, it keeps getting better.