Feature: Office Mate by Katie Ashley

Thorn

From the first time I played army as a kid, the military has been my life. As an Airborne Major, I’d led my men through two tours in Afghanistan. But when my father was elected president, I became an even greater target for the enemy—a prize for someone to take out. To ensure not only the safety of myself, but of my men, I got stripped of my cammies, shoved into an Armani suit, and placed into a management position at my father’s company. After years of trekking through the desert with an assault rifle, I was way out of my area of expertise, which my transition coordinator was more than happy to let me know on a daily, if not hourly basis. The brunette bombshell would be the death of me in more ways than one, especially since I hadn’t been with a woman since my last deployment. She’s turning out to be one of the greatest foes I’ve ever done battle with.

Isabel

In the backwoods Georgia town I was born in, you either married right out of high school or got the hell out of town. I chose the second and never looked back. After graduating top in my class, I started working for The Callahan Corporation. Fast forward five years and I was about to become the youngest female manager in the history of my department. And then all the blood, sweat, and tears I’d put into my career were for nothing when the boss’s billionaire son was handed my position on a silver platter. Not only that, I was expected to help transition him into the job that was supposed to be mine. Sure, he’s easy on the eyes with his chiseled good-looks and impossibly built physique, but I’m not going to let that distract me. I hope soldier boy is good at military strategy because sabotage is the name of the game I’ll be playing.

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ARC Review: Running Mate by Katie Ashley

Running Mate is my first non-MC romance by Katie Ashley. This is one of my most reliable authors for a strong romance and storyline and she definitely did not disappoint in this political romance.

I personally am a sucker for an "arranged" romance type of story. I love two characters who are thrown together because of some like age old blood debt or in a Cinderella fashion for money. So when I saw that Addison was going to agree to be Barrett's fiance for political reasons, I was all in. I'm still not sure why but Barrett was a triflin manwhore. He was obsessed with banging chicks in creative locations. To be honest, when the book starts out, his obsession with sex and constant references to it made him seem a bit immature. On the other hand, Addison is a serious character who has her ish together and is a true believer in Barrett's Dad who is running for president. Addison is working as a staffer on the campaign and even though the million bucks she's offered to pose as Barrett's fiance is tempting, she also kinda does it for the greater good because she wants to see Barrett's Dad win.

The thing that I really like about this book is that Barrett and Addison instantly clash. Even though they are both hot and they both notice the hotness right away, they don't immediately hook up. In fact they can barely get along. Barrett does not know how to deal with a woman who does not fall down at his feet. Addison does not know how to deal with a man who has developed very limited skills for dealing with women outside of the bedroom. Even when Barrett is trying to be nice, he comes across as sexist and kinda clueless because he hasn't done more with women than get them naked.

Barrett and Addison are stuck together on the campaign trail. As time goes on both realize that they don't want their fake relationship to end. For Barrett, a period of forced celibacy is just what he needed to see that there really is more to life than sex and maybe a relationship is the "more" that he needs. For Addison, I don't know about Addison. She just needs to figure out that all men are not her ex. And that brings me to one of my two 'not quite 5 star issues.' Addison's little drama at the end of the book did not make me happy. I know every good romance needs a conflict to resolve but Addison's self inflicted drama at the conclusion of this book just made no sense to me. The only other issue I had with this book was the lack of sex. OMG, I need the hot stuff to get me through the day and it was like 75% in before we get anything other than the Hero banging someone other than Addison (no cheating, it was pre-relationship). Beyond those two issues, this is a great contemporary romance that you should give a try.

**ARC provided by TRSoR Promotions**

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ARC Review: Subordination by Katie Ashley

I have to start by saying that I knew going into this book, it was going to be a tough sell for me. If you have read any pass review by me you know that they almost all reference my love for strong alpha male heroes. In fact, this is the first book I've ever read about a female domme. I picked this book up because of the author and my interest in the synopsis. I say all of this to say that if you are reader who other likes or does not mind a female dominant, you should take my review with a tremendous grain of salt because this book might be perfect for you.

