Blog Tour, Review & Giveaway:
Undaunted by Ronnie Douglas
BookCrushin is thrilled to be a part of the blog tour for the newly released first book in the new adult contemporary series Knights in Black Leather, Undaunted by Ronnie Douglas! In today’s stop you will find all the book information, an excerpt, my spoiler-free review, as well as a tour-wide giveaway!
Undaunted by Ronnie Douglas
Series: Knights of Black Leather #1
Category: New Adult, Contemporary Romance
Publication: September 15th, 2015; William Morrow
Purchase: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, HarperCollins Publishers
Being fearless has never looked so good . . .
Aubrey Evans needs to get her life back on track after her father is indicted for embezzlement. All she has to do to hightail it out of small-town Tennessee is save up money for college tuition and steer clear of hard-muscled boys on motorcycles. Yet there’s no ignoring someone like Zion. A knight in black leather, Zion looks like every bad idea she’s been told to avoid, but she can’t resist him. Whenever she’s in trouble, he’s there. Appealing as his rough exterior may be, it’s the protective, principled man beneath who tempts her like crazy.
Zion knows Aubrey doesn’t intend to stick around. She claims to want only friendship, but he senses there’s a naughty girl hiding on the inside—one whose intense desires match his own. For now, he’ll be patient and play by her rules. But he knows it’s just a matter of time before he weakens her resolve.
As they join forces to figure out who’s behind a local crime spree, it’s clear that the danger goes deeper than Aubrey guessed. And when she needs someone tall, dark, and undaunted to keep her safe, Zion intends to be there—now and always.
Excerpt:
“You’re safe, Red,” he said in a softer voice. “I’ll take you to grandmother’s house.”
He watched me, obviously waiting for something.
The best my drunken brain could offer was, “The Big Bad wolf eats Red.”
He paused, grinned, and patted the seat. “You’re too drunk for that too.”
I blinked at him. Then his words sunk in, and I gasped. I hadn’t meant that, but now that he planted the idea in my mind, I couldn’t speak.
“You’re safe with me,” he promised, and then he patted the tiny seat behind him.
I wanted to tell him that I didn’t want to be safe, not after he’d planted such forbidden images in my mind. I yanked my mind out of the gutter and climbed onto the motorcycle, wrapped my arms around his waist, and tried not to shiver. I shouldn’t like the way he talked, but I did. I liked the whole package: the rescue, the insinuations, the motorcycle.
Maybe alcohol and fumbled petting with Quincy just skewed my judgment so severely that Zion seemed more tempting than he actually was. I wasn’t sure. I also didn’t think it mattered. By tomorrow, I would be too sober to think about kisses or any of the other things he might be good at doing.
He pulled my arms tighter around him, holding my hands together on his very taut stomach. It was a little embarrassing that being on the back of his Harley was doing far more for my libido than all of Quincy’s—and every other man’s before him—effort.
“Hold on, Red.”
Spoiler-free Review:
[book rating=3.5/5.0]…Even though I’d always had an odd fascination with motorcycles.
I’d never even ridden one, but there was something about the
sound of them as they roared by that had always drawn my attention.
Undaunted was a fun, exciting, fast read. I tore through the pages and even though I had some issues I can’t let that overpower the fact that I really stayed up all night reading this book because I just couldn’t put it down. I enjoyed the story and the writing. Let’s not forget about the scorching hot biker boys! Whoa! This is a fun, page turning new adult read. I can’t wait to read the next book in the series!
I loved the stolen glances and the semi-forbidden romance. Aubrey was adorable and I always had dreams that if I could just start over somewhere everyone would think I was the cool new chick on the block. However, it was more like in a big city Aubrey (and I) were small fish, but in a small town she (we) were the big fish that everyone had to get to know! Aubrey suddenly can’t beat back the boys advances in this small town where she is the hot new thing and I loved that she had to break out of her nerdy shell in order to find her way here.
Then comes in Zion and this strange mystery of crazy vandals and he keeps finding himself where ever Aubrey is and she starts to find him irresistible even though relationships with bad boys are a total no in her book. It’s so sad that I wanted more screen time for these two as their chemistry was intense! The whole time reading this book all I could think of was how and when can I catch a ride with a hottie on motorcycle!
So there were a few things that bothered me, which kept this from being a 4 or 5 star read, I had to talk this review over with my bestie, Shannon, for her advice, because like I said I really was entertained and I am very liberal with my ratings if I am enjoying what I read. So I am going to be real, because that’s what I am here to do, and even though I won’t give spoilers it may feel like a general spoiler and if you don’t want my opinions to influence you please stop reading here.
OK so honest review here I go — I abhorred the ending. I thought maybe my ARC was cut short. I just couldn’t believe it would end like that, not from what I thought I knew about the characters or the story that I was so immersed in. Honestly, I was mad as f*ck. It solidified my hatred for the main character, Aubrey. At first I loved her drive and her determination to stay on her ‘plan’ to get her life back on track after her father gets in trouble for corporate embezzlement, which is how she ended up in a new town to stay with her grandmother, whom by the way I adored! I really liked Aubrey until like halfway through the book and then the ending sealed her fate. I can only hope since the way the book ended, that what I didn’t like gets cleared up with a twist, or hopefully, doesn’t play a role in the next book at all. It really soured me and the more I stewed over it, the angrier I got.
Also, while I am at it, I might as well say that I had no idea why in the world we would get a handful of chapters in a 2nd POV. Either commit to the dual POV or find another way to tell me about those details. I enjoyed those chapters/scenes but as a reader it felt forced or a second thought.
So even though I had some issues with some parts of this book, I really thoroughly enjoy reading it and I will be sure to catch the next installment. It is hard for me to be critical over someone else’s art, but sometimes it’s necessary, and hey maybe you’ll love the ending, it definitely gives you a HEA but just not my ideal HEA. I wanted to love this book so much more and in the end I liked it and I will continue to give this series a chance.
About the Author:
Ronnie Douglas is the writing name for a multiple New York Times bestselling author. Drawing on a lifetime love of romance novels and a few years running a biker bar, she decided to write what she knew—dangerous men with Harleys and tattoos. Her debut “Ronnie book” was indie-published as part of a series she created and wrote with friends in 2014.
