Ride Steady

AudioBook Review: Stars: Overall 3 Narration 2 Story 3 Carissa Teodoro had everything, or so she thought: loving parents, a solid marriage and a little boy she dotes on. And then everything blew up: only her father is left for her family, her husband is a serial cheater and dumped her while she was pregnant with their son, and he’s got money to burn, just not for her or their boy – and she’s struggling to make ends meet and show her son all the love she can, even though she’s sharing custody with her ex. Nothing is quite what she hoped, and a flat tire just adds more to the mix. But the biker who appears to give her a hand looks familiar – Carson Steele (Joker) was the bad boy in high school, attracted to but never making a move on Carissa – she was pure and innocent and he was unwilling to bring her down with his dysfunctional family or issues. He’s got issues to burn, and staying away would be the smart thing – but also too much to resist. He’s falling for her, and wanting to see that she and her son have everything they need, and Chaos can help with that – but …. Like all of Ashley’s books, this one brings in several threads and people from all earlier books, revisits issues of past traumas and hurts, and gives us a ton of backstory on both characters, as well as adding in a threat that will force Joker to choose between what he wants and his past ills – it’s pretty standard romance stuff with the addition of a lovely sweet relationship wit Carissa and her little boy. At this point, I was hoping for a bit more content in the pages, while it was there, it took far too many words to get it out. Seventeen plus hours of everything but the relationship with Carissa and her little boy, and that she wasn’t a total pushover when silence or a ‘brushing off’ response was the only answer to her questions. She was the standout in this story, but the withholding of information from Joker at the start didn’t get nearly enough play. Yep – get it – you’re ashamed and concerned for her – but to lie (and omissions are lies) is just……. Narration is again provided by Kate Russell, and while I hoped for more and better – it wasn’t happening here. With a plot that felt familiar and a narration that, quite frankly, was wearing and didn’t encourage me to listen on, using emotion and variation in pitch, tone and delivery – this took much longer to listen to than other books of this length, and I can honestly say that I was happy when “The End” came. Sad, because there was more scope and potential here for actual emotive performance that reached the heights and depth of the tumult within both characters – and the twist and the ‘bad guys’ could have been less obvious to hear, but the narration here was exactly as I expected and not what I hoped. I can only say that the ‘spark’ I saw when first encountering this series with book four is attributable to my own lack of exposure to truly solid narrative performances. I received an AudioBook copy of the title from Hachette Audio for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review; all conclusions are my own responsibility.

I enjoyed the book but kept waiting for something to happen, missed the thrill I usually get toward the end where she needs to be rescued, after so many ka books of kidnapping, bombs, drive bys ect this one sorta of fizzled for me

I thought Walk Through Fire was good, but this is better than good: it's great! Loved the time and effort the author put into really developing an excellent story line. Loved the characters, the plot -- well done!