Joanna Wylde

I am a huge fan of Motorcycle Club (MC) romances, and Joanna Wylde is one of the best writers in this niche romance sub-genre. From the hot, gritty sex scenes to the club business affairs and related action-packed scenes, Ms. Wylde knows how to deliver a deeply satisfying MC romance. I also particularly enjoy her special sense of humor which she aptly uses to bring her characters and the MC world to life. REAPER'S STAND is no exception. From the opening prologue, which starts out with a show more bang, to the last page, Ms. Wylde had me entertained and fixated on finishing this immersing read.

For those of you who are wondering whether this book can be read as a standalone, it most certainly can, as each book in the Reaper's MC series primarily focuses on a different hero and heroine couple. Additionally, while there is some carryover of club business, for the most part, the immediate threat covered herein, the encroachment of the Mexican drug cartel on the Reaper's and several other close-by MCs' territory, is developed within the pages of this book. The one area where you will no doubt get more out of the series if you read it in order is from a character development perspective. For example, there are spoilers in this book regarding the couple from Book 3, Hunter and Em, but that is mostly because Em is the daughter of the hero of this book.

Reese "Picnic" Hayes, the President of Reaper's MC, is a devoted father of two grown-up women. He used to be a devoted husband, but tragically he lost his wife, Amber, a few years earlier. After that devastating loss, he never imagined he would love another woman, so he didn't bother trying. Instead, like many other MC members, his involvement with women was limited to sampling as much Club property as possible.

Into this fairly established life, where Club business is the priority and women are disposable, enters London Armstrong, the owner of the cleaning business that cleans one of the Club's properties. Picnic has no time to waste with a high and mighty, good-girl, cleaning lady like London. But seeing as he can't get the picture of the two them doing the nasty out of his mind, he takes advantage when the situation arises and proposes a compromise.

London needs Picnic's help to once again bail her junkie cousin's teenage daughter, Jessica, out of danger, and Picnic needs to relieve his itch. Fortunately for Picnic, Jessica has an affinity for getting in trouble. Knowing that London won't just agree to what he has in mind, he gets her to agree to be his cleaning lady. He's confident the rest will follow.

What then transpires is a comical courting which is made especially interesting by the fact that London is already dating the assistant deputy of Coeur D'Alene, or as Picnic likes to call him, "Deputy Dick".

As is usual of a great read though, not everything is as it seems and pretty soon, London can't help the attraction she feels for Picnic, never mind the fact that she needs his protection. But is Picnic what she wants long-term, and is a long-term relationship even in Picnic's vocabulary anymore? Moreover, when danger presents London with one hell of ultimatum, will she make the right choices to stay alive, protect Jessica and find her HEA? Is that even possible?

I really loved Picnic! So much so, that in some respects he reminds me of one of my all-time favorite MC bikers: Tack Allen from Motorcycle Man by Kristen Ashley. Although, yes, Picnic is an outlaw, and Tack deals in mostly legitimate businesses, they both share a maturity that can generally only be found in a hero who has lived life (both being in their forties). For example, both are devoted fathers, and therefore this sense of responsibility colors their actions towards family and their general understanding and acceptance of situations that other younger heroes might not get. Additionally, with maturity, comes a little more self-restraint, and determination to plan for what you really want, rather than losing your self-control. And, both are of course sexy alpha heroes, who go all-in to protect their loved ones. Never mind the dirty talk and actions they both partake in when pursuing their favorite activity!

Opposite to Picnic, however, I do have to say that London is not my favorite biker babe heroine. In all fairness, this is mostly due to one decision, which I just can't understand, much less forgive. But in the end, she does come through and her chemistry with Picnic is off the charts. So all in all, this was another 5-star Reaper's MC read for me!

Source: Review written by me and originally published in The Romance Reviews. show less

So I was pretty disappointed in this book. But I'll say that that is almost entirely because of my personal reading preferences. I hate that the story opened with the scene where she tries to kill him. Then it goes back 18 days to what led up to it. Betrayal is a personal hot button for me and since I started out knowing she was going to betray him I didn't enjoy reading about how it all came to pass. I was just miserably waiting for the other shoe to drop. Then to top it off, the scene show more where is betrays him is 2/3rds of the way through the book so that just prolonged the bad feeling. If it had happened earlier and they'd had more time together afterwards it would have been better or even if I hadn't known all along she was going to betray him. I could have at least enjoyed the first 2/3rds. As it was it was like I had already read the end of the book. I don't skip ahead to the end of the book and I kind of resent being made to.

