Once again, returning to Raven Riders territory was a wild ride filled with brotherhood, healing, and an outside threat.

Sam “Slider” Evans has pulled away from the club following the death of his wife. Living a half life, the entirety of his energy is focused on his sons, but he can’t do it all.

Cora Campbell is an outsider to the club, only feeling like she has a place because her best friend is dating the club president. She dreams of being a part of her own family, but for now the outskirts of Haven’s family will do. When the club asks her to help Slider by babysitting while he works overnight shifts, she jumps at the chance to feel useful and get out of the clubhouse for a while.

These are two characters living with one foot in the past. Even though Cora seemed to be the stronger of the pair of women rescued by the club, she is hiding her own dark secrets, her own longings. Watching as Slider began relying on Cora more, while Cora settled into life with the Evans boys was both painful and healing.

I was surprised at how the outside threat was woven into this book. Where in previous Raven Riders books, the outside threat was clear and ever present, this time it was subtler, lying in wait. I almost forgot to be watching for something suspicious.

This book kept me riveted as I waited to watch Slider step out of his grief, Cora step out of her shell, and the club rally around their brother. There are still more brothers that have me curious to know their stories.

I was gifted a copy in exchange for an honest review.

When Cora returned five minutes later, he stood at the kitchen counter chugging a glass of water.
“So, I’ll get changed,” she said, thumbing over her shoulder. He gave her a nod and tried not to let his gaze try to connect the rain droplets that darkened her sweatshirt and slicked the exposed skin of her legs. “But I wanted to mention that we need to go grocery shopping.”
We. The word was a total sucker punch.
And it made him need to get her the hell out of his house. At least for a few hours. Because the only we Slider did now was the kind he’d created with his own blood. “I’ll get on it.”
She didn’t leave to get dressed like he expected her to. Instead, she lingered, then finally said, “I know you’re on again tonight and need to sleep. Maybe…I could get Bunny to take me and we’ll drop everything off here later.”
“That’s okay,” he said, shaking his head.
“Or, if it’s easier, I could even hang here today and you could take me when you wake up. God knows I don’t have anywhere special I need to be, so it wouldn’t be a problem…”
He pictured her staying in his house in a sudden flash of images—her making lunch, her cuddled into the corner of the couch watching TV, her stepping out of the bathroom, hair wet from a shower, and the sweet-smelling scent of her lotion trailing after her…Twin reaction coursed through him. A yearning for the companionship of another adult sharing his space and his life. And a kneejerk fight-or-flight hell no that both left him unsettled and pissed him off.
All of which meant she had to go. Now.
“Jesus, I said I’ll take care of it. I don’t need you.” Something akin to panic had the words coming out more harshly than he’d intended, and his brain was already scrambling to clean up the mess his mouth had made. “To do it, I mean. I don’t need you for shopping. Okay? I got it.”
“Right. Of course,” she said, backing out of the room, green eyes flashing with an emotion he couldn’t name.
And he was a giant asshole. He scrubbed his face on a long sigh and waited for her to come back so he could drive her home. And apologize.
He waited. And waited.
What the hell?
“Uh, Cora, you ready? He called out, making sure his tone lacked the frustration he felt with himself. Two-plus years of withdrawing from the world around him had left him all kinds of rusty at interacting like a normal human being.
When there was no response, he waited a few more minutes. Guilt a weight on his shoulders, Slider finally went back down the hall toward the family room where she slept on the couch because she’d long ago refused his offer to use his bed on nights when he wasn’t home. The downstairs bathroom was empty. And so was the family room. A creeping apprehension squeezed his chest when he noticed that her bag was gone and the blankets she used were back in their neat little stack, too.
No. No, no. Shit.
His gaze lifted to the door to the back porch, and that was when he knew.
She’d left.
He’d been an asshole, and she’d left. And now she was on the street.
Sonofabitch.

Hard As Steel (Hard Ink/Raven Riders crossover Novella)

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Our 4.5 star reviews

Brotherhood. Club. Family.

They live and ride by their own rules.

These are the Raven Riders...

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Forced together to keep Alexa safe, their powerful attraction reignites and Maverick determines to do whatever it takes to earn a second chance—one Alexa is tempted to give. But her ex-fiancé isn’t going to let her go without a fight, one that will threaten everything they both hold dear.

 

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