Ruined by Jackie Ashenden Release Date: February 22, 2018 Publisher: Harlequin Dare Book #1 in the Knights of Ruin series Number of Pages: 172 Kindle Edition Source: MCL Contemporary Romance/MC M/F Rating: XXX Read 9/22/18 to 9/23/18
This book kind of surprised me. I’ve come to really look forward to any book I can get my hands on by Jackie Ashenden. I’ve read her Tate Brothers series and her Motor City Royals series and enjoyed both immensely. I really liked this story and the characters. There was a lot of heat and love in these pages. But I actually thought this had to be an older book of hers because the editing was terrible.
Let’s start with the positives. This story really starts off with a bang. Cat is in need of her best friend Smoke’s help so goes to find him at his motor cycle club. Let’s just say she finds him in a compromising position. Even though Smoke’s introduction isn’t in the best light, I instantly loved the guy. He dropped everything (right in the middle!) to help his friend out. No giving her a hard time and no questions asked. Cat needed him and he was there.
The chemistry between Smoke and Cat is off the charts. I don’t know how either could deny their feelings. The heat is undeniable. But there’s also tenderness between the two. They’ve known each other most of their lives and have been through a lot together.
Although this is a shorter book, the author still finds a way to pack a lot onto the pages. There are some issues it would have been nice to get a more in-depth look at, but I understood the constraints because of the number of pages. Honestly, it was still an amazing story without those extra pages.
Now the problem. I tried to ignore it. I really did. But there were extra words in some sentences and missing words in others. The reason things like that bother me is it takes me out of the story if I have to go back and reread a sentence to make sure I didn’t read it incorrectly. Then, when I realize it wasn’t me but the actual sentence I have to make sure I’m interpreting the sentence correctly…adding or subtracting the proper word or words. This is not a writing issue, it’s an editing issue. I generally try hard not to rate the books I read on those issues unless it’s chronic in a book. Well, it was an issue in this one. I’m still giving it a pretty high rating. It just would have been even higher without the editing errors.
That being said, I’m still looking forward to the next book in this series. I only hope it was looked at a bit more closely. And, quite frankly, it’s very disappointing there is even an issue since I expect better from Harlequin.
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