Vicious Cycle by Katie Ashley
Series: Vicious Cycle #1
Published by Headline Eternal on June 2, 2015
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Source: Borrowed
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Deacon Malloy’s life is dedicated to the Hell’s Raiders motorcycle club. Tough, hard, and fast with his fists, he serves the group as sergeant at arms. But his devil-may-care approach to life is thrown for a loop when the five-year-old daughter he never knew existed lands on the club steps.
Alexandra Evans is devoted to all her students—but there’s always been something about Willow Malloy that tugs at her heart. There’s an aura of sadness about her, a girl in need of all the love Alexandra can give. When Willow stops coming to school, Alexandra’s search leads to a clubhouse full of bikers . . . and a father hell-bent on keeping his daughter always within sight.
The moment Deacon sees Alexandra, he has to have her in his bed—and he’s never met a woman yet who couldn’t be persuaded. No matter how attracted she is to Deacon, Alexandra refuses to be just another conquest. But it’s Deacon himself who could be seduced—into a brighter future for himself, his daughter, and the woman he’s falling for against all odds.

Katie Ashley was an author whose books I meant to try a long time ago and, since I heard good things about her works from a few fellow bloggers, I was really excited to read this book. However, I might have just picked the wrong title to start with . . .

While the plot is intriguing and it has the potential to put you on edge—and out of your comfort zone—the characters don’t do the job. The book opens with quite the crude scene, one that got me in and made me turn the first few chapters worrying about the five-year-old girl, Willow, and curious to see her trying to make a connection with her father. Nevertheless, I constantly felt like the sexy and dangerous Deacon was off, and his love interest was all over the place. Alexandra—who can be truly naive and annoyingly makes a big scene at times—goes Alex 2.0 just like that, completely changing her character and becoming the bad-ass of the story. Also, members of her family are unbelievably understanding, considering their background.

I was expecting a thrilling, sexy, and intense read but, in the end, I found the book disappointing. Oddly enough, the hero of the second instalment is the character I’d be curious to know better, but I still have to make up my mind if/when to go for it.

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