Friday, June 26, 2015

Ride Steady (Chaos #3) by Kristen Ashley



Carissa "Butterfly" Teodoro thought her life was going to be perfect after marrying the man she fell in love with. Now, she knows she is not living in a fairy tale. She is divorced, with her small baby son Travis and having a hard time paying her bills. Her ex-husband cheated on her with someone younger who has a perfect figure. When her car breaks down in the middle of the road, she is tempted to cry. If she doesn't get Travis on time to see his dad, her ex-husband might try to get a new judge to name her an unfit mother.  At first, when a biker stops to help her, she is unsure of what to do. Her son on the other hand is taken by him. The hot biker reminds her of someone but she really can't tell who he is with the beard covering his face. 

Carson "Joker" Steele came back to Colorado to join the Chaos MC. As a child he was living in a nightmare. Her mother walk out on him even before he could talk and his dad thought of him as nothing more than a punching bag.  Joker has nothing in his life that can make him smile until Carissa enters his world again. As a teenager, he loved her from a distance and now he can love her as a man if he decides that he is worth it. 

I love KA's books. Tack (Motorcycle Man) is one of my favorite books of all times.  Her books can make me laugh, cry, smile, repeat. I was very happy with Ride Steady. It had the perfect combination. 

Carissa was sweet, caring and a great mother. She didn't want jewelry or big houses. She wanted to be a wife and a mother. To her, family was important. She had suffered so much loss already. She was desperate to feel stability in her life.

"I needed steady”

She also could be funny. 

“What the fuck are you doin’?” he asked when I didn’t answer his opening question.
“That’s twenty cents,” I returned.
“Hunh?” he grunted.
“Regular curse words are a nickel,” I told him. “Bad curse words are a dime. Everyone knows the f-word is a bad one and since, starting now, you’re paying me every time you curse, that’s twenty cents you owe me.”

Joker was a good guy with a good heart. He joined the MC to feel that he belonged somewhere. He trusted his brothers with his life. The club also let him do what he wanted. Design bikes. He tried to push Carissa away because he didn't think he was good enough for her. I love that we get Shy, Tack and Rush to help him realize he needed to keep her in his life. I also loved how careful and protective he was of Travis. And Travis melted my heart with all the cute stuff he did.

“You and me and your boy. I know what we got. I know I like what we got. I know I wanna keep that strong and make it stronger. Shit happens. I hope like fuck it happens to us, we’ll fight through to the other side. But I know this and you gotta know it too: No matter what happens, I will never, not ever, not fuckin’ ever, Carissa, regret ridin’ down that shoulder to help you and your boy. It’s the best decision I ever made in my life, and I know that in a way I know I’ll feel that until the day I fuckin’ die.”


To make life even sweeter, KA gave us cameos. Lee, Indy, Hank, Hawk, Elvira, Brock, Mitch, Knight are all a part of this book. My heart did a little flip of happiness every time one will pop out. 


I’d lost Althea. I’d lost Mom. To deal with the pain and make sure I lost nothing else, I’d put blinders on, made my mistakes, and then my dream had died.
But now the loss was over.
The blinders were off.
And I had Travis.
Then I got Joker.
And he gave me Chaos.
So it was done.
I was done losing.
And in being done, eyes open, facing ahead, back straight, head in the game, I was ready to win.

Cliffhanger : No

5/5 "Butterfly" Fangs

A complimentary copy was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.



Kristen Ashley is a great author. Every time I sit down to read one of her books, I know I am going to enjoy myself. Her books always have great humor and romance. Kristen Ashley also knows how to weave in a great plot that keeps my hooked. That's why I was not surprised at all when I really enjoyed this book. 




The romance between Joker/Carson and Carissa was beautiful and heartbreaking. I loved watching their romance develop and seeing them over come obstacles that life threw at them. One of the best things about their relationship was that they were very open with each other. At first, there was one secret that Carson kept from Carissa, but it was revealed pretty quickly. Other than that, they were completely honest with each other. I really appreciated that! Their relationship was also just so adorable. They were so sweet with each other and I loved the cute nicknames they gave each other. Another thing I really liked about their relationship was that Carissa wasn't afraid to put Carson in his place. That aspect of their relationship was great, and it made me laugh out loud numerous times.

Carissa and Carson also had a lot of chemistry, which lead to a lot of hot scenes that I really appreciated ;). Carson made me swoon so many times through the book. He was a sexy badass with an extremely warm and sweet side. Carson is definitely one of my top book boyfriends. I want him. Now.


This book did take me a little bit of time to get into. After a few chapters, I was completely invested in the book. There were a few parts throughout the book that I felt like were dragging. Once the book would pick up pace again, I completely forgot about the slow parts. There were also so many side characters that I would often get extremely confused. I have read the other books, but I still had a hard time remembering who was who. Other than those things, I loved this book so much!

If you are looking for a new MC series to start, then I definitely recommend this series. If you are looking to read this as a standalone, that is totally doable. The only thing I would caution is that there are a lot of characters so it could be a tad confusing. Kristen Ashley is the queen of MC books, and I can't wait to see what she has in store for us with the rest of this series.



4 / 5 Fangs

* This book was given to me via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review *

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