Reaper's Stand

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 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 show more 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

I did not really enjoy this one and skimmed the last 30%. It hooked me in the beginning and I was curious to know how the scenario panned out. It just took "forever" to get there! I couldn't stand Reese....what an ass. He fucked some girl while London was in the same room. Granted she showed up to his house early/unexpected and the weren't together yet. He did it on purpose and the very next night London has sex with him....WTF? I hated the sex scene when she tried to shoot him and was held captive. He basically raped her but of course, she just loved it! I also couldn't stand how London was such a door mat to Jess! London did all this stuff to help her including going in debt and the girl talked to her like a dog! London dropped show more everything and risked her life to save the little shit too. No....just no.....not enjoyable reading! I want to read fantasy not reality. I guess I'm done with this series. I think the author is trying to add that element of toughness because it's an outlaw biker gang but it just didn't work for me. show less

I like how London doesn't base her happiness on a man. Many women would be so over the moon to be thrown a little attention and down in the dumps with jealousy when he was with someone else. London knows what's important in life to her, and she focuses on that.

I admit I got caught up in wanting a piece of Picnic also. He's immature in all the bad boy ways, and a solid force behind you when push comes to shove.

For me, the second half of the book was better in every way. And I love the glimpses of many of the other characters at the end. I'm looking forward to more.





toni


FangirlMoments and My Two Cents

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 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 show more 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

I think Reaper's Stand (Reapers MC #4) by Joanna Wylde, is by far the best of the Reaper’s books. Great characters – London was a wonderful character, and great addition to the Reapers family. The book was filled with humor, excitement, action, great sex scenes, tension, and lots of love.

Picnic’s transition from man-whore to committed relationship was filed with lust and lots of sexual tension, the chemistry between he and London was palpable, and exciting. London’s growth was also dramatic, from the dual focused surrogate mother of Jessica, and small business owner into a
multifocused emotionally strong woman, who was sexually playful, always thinking of other’s and wanted to be in on the vengeance against the cartel.

The book show more was an all around great read show less

I have been meaning to catch up on this series for a while, so I was stoked when I saw some of the books on my Hoopla app in audio. I like to listen while I get read for and drive to work in the morning. So this review will be for the audiobook version of [b:Reaper's Stand|20821294|Reaper's Stand (Reapers MC, #4)|Joanna Wylde|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1394693045s/20821294.jpg|40167154].

Well [a:Joanna Wylde|223343|Joanna Wylde|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1359652963p2/223343.jpg] certainly knows how to hook you in with that prologue! Reaper's Stand opens with our heroine, London, building up her courage to kill the president of the Reapers MC, Reese "Picnic" Hayes. We can tell from the context that there was some sort of friendly show more or romantic relationship between the pair, so what in the world led up to this?

London is somewhat of a suburban mom-type, she is uptight and responsible and kinda looks down her nose at the Reapers. However that does not stop her from taking their cold hard cash for the cleaning contracts her cleaning business holds for various Reapers' locations. I liked London, even though she was stuffy and uptight. She was a good person, put in a bad situation. And it turns out all she needed to pull that stick outta her a$$ was a certain biker president. That being said, I really wish she would have trusted in Picnic and the Reapers a little more.

Picnic is all things alphahole biker. Since his wife died, Picnic has vowed not to take another old lady. Instead he has a steady stream of sweetbutts in his lap, which continues even after he starts lusting after his cleaning lady. And even despite his a$$hole behavior, I still loved Reese. I obviously have a penchant for the alphahole... which is why I am probably still single in real life. Alphaholes are great to read about, but they don't translate to great boyfriends in real life. Le sigh.

The Reapers are still battling the cartel along with the Devil Jacks and Silver Bastards, and things come to a head in this book. The suspense, drama and action in these books is always goods... and so is the rockin' hot sex! Dirty, raw and gritty, just like you hope to get in these biker books. The next book in line moves on to the Silver Bastards series and I'm excited to start it.

A note on the narration - it didn't work great for a biker book. The male narrator made the bikers sound more like bankers, so that ruined the fantasy a bit. The narrator changes for Silver Bastards, so I'm gonna give it a shot in audio before I switch to reading.

4 stars / 4 flames. show less

“So far as I knew, Hallmark didn’t make a “Sorry I Interrupted Your Oral Sex” card.”

LOL ... I actually read parts of this to my husband...and that lead to private stuff in our bedroom...yummm

Anyhooo's..... I LOVED Reese! Picnic....love to have a picnic w/him...

London....sigh... not so much. Just couldn't get why she did the things she did and her reasoning's....she was just as immature as her 'cousin' ...

I had wished that Pic would get a really great woman, strong, and wise, and wonderful....he got a little blond with big boobs...sigh men! Love knows no reason and I guess she worked for him...not so much for me.

Love this family so much....