Review: Ashes to Ashes by Tory Palmer

Ashes to Ashes by Tory Palmer

Series: Men of Clarke County #1

Publication date: February 7th, 2020
Pages: 317

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Synopsis:

My life in Medicine Mound is amazing! I have friends, my own home, and a successful business. In short, everything a young woman could hope for...

Oh, who am I kidding? My husband left me, my best friend is an oversexed trust-fund kid, and the silent partner in my business just dropped dead. And, without him, I've got maybe one season before my art gallery goes under.

And, as if all that weren't enough, now I have a stalker!

When Rachel, my oversexed pixie of a friend, drags me out to the rowdiest biker bar in the country, we find not one but two sexy, capable hunks to keep both my mind and body "busy."

But, as my stalker begins to escalate, both of my handsome bikers, Ryder and Tommy, come to my defense.

Will the three of us be strong enough to stand against the criminal forces at work, even as they grow in danger and scale? More importantly will we be strong enough to embrace our hearts' desires?

Or will we all end up as nothing but ashes in the end?

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Review:

The last thing on Jessica Bloom's mind when she is confronted with not just the potential downfall of her business but the new stalker leaving her hateful messages is trying to get laid. Sure, she has rarely had an orgasm with her ex-husband and all their experiences left a lot to be desired. But does that mean that she should give into her horny friend, Rachel's, demands and go out for a night of no-strings-attached sex with a stranger? Apparently so, because that is exactly what Jessica does. And when she does so she means two ex-military bikers named Ryder and Tommy. The night had started out with Tommy and Rachel hot to trot while Jessica found pleasure in the arms of Ryder but when something calls Rachel away what are they to do with the third wheel? It seems the answer is to invite him in for some group fun. But if that dynamic isn't enough of a head scratcher in the light of day the next morning, then an old enemy of the boys shows up in town and seems to be connected to Rachel. Could this be her stalker? And what will the two men do to protect Jessica from an unknown as well as finding a way to bring down their known enemy?

This book was all over the place. Even trying to summarize the book as I always do in the beginning of my review I felt some of my eye-rolling snark surface. It was not a reverse harem. Reverse harems are a dynamic with one woman and three or more men all involved with the same woman. This was a thruple where the two men refuse to cross swords. Although there were some moments where I was like, "hmmm..." in reference to Tommy and Ryder's closeness. The romance was odd and felt very forced and not at all the whimsical romance that most books of its kind are. No professions of love. Barely any acknowledgement of a connection outside of great sex. I didn't fall in love right along with the main characters because there was no love. 

Then you have the mystery which just felt like an afterthought. It was meant to be this big huge antagonistic event that drove the three together but it was just a clusterfuck. There were pot holes and missed information all over the place. It wrapped up without incident which was a huge let down. It's like the excitement of going up a hill on a rollercoaster. The anticipation and excitement mounts, your heart starts to race, your breath starts to quicken and when you get to the top... you go over a speed bump and the ride is over. Let's face it, this book was meant to be a smutty read catering to the taboo nature of reverse harem-type romances and the rest of the story was just fluff thrown in to give the characters reasons to be pushed together so they could have sex. 

So... the romance was non-existent, the plot was also missing, but the sex scenes... those were really well done. The author took her time with the scenes and fleshed them out to make them pretty hot to read. I just wish the rest of the book had some of the same passion she put in these few sex scenes. It would have made the book a lot more redeeming to me. I don't believe I will be continuing the series as the next book is about Rachel and I don't like the character enough to want to read her story. If I stumble across anything else by this author I'll give it a whirl but this one was just not it for me.