Book Review: Own the Wind

In Romance Novel Overload I admitted my addiction to Kristen Ashley books. Her first in the Chaos series was recently released, a spin-off from the Dream Man series. For those that know me, Kristen Ashley’s books are the ones that inspired me to move to Colorado and become a biker babe. A move, I might add, that was totally unsupported by essentially everyone I know. They all thought I should get a job first. Then move. Seriously, where is the fun in that? Anyway, I am not in Colorado and I am not a biker babe. Hmph… But I digress…

Off the bat, I have to say, I enjoyed the fact that Kristen now has a publisher and the book was professionally edited. I still found a few typos and some missing punctuation, but overall, a much better read than her other books–which I still love. Also, this book was a compact 279 pages, as opposed to the majority of her other books which are over 1,000 pages on my Nook. However, talk about a book that sticks to a formula.

My biggest and probably only complaint about this book is that the hero falls into the exact same speech pattern as do ALL of her male characters. I simply don’t understand why they all have to speak the same way, which is to say they are unable to form complete sentences. It’s a cross between slang and Neanderthal; hence, a dialect I am not familiar with? It also forces all of her male characters to take on the same mannerisms, which is a bummer. The characters she creates have so much depth to them. The back stories that she gives them are intricate and compelling. It’s almost as though she puts so much into building up the character’s history, she runs out of steam and by mid-book, and they revert to becoming the same person in every series. I’d say the background and depth she gives the characters is what keeps me coming back. That, and I love the fact that the characters from her other books and series cross over. It’s so fun to see them again. And all of the books are light-hearted and humorous. And then there’s that whole Colorado biker thing I’m attracted to. Ok, clearly I just like her books.

The first book in this new series is about Tabby and Shy. We were introduced to them in the last (so far) of the Dream Man series, Motorcycle Man. Tabby is Tack’s daughter and Shy is Tack’s brother in the Chaos Motorcycle Club, of which, Tack is the president. We saw this pairing coming a mile away. But boy did it not happen entirely as expected. Tabby, while the ‘Princess’ of Chaos, is a nurse and actually has a pretty good head on her shoulders. Now, of course, anyone who’s seen Sons of Anarchy, which is mentioned in the book, has to think of Tara and Jax. I have only been able to watch a handful of episodes so I’m not all that familiar with what’s going on, on the show; other than I know Jax is in a motorcycle club and Tara, his woman, is a doctor. As such, I can’t speak to any other similarities that may or may not exist.

Tabby and Shy finally come together, but it’s not easy. And after they are together, that’s not easy either. But it’s good. And it was nice that the heroine in this book didn’t get kidnapped, or beat up, or have to be saved. That was a nice departure from ‘the formula.’ But there was still more than enough drama and Kristen has set up the books to come. There was a happily ever after and I can’t wait to see them in future books. We already know the next book is going to be about Lanie and Hop. She’s a glamour girl and he’s a biker in Chaos. So that should be a lot of fun. (See…you can be all ‘buttoned up’ and still be a biker babe. There is totally hope for me yet!)