Bender by M. Stratton

3 "Prince Charming is a Bad Boy" Stars

 

Back Cover Blurb -

 

 Since high school everyone thought Jake Bender would end up behind bars; after all, he comes from a long line of bad boys. He spent years away from the place he called home. When he finally comes back, everyone thinks he's just a punk kid all grown up who’s now running a dive bar called The Night Club. What they don't know is he heads up a special task force, which cleans up neighborhoods and makes them safe again.

Stormy Ryan has always felt more comfortable with her books than with people. She loves to spend her days within the pages of her books. When her second-hand bookstore is robbed for the third time in as many months, her employees quit leaving her to run the shop on her own. With the pressure of having to deal with her shop and people, not to mention the declining neighborhood, she is at the end of her rope.

When closing up her shop late one night, she is held up and the neighborhood bad boy saves her, putting both of them at the forefront of a psychotic’s obsession.
Being bad has never looked so good.

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Once upon a time, there was a mousy book nerd that took a stand against some very mean and psychotic people and unfortunately, made enemies out of them. Though she had the heart of a lion and the determination of a bear around honey, she was still no physical match against her enemies and soon found herself in a dire situation. Enter our hero. Now, this was no prince charming and though he was here to save the day, instead of galloping up on a white steed, he instead showed up on the back of a bike, covered in leather and exuded danger from every pore. From there, our story follows the unlikely duo as they face off against the sinister men trying to kill them and the mutual attraction that could end up being even more dangerous than the men chasing them.

Bender is a story that blends romance, mystery and thrills all together for a pretty great read. The story line is one that is as old as time, a female in peril and a strong man that comes to save her, but what saves this story from being your typical fairy tale romance, is that our hero is not your typical hero and has more bad boy tendencies than good and our protagonists are pretty damn evil and the author does not shy away from letting us know just how evil they are. There are some pretty gruesome scenes in this novel, but nothing that turned my stomach. More squeamish readers beware though, this book does contain death, destruction and some light torture, if such a thing can be “light”, but it only really thickened the plot in my estimation and I enjoyed the thrill of it.

Overall, I think that readers that enjoy a little thrill and mystery with their romance will enjoy this one. It’s not the most eloquently written book, but then again, I’m not the most eloquent reviewer, so that didn’t bother me in the least. I find that it’s often important to know what you are about to get yourself into before you open the pages of a book and you need to know if you are about to experience an emotion break down at the hands of those pages, that way you can prepare yourself with either a bottle of wine, a quiet little corner, a box of bon bons or a box of tissues or all of the above. This one is a pretty straightforward read, that doesn’t put its readers through the emotional grinder and it doesn’t make you think too much, so it’s one that is great for the “busy” busy nerds that often find themselves reading at red lights and right before bed. Heed my warning though, if you are the least bit squeamish with blood or violence, you might want to re-think before you decide to pick this one up.

Happy reading, until next time…

I would like to thank NetGalley and The Hype PR for the ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review