When this book opens Sophie is a professional domme who has been working her way through college by dominating men at the local BDSM Club. It was particularly interesting to me that when we meet Sophie, she is a domme in the purely professional sense. If sophie had a relationship while working at the club, it didn't include any BDSM elements. Similarly, her domination practice at the club did not include any sexual elements. I just found it fascinating lips so she was so involved in the BDSM lifestyle well not exactly being involved in it.

Sophie meets William on her last day of work at the club before she is set to start her new job and her new life. Sophie initially agrees to one night of play with William but it is clear that her scene with William is nothing like what she did as a purely professional matter. From the first encounter sophie has with William, she discovers that she can derive sexual pleasure as a dominant and that was William it's something she wants to do. Sophie figures that there is no point pursuing relationship with William since she is relocating in the next few days. Through a series of coincidences, however, Sophie winds up spending more time with William then she planned and starts to consider whether she might want to enter until an actual D/s relationship.

What I found really interesting about this book was a little Sophie knew about being a dominant in a relationship. Part of the ongoing struggle between Sophie and William is that William wants the D /s relationship and Sophie simply isn't sure if she could give it to him. This is also where one of my issues with this book is located. I have read quite a few BDSM books with male dominants and there are always very strict boundaries for how a dominant interacts with a submissive. I had a hard time dealing with Sophie's lack of knowledge about how a dominant is supposed to care for a submissive while at the same time switching back and forth in wanting William to submit to her when it was convenient. For example, William give Sophie two of his hard limits the very first time they play together. Almost immediately, sophie is attempting to push William beyond his limit and daring him to safe word. I'm not sure if that was a function of Sophie's inexperience but usually a dominant doesnt start pushing a submissive until the dominant knows all the details of the hard limit and knows that they won't hurt the sub by pushing the limit. I really didn't like Sophie pushing William right away. In my opinion, it made her a bad dominant without regard to gender.

The other issue that I had with Sophie is that as you might imagine a female dominant can come across as being kind of a b****. In this case, it wasn't something that was limited to the D / s interactions between Sophie and William. When Sophie and William run into what seems an insurmountable obstacle to the two of them being in any kind of relationship, Sophie plays the role of the pragmatic unfeeling character while William is basically begging her to give them a chance. I just didn't like the dynamic. There were too many scenes where Sophie it's just kind of rude to William. In fact one scene really stood out in my mind in which Sophie threatens to slap William but then jokes that he would actually like that. It's hard for me to deal with a man that would find that amusing and it's even harder to deal with one who would find that arousing. For his part, Williams seemed like a really good guy but I just couldn't help feeling like he was weak and I didn't like that. Interestingly, maybe because of deeply ingrained gender bias, I have not had the same feeling about female submissives. Even though I readily admit there might be some bias in there, I think part of that is because of Sophie's depiction in this story. I just had a hard time enjoying Sophia as a character.

I'm going to end like I began by telling you that if you like books about female dominants, I think that you will love this one. If you are like me, this is an OK one to try but you will probably find yourself longing for the alpha heroes that we love so much.

**ARC Provided by TRSOR Promotions**

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ARC Review: Redemption Road by Katie Ashley

Redemption Road is my second book in the Raiders MC series. This book follows Deacon's (the Hero from book 1) brother Rev and his relationship with Anabelle. You do not need to read the first book in this series to read this one but I recommend you read the first book anyway. The first book was good and this one contains several spoilers that might diminish your enjoyment of the first book if you read them out of order.

Rev is the president of the Raiders MC (Motorcycle Club). At the end of Book 1, Rev is called away to do a favor for one of his MC brother's whose daughter has been kidnapped by traffickers. Rev, for very personal reasons, has a serious issue with anyone suffering abuse and goes on a mission to rescue the kidnapped girl. Anabelle is the daughter of a distant senator who views her with mild contempt and none of the affection you would expect from parents. Anabelle makes one rebellious decision in her life and it cost her everything. When Rev goes in to rescue his brother's daughter he finds a badly injured Anabelle and brings her to safety. From there, the book is pretty much an exploration of both Rev and Ana's emotional growth. It's a revelation of both pain and healing.

