(This book was sent to me by the author for consideration.)
Blurb from the Author's Website:
She is love advice in a coffee shack, he's protection in a biker bar. When her past meets his present it's a killer cocktail that might get them shot, stabbed or otherwise dead.
TORI BALDWIN spends all her time traveling the states, running a mobile Coffee Shack and handing out love advice with every cup. She’s staked her rig in the parking lot of Cactus Cove—a local biker bar by all appearances— and plans to stay put for three months. Just long enough to make some money, without making any friends, before she moves to her next destination as she tries to stay ahead of a painful past.
RAIN BROOKSHIRE is the leader of the Bantorus motorcycle club, and owner of the Cactus Cove in the small town of Pitnam, Washington. He wants the Lagsturns, a rival-bad-news motorcycle club, to leave town before they infect his town with trouble.
With bullets flying and the Lagsturns putting on the pressure, the only way to keep Tori safe—since she refuses to leave town—is for Rain to claim her as his woman. She has no idea that Rain’s played his hand for all to see in the biker world. It doesn't help that Tori exhibits the three ideal classifications of his ideal woman—Classy, Sexy, and a total Goof— and he can't help but posture and lay down the law. But, when it appears Tori’s life is in danger, and the Lagsturns are innocent, he isn’t going to let the law stop him from keeping his woman safe.
Review: Breathing His Air marks a first for me - my first biker romance book! The action starts right away as Tori, a 24 year old mobile coffee shop owner just arrived for a 3 month shift, is harassed by a badass biker gang as soon as she steps out of her coffee trailer. Things are starting to look pretty darn scary for her when Rain, lead biker of the local (nice guy) club and alpha male supreme steps in and literally carries her away to safety. In order to protect the silly and naive Tori, who refuses to leave town, from the unwanted attentions of the visiting (and nasty) biker gang, Rain claims Tori as his woman (also known as "stamping" her) in order to mark her as untouchable by all bikers. She, of course, refuses to be considered "his woman" and constantly refuses this status, all the while prancing around the local bar in short-shorts, high heels and sucking on her grape lollipops. Hard to believe nobody takes her seriously, right?
Rain is the classic alpha-male, powerful, handsome and completely dominant, both in town and his interpersonal relationships with his employees, and fellow bikers. However, his alpha-maleness reaches new heights when he doesn't allow Tori to go anywhere without an escort. She is pretty much a bird in a gilded cage. And for a girl who has lived the last 6+ years as a gypsy with her mobile coffee trailer, she does not take kindly to the heavy-handed approach. Rain finds the lovely and sweet Tori to be incredibly sexy, classy and completely whacked - which also happens to be his three requirements for the perfect woman. Naturally they are both very attracted to each other.
While Rain is preoccupied with keeping Tori safe, running his various businesses, and keeping the peace with the rival biker gang in town, Tori is charming all the locals with her sweet ways. She makes friends out of every stranger she meets, with one exception. Somebody wants Tori out of the way, and burns her cabin down to send her the message. Is it the bad-guy biker, or Rain's conniving and vicious ex-lover? Or someone else entirely? Either way, Rain protects what is his, and Tori is his, so off they go to his mansion in the woods. Pretty soon their relationship heats up and we finally learn about Tori's horrific past.
What saved Rain and Tori from being frustrating, extreme stereotypes as characters was how much they struggled to see the other's side of things. Both really stepped out of their comfort zones in order to meet the other half way, and the author did a great job in slowly building the relationship and building the personalities of Rain and Tori, creating depth and shading to their characters.
In many ways this is a classic romance. Tori is the sweet, young, ingenue who is in way over her pretty little head. She has a heart of gold, a Barbie-like body, is nearly a virgin, and has a painful past that causes her to go catatonic when she sees a gun. Rain is older, wealthy, sexually experienced and determined to protect Tori while also wanting to get into her pants. He is arrogant, patronizing and aggressive, and constantly calls Tori his woman. If Barbara Cartland was into sex and bikers, this would be one of her classics! And I mean that as the ultimate compliment, because one of the things I love about romance novels is the formula: the hero is big and strong, the heroine is sweet and kind and there is a happy-ever-after. If I wanted reality I'd watch the news. I want romance. And Debra Kayn delivers in a delightfully fresh package!
Breathing His Air will be released on April 22.
For more information visit the author's website at http://www.debrakayn.com/.
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