3.5 stars
Okay. Here we go...
This was me when I got my ARC for the book.
And this was me as I was reading through it.
Yeah. I hate giving less than 4 stars to KA considering I enjoyed her books in the past. Sadly, Fire Inside didn't live up to the hype for me. Don't get me wrong. It was an okay read. Most people might end up loving it but to me it was just lackluster. I was waiting for that omph and it never came.
Hop
On the surface, this book has all the KA elements. We have a good-looking, badass biker, alpha male in Hopper Kincaid. Even his name screams hot biker. And get this he (view spoiler). Hop should be a shoo-in for the best KA alpha hero award and join the illustrious rank of Tate and Joe in KA world but he felt a tad bit short.
I liked him a lot. I was surprised at how much I liked him considering what he did during Motorcycle Man didn't endear him to a lot of readers. KA did a brilliant job of redeeming--or should I say explaining his actions during that whole BeeBee-Gate fiasco. As much as I liked him, I also felt that there was nothing special at all about him. Not even his 'stache wasn't special because every KA fan knows that Luke Stark already has that area covered. Poor Hop. Even his stint as a former (view spoiler) wasn't enough. That said, I still liked him a lot.
Lanie
Sadly, Lanie, again, was a disappointment for me. The blurb said she was full of drama, so I was expecting Roxie-like drama or even Gwen or Elvira. She was neither. She basically didn't do anything. She had her moments of brilliance but it wasn't enough to make me like her or root for her.
Which brings me to the crux of the matter, the whole reason why I didn't feel this book as much as the others. If I may be honest, the last three or four books sounded scarily alike in my opinion. For example...
"Never had class. Never had beauty."
"Nothin' like you, lady. Nothing like that beauty."
"All soft, every inch. Got my d*ck buried in beauty."
"I didn't have a lot of beauty in my life. Found it in that."
And those are just examples. I swear, the word beauty was repeated so many times, and used in that same vein as the examples above, it drove me nuts. It became repetitive. It wasn't exciting anymore. I was pretty sure I've read this line before from KA book. It came to a point where I just wanted to read something else. I wanted the hero to sound different from the last hero or the heroine for that matter.
It wasn't all that bad. It had some note-worthy moments too. I squeed like a little girl that I am when Vance Crowe made an appearance. I swear, he said no more than 6 words overall and I was like, "Wow, that was brilliant! I love him. Hmm, I think I'm gonna reread Rock Chick Renegade again."
But what saved this book from a getting two stars from me was Tack! Tack, you're still the man! He was funny here, without being intentionally so. It was classic Tack and I loved it!!
In spite all that, I would still recommend this book especially to those who are still getting to know Kristen Ashley's writing. This is great choice but for those of us who have been around the block, this might not work. But then, you'll never know until you pick up the book. Who knows, you might end up loving this.
P.S.
One thing that's great about KA is that her stories are so diverse, judging from the series that she has under her belt. That said, the last four books were from her Unfinished Heroes and then Chaos. She did these back-to-back. Not the best idea in my opinion. I'm glad she's doing Rock Chicks next and then the Colorado Mountains. I really think the change of theme or series would be best. Just sayin'.
ARC provided by GCP through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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