I read these books in an attempt to read what I already owned on Audible and it turned out the theme of all these books is: Please go to therapy.
No Longer Afraid and Raised by Wolves by Christina C Jones
One of my favorite CCJ books is Deuces Wild so I was excited when I realized this duology is, essentially, a sequel to Deuces Wild. While the story itself stands on its own, I think reading Deuces Wild, the Roses & Thorns novellas and the last two Vegas Nights novellas probably gives a fuller picture of the underground Las Vegas that Jones has built.
Nothing could have prepared Tatiana Tate, the VP of the Predators Motorcycle Club, for The Fall–a brutal attack that killed her father and most of the club OGs. When the club’s president recruits Onyx, a Las Vegas newcomer with deadly fighting skills, to help them exact revenge— she is both attracted to and suspicious of the mysterious man with no past and a strange thorn tattoo. As Tatiana uncovers Onyx’s secrets she falls headfirst into a conspiracy that shakes up both their worlds.
Jones spins an intricately plotted, grisly romantic suspense story about love, loyalty and…trauma. There is so much trauma in this book including rape and child abuse. This is not what you would call a“casual Black romance” because the motorcycle club is, essentially, a gang. I
If you’re like me and liked Sons of Anarchy but had to squint your way past the misogyny and racism, I think you’ll find a lot to like here.
I have been listening to a lot of Wesleigh Siobhan lately and IDK what else to say, she is truly an amazing narrator. Narrator Winston James is new to me, he has a certian swagger to his performance that I really enjoyed.
Flagrant by Alexandria House (St. Louis Cyclones #2)
I don’t like comparing authors but when I finished this book all I could think was this book is perfect for people who like Kennedy Ryan books but wish they were shorter.
House uses alternating dual timelines to tell the romance of professional basketball player Polo and his long time girlfriend Kendra. In one timeline we see them as teens in miserable households and in the other, we see them a decade later when their relationship is barely holding on—mostly due to Polo’s flagrant cheating.
I thought this book was fine, it’s a relationship-in-trouble romance about two emotionally scarred people who never got help for their deepest trauma. I liked that it didn’t follow the conventional format and House wasn’t afraid to put cheating on page and complicates the HEA.
I found the teenage storyline to be the most compelling because there was a lot more happening. I don’t know what it says about me that everytime I read a book that shows the characters as teens I always prefer the YA storyline to the adult one. I think it’s because teens have such limited choices in their life so the story doesn’t have to work as hard to validate their choices.
This audiobook has the Black romance narrator dream team of Jakobi Diem and Wesleigh Siobhan, so even if though I wasn’t always 100% into the story, their performances kept me interested.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I feel like the male cover model on the Predators books looks like a hippie to me, I imagined Onyx having more Daniel Kaluuya in Widows vibes.