Other than that whole situation I liked the dynamic of Reese being such a man ho dick and needing to come to terms with loving a new woman after losing his wife. And straight lace normal woman London coming to terms with loving a biker. That would have been enough conflict without the Betrayal. I did feel like their relationship was shorted quite a bit in this one. They could have still done the saving of Jessica thing too.

Oh well sadly this one didn't work for me but I'm not giving up on the series. I loved the previous 3 and I'll just pretend this one didn't happen and look forward to the next one. show less

First off, let's get this out of the way, this was a keeper for me. A book I reviewed awhile ago, I put "this is why I read historical romance". Well, this is why I read contemporary biker romance. I state biker because let's be honest, with the sudden overwhelming influx of this trope, it deserves its own category.

This is part of a series and if you read the previous book (Reaper's Legacy) you are ahead of the game and probably have been eagerly awaiting Em and Hunter's story. Since half show more of this book takes place during the time period of Reaper's Legacy, you're fine if you just want to start with this one and have not read the previous books.

The first 70% or so of this book was oh so good. We learn that Hunter, as part of a rival motorcycle club the Devil's Jacks, is tasked with the assignment of keeping tabs on Em, the daughter of the president of the hated Reapers. Their relationship starts online and Em, who only knows Hunter as Liam, starts to fall for Hunter through their conversations. She eventually agrees to meet up with him and there starts the story of holy hot sexual tension, chemistry, betrayal, push/pull, and love/hate.

You see, Hunter kidnaps Em and tries to use her against her father and MC club. Em does not take to this too kindly. We get to see Em come out of her shell, her strength, and raw emotions regarding Hunter. Hunter shows us his ability to control his emotions (well almost with Em), ruthlessness, and weaknesses. These characters are well drawn with past histories created that lead to believable motivations, actions, and emotions. These two want to be together but with a Romeo and Juliet vibe, they must battle for that to happen. The action part of the storyline deals with the two MCs struggling to trust one another and learn more about a cartel that could be working to encroach on their territory.

The beginning of the book flies by, the story pacing just right, only hurried because I was so engrossed in the book and wanted to know where it was all leading. The last 30% or so, I felt like the pace slowed down for me a bit. Em and Hunter are working on being together (this could be a personal problem because I like tension ;) and we lose a little bit of the excitement of the chase and biker tension. The character of Hunter mellows out more. The author acknowledges this with an "author's note" and states this book could be considered more New Adult than her previous ones. I'm not the biggest New Adult fan and thought this one was sexier than the usual in that genre and had no problems with the character of Hunter; don't let a New Adult tag scare you away.

Em's father, Picnic, is the main secondary character (struggling with letting his daughter grow up) and I imagine we are going to see a book in his honor with the rotating parade of women to his door ending. Other notables include Kit (Em's sister) and Cookie and Deke ( Definitely a story there with these two).


Books like this are my guilty pleasure and this was a great enjoyable one. Read it if you at all like romance and definitely if you like biker romance. show less

Wylde is queen of the Must Haves– that irrepressible, immense, yet totally inexplicable desire between two disparate characters that even they themselves don’t understand. Shade is all “I MUST HAVE YOU/ YOU MUST BE MINE” and Mandy totally feels the same, but she is fighting it. Men have done her wrong in the past and she wants to stand on her own two feet, not be a biker chick pushover.

You know what else is super great? Mandy is not an ingenue, on any level. I get kind of tired of show more the wide-eyed, innocent, untouched virgins in romance, guys. Even when they’re not actual virgins, a lot of heroines are just too endearing. Mandy is circumspect, tough, funny, and had sharp edges. She’s working class. She’s even on probation! Heroines aren’t supposed to be like her. Shade is actually a little underdeveloped, compared to her. show less