Book #Review & Giveaway : 1001 Dark Nights: Hard As Steel (Hard Ink /Raven Riders Crossover ) by Laura Kaye .@LauraKayeauthor .@InkSlingerPR

Book Title: Hard As Steel ( A Hard Ink/Raven Riders Crossover Novella)
Author:  Laura Kaye |Website| Twitter| Facebook|

Publisher: Evil Eye Concepts via Amazon Digital Services
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series/Standalone: Series
Format: ebook

Cost: $2.99

Pages: 128

How I got it: Publisher via Blog Tour Company

Purchase: Amazon  |
Publication Date: Septermber 22, 2015
Add To Goodreads
Synopsis:

After identifying her employer's dangerous enemies, Jessica Jakes takes refuge at the compound of the Raven Riders Motorcycle Club. Fellow Hard Ink tattooist and Raven leader Ike Young promises to keep Jess safe for as long as it takes, which would be perfect if his close, personal, round-the-clock protection didn't make it so hard to hide just how much she wants him—and always has. Ike Young loved and lost a woman in trouble once before. The last thing he needs is alone time with the sexiest and feistiest woman he's ever known, one he's purposely kept at a distance for years. Now, Ike's not sure he can keep his hands or his heart to himself—or that he even wants to anymore. And that means he has to do whatever it takes to hold on to Jess forever.

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Excerpt

Jesus, his cock was never going to let him go to sleep at this rate.

           

And was it fucking hot in here or what? He tossed the cover off, wishing he had a ceiling fan downstairs, too. Something for the to-do list around this place.

           

Ike sighed and flung his hand over his head. And wondered why the hell he was torturing himself this way.

           

He could just go up there and get in the bed—and take what he wanted, and what he knew Jess would be only too happy to give. Neither of them was immune to the mutual attraction that had always been there between them. And her reaction to his kiss the other day made it crystal fucking clear that she was waiting for him to make his move.

           

Jess had plenty of one-night stands and casual hook-ups. Ike knew she was perfectly capable of handling that kind of relationship.

           

Except.

           

Except Ike wasn’t a clueless idiot, and he wasn’t in the habit of doing things he knew damn right well would hurt someone he cared about. Jess wore her emotions like she wore her ink—out loud and unapologetically. He had a pretty good idea that she was rocking some more-than-friendly and more-than-physical feelings for him. Right now, she thought them unrequited, and that kept a kind of sexually tense equilibrium between them. But if he let himself off the leash—even just once—he’d very likely raise and dash her hopes, give her all kinds of mixed signals, and screw things up royally between them.

           

He shook his head and heaved a deep breath. If he wasn’t going to go the distance with her, he had no business taking the first step.

            

Whoever came up with this concept of having some of the best writers today create novellas and do them in this theme is so winning at life right now. I've read three others so far and loved everyone of them. This one comes from Laura Kaye and her Hard Ink series (which incidentally right before BEA I bought all of them on ebook then went to BEA and got most of them in physical form signed, yass my loves I'm winning at life as well).  Anyway I picked this one up and dived right in because hot bikers and snarky women with tattoos, are my kind of books and I was so happy I did, this has one hell of a kick butt story told really quickly because of course it's only a novella.   Now I'm not going to lie I haven't read all the Hard Ink books yet and now I know I have to go back because this seems to be tying up a few loose ends, while giving us the story of these two lovers, and also expanding the world of the Hard Ink crew to include the bikers, and that's all good to me.  

Ike is helping out a friend; a friend who is scared out of her mind because she can identify the men who have killed two of his friends and have done some serious damage to the Hard Ink premises. at least that's what he tells himself, he's not going to think about how close he came to losing her, or that he finds her sexy and funny, and of course he's not even going to think about how hot she makes him.  

Jess is tired of being a trouble magnate and she want the big hot biker to not only protect her but be more but he clearly doesn't want more; yet when she needed help he came running. Hiding out is going to drive her mad because it's just the two of them and he has a few rules that he's implemented and all of them mean hands off.  And she's not sure she can be a good girl when it means just her and her fantasy man all alone in a cabin.

I really loved Laura's writing, she was able to create the world for the reader and yet allow us the space to fill in the blanks and make our own interpretations about the characters.  I loved the woman that Jess was, even faced with danger, even with her past, she's still, fun, funny, loyal, sarcastically witty and knows how to laugh.  Even though she's faced with not having it all she still embraces what she has and I really like her for that.  Ike has his share of hard knocks and the Ravens have been his home for the past 18 years, they saved him and gave him something and someone to believe in a in doing so helped to make him a better man.  I really loved how Ike and Jess flowed together, their conversations, their little spats, and even their funny moments, and of course the sex is hot.  Ike has good reason to be afraid and Jess has even greater reason to doubt and yet between them they create a pretty good reason not to doubt of be afraid.  I loved how funny their voices were when they were alone and how that translated even when they thought they were in danger, they could still have a few moments between them.

I loved that even though Jess knew Ike was going to lose his mind, she still did what was right and still managed to make even deeper friends in the process.  I loved meeting the different people on the compound and even the reaction the prospects caused was so freaking hot, even if he was an idiot right after.  

I loved reading their coming together and how quickly the story progressed, I wanted to know more about everyone and now I must go back and read all the books from the beginning and finally catch up.  I must say my heart is in my chest after certain events, and I'm sure if I loved them as characters I would be freaking out right about now.  I can't wait to dive into the adventures Laura has in store for us.  Even though I'm missing some of the big picture mystery, I'm getting enough of it here to know there is some seriously bad stuff coming for the Hard Ink crew and I want in on it like asap.  

Good Luck to all those who are entering into the giveaway.  Now excuse while I go catch up on all these smoking how men mentioned and their badass women.  

 ★★★★☆

Happy Reading