Ride Wild (Raven Riders)

Ride Wild
by Laura Kaye
Release Date:  October 31, 2017
Publisher: Avon
Book #3 in the Raven Riders series
Number of Pages:  400
Kindle
Source:  MCL
Contemporary Romance M/F
Rating:  XXX
Read 8/29/20 to 8/30/20

Wild with grief over the death of his wife, Sam “Slider” Evans merely lives for his two sons. Nothing holds his interest anymore—not even riding his bike or his membership in the Raven Riders Motorcycle Club. But that all changes when he hires a new babysitter.

Recently freed from a bad situation by the Ravens, Cora Campbell is determined to bury the past. When Slider offers her a nanny position, she accepts, needing the security and time to figure out what she wants from life. Cora adores his sweet boys, but never expected the red-hot attraction to their brooding, sexy father. If only he would notice her…

Slider does see the beautiful, fun-loving woman he invited into his home. She makes him feel too much, and he both hates it and yearns for it. But when Cora witnesses something she shouldn’t have, the new lives they’ve only just discovered are threatened. Now Slider must claim—and protect—what’s his before it’s too late.

I knew that Slider’s story would be worth the wait. At the beginning of this series, I wasn’t sure who he’d end up with. But I was hoping it would be Cora. It seemed as though she was going to find her HEA with someone else at first, so I’m glad that fizzled to a “great friends” relationship to clear the way for Slider to find the happiness he deserves.

There is so much beautiful chemistry between Cora and Slider. On top of their obvious connection, Cora has such a wonderful rapport with his kids. Of course, that makes it even harder for Slider to resist giving into his feelings for the woman.  She’s patient and kind and giving. But she’s not a pushover. Cora knows her mind and, as much as she has a soft spot for Slider, she knows how she deserves to be treated.

Truly, Slider has a soft, mushy center. He’s just been through the ringer and has put up a very thick wall in order to survive this thing we call life. He loves his boys more than anything and is an amazing dad. But the more time he spends with Cora around his boys the more he opens his eyes to what those walls he erected are doing to his kids.

The emotions and truths Slider and Cora bring out of one another are just another testament to them belonging together. There are things they have to go through, that the reader knows they’ll go through, in order to come out the other side stronger and more committed than before. It doesn’t make reading those things any easier, but they are all understandable.

I adore the way the Raven Riders wrap Slider back into the fold with relief and love instead of giving him a hard time for the way he’s been a ghost of himself. Even without knowing all of the facts as to why he stepped back, they still respect that it was something he felt he needed to do. And not once did they hold that against him.

I wish this series would go on forever, but I’m realizing that I may have come to the end of the line. There are a couple of novella length stories to go, but one of them (Jagger’s story) seems like it’s going to be very hard to get for a reasonable price. I’ll keep looking, though! I love this family that chose to be such to one another. I want them all to find their HEAs!

4.5 stars