I happen to love Rev's character. He is the perfect mix for a reader like me. Rev is a stone cold killer with a conscious, intellect and emotional intelligence. I loved how Rev was the Hero in every sense in this book. He both physically and emotionally rescued Anabelle and despite his proclivity to slit a throat when it was necessary, he always took the high ground when it came to Anabelle. Of course Rev made some serious serious mistakes because of his own past issues but in my view that gave the book authenticity. It would have been a little disingenuous to put two characters together like these and then everything be perfect.

I also like Anabelle as a character. Anabelle has realistic reactions to the very severe trauma she endures but she finds a way to take her life back. I liked that the author didn't just try to gloss over Ana's pain so she could get to the romance. Again, that would not have been authentic. Instead, there is a long exploration of the growth of both Ana and Rev depicted through their interactions and introspection.

The only problem with this book was also one of it's strengths. The majority of the book is just Ana and Rev connecting to each other. There isn't a lot of action or even minor conflicts. There are major conflicts in the story but the rest is just kind of everyday life. And the everyday life, for 80% of the book does not include sex. I can't say that I was bored but there were times in the book where I wanted more from the romance and definitely more in the bedroom. Even taking those things into account, I still enjoyed this book, I highly recommend this book and the whole series. I look forward to finding out what comes next.

**ARC provided by Publisher**

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ARC Review: Vicious Cycle by Katie Ashley

Vicious Cycle is the first book in what will become a series about the Hell’s Raiders MC. This is my first book by Katie Ashley and I'm in. This book was like a sweet fragrance to readers like me. It had bikers, romance, plot twist and good sex. That’s like warm vanilla pumpkin spice on a fall day to me.

Vicious Cycle is Alexandra and Deacon's story. Deacon is a biker who before finding out he had a daughter was an emotional recluse. Alex is a kindergarten teacher and…ok, wait. Now that I think about it, we don’t really get all that much background information on WHO Alex is. We get information about events that occurred in her background with her family but now that I’m trying to write about Alex I realize that there isn’t a lot to identify her as a person before her relationship with Deacon. I’m not really knocking the author for that because it didn’t take anything away from the story or my reading experience. I didn’t even realize it until just now.

I like the background set up for this story. It is emotionally wrenching in places as we find out about Willow’s pre-Deacon life but it is well done. It can’t be easy to write from a 5 year olds POV in an erotic MC romance novel but the author does it with ease and no awkwardness. Even though I know some readers might think Deacon was a A-Hole when he met Willow for the first time, I thought the telling of their interaction was completely credible given Deacon’s history. It would have seemed contrived if he had leapt into fatherhood with no problems. I felt for Deacon as he struggled with feeling like he wasn’t good enough to be a father.

I also enjoyed the action of the book. The plot was constantly moving forward and I had no problem turning the pages or paying attention. The plot is layered with information about the background of Deacon and his brothers and Alex’s parents. Of course when Alex and Deacon finally hook up, the sex scenes were good. They weren’t the best I’ve read but they were definitely better than average.

What I didn’t like that also affected my rating was Alex's behavior after getting with Deacon. Ok there are like two versions of Alex in this book. The pre-Deacon Alex was strong, assertive and confident. She was able to help Deacon become a better person and a better parent before she ever started a romantic relationship with him. The post-Deacon Alex was just terribly insecure. If Deacon did anything she didn’t like, she was threatening to huff and puff and blow the relationship down. I especially did not like a particular scene in the strip club. First, Alex’s reaction to the strip club was just soo over the top. Second, her plan to get back at him or whatever that was came off as just being so ridiculous. The more the relationship with Deacon progressed the more brain cells Alex seemed to lose. When Alex actually ASKED Deacon about marriage before he was contemplating it, I was just about done with her.

The other thing I didn’t love was the plan that Alex hatches in the end of the book. I'm sort of ambivalent about what she did. On the one hand, it was brave and I like that in heroines but it was also stupid which is not something that I like.

So all in all I thought this was a well written, fast paced MC romance with some good sex scenes. And although I generally really liked the characters in this book, Alex found my one bad nerve and stepped all over it. I still recommend this book, particularly for you MC romance fans and I will read more books by this author.

**ARC provided by Publisher**

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