Hold Me Down by Jackie Ashenden Series: Deacons of Bourbon Street #3
Published by Loveswept
Publication Date: December 8th 2015
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 216
Source: Publisher
Format: eARC
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Disclaimer: I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book. All opinions stated are solely mine.
When the biker who broke her heart rides into town, a woman must choose between passion and duty. Jackie Ashenden ups the ante in a seductive series co-written with Megan Crane, Rachael Johns, and Maisey Yates.
Leonidas “Blue” Delacroix might be the prodigal son of New Orleans aristocrats, but the Deacons of Bourbon Street are his real family. And with their patriarch murdered, Blue wants nothing more than to unleash hell on the motorcycle club’s enemies—even if it means taking up arms against the girl who used to be his best friend. She’s done quite a bit of growing up, and suddenly their chemistry is red-hot. But where’s the line between ruthless seduction and sweet temptation?
For Alice Day, loyalty is everything. When Blue skipped town, she had no choice but to adopt a new family: their rivals, the Graveyard Ministry. Seeing him again reawakens old feelings . . . and fiery fantasies. Alice could never forget the scent of leather on his skin—just as she could never forgive the sting of his betrayal. But while the Ministry has treated her like one of their own, Blue is part of her soul. And as their liaisons hit the boiling point, Alice trusts her heart with the deadliest choice of her life.
Review
HOLD ME DOWN is an engaging story of old friendships, shared betrayals, split loyalties and new love and continues a wonderful collaboration among four authors. I really love the continuity of the overall arc of the story, even as each book features a distinct and unique character, as well as how the feel of New Orleans remains the same from book to book: the seediness of Bourbon Street, busy streets filled with different kinds of people – from tourists to con artists- and the coarse and rough world of testosterone-filled bikers.
Alice Day has always wanted a place to belong, a family to call her own and for a time she had that with the Deacons, until they abandoned her and she found a new family in their rival MC, the Graveyard Ministry. The Deacons are back after ten years away and Alice is now considered a traitor and only Blue’s claim on her as his property protects her from the retribution that would otherwise be aimed at her.
Despite his blue-blooded roots, Blue considers the Deacons his real family and he’s back in New Orleans with his club brothers to unravel the mystery surrounding the death of their President, Priest. He can’t help remembering the girl who was his best friend but he’s not quite prepared for the woman she has become, his attraction to her and the complications her defection to a rival MC create. Bourbon Street is about to heat up and Blue finds himself torn between loyalty to his brothers and the woman who has had a tight grip on his soul for the last ten years.
Blue is my favorite male in the series so far. He was broody, dark and thoroughly alpha but he was also honorable, loyal and always chose to do the right thing without thinking about the cost to him. These qualities made him just the perfect person for Alice to have in her corner, especially as she found herself caught between two MCs.
MC romances by their very nature are crude and I find that keeping that before me helps deal with some of the over the top macho behavior that would ordinarily have me seeing red. And Blue definitely was as macho and high-handed as can be quite a few times, but Alice was every bit as fiery as her red hair suggested and very much his match. I loved their chemistry and their battle for control made for some very interesting reading.
The mystery surrounding Priest’s death, which had stalled in the previous book, suddenly picks up steam here and there are revelations that pit MC against MC and it’s up to Alice and Blue to calm an already volatile situation.
I have enjoyed this series so far and I know that each book can be read as a stand alone, but the stories of all the Deacons are so intertwined that reading them in order actually helps to understand the characters and what drives them, fill in the blanks about their pasts and get a peek into what they want for the future.
About Jackie Ashenden
Jackie has been writing fiction since she was eleven years old. Mild mannered fantasy/SF/pseudo-literary writer by day, obsessive romance writer by night, she used to balance her writing with the more serious job of librarianship until a chance meeting with another romance writer prompted her to throw off the shackles of her day job and devote herself to the true love of her heart – writing romance. She particularly likes to write dark, emotional stories with alpha heroes who’ve just got the world to their liking only to have it blown wide apart by their kick-ass heroines.
She lives in Auckland, New Zealand with her husband, the inimitable Dr Jax, two kids, two cats and some guppies (possibly dead guppies by the time you read this). When she’s not torturing alpha males and their stroppy heroines, she can be found drinking chocolate martinis, reading anything she can lay her hands on, posting random crap on her blog, or being forced to go mountain biking with her husband.
You can find Jackie at her website or on Twitter.
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