Reaper’s Stand by Joanna Wylde (Reaper’s MC #4)
Releases: October 7, 2014
Contemporary Romance
Berkley Trade

Reviewed by Sheena

Blurb:  As Reapers Motorcycle Club president, Reese “Picnic” Hayes has given his entire life to the club. After losing his wife, he knew he’d never love another woman. And with two daughters to raise and a club to manage, that was just fine with him. These days, Reese keeps his relationships free and easy—he definitely doesn’t want to waste his time on a glorified cleaning lady like London Armstrong.

Too bad he’s completely obsessed with her.

Besides running her own business, London’s got her junkie cousin’s daughter to look after—a more reckless than average eighteen-year-old. Sure she’s attracted to the Reapers’ president, but she’s not stupid. Reese Hayes is a criminal and a thug. But when her young cousin gets caught up with a ruthless drug cartel, Reese might be the only man who can help her. Now London has to make the hardest decision of her life—how far will she go to save her family

If you are a fan of Wylde’s Reaper’s MC series, Reaper’s Stand is the most transformative and explosive entry in the series.  If you are new to the series, pull up a damn chair and get comfortable because this world is as addictive as it is epic.  As a matter of record, I have high expectations for my Alpha MC club Presidents feature books. This is SO not your average romance, at times it was so gritty, I could feel fucking gravel on my finger tips!  Wylde held no punches with Picnic’s story.  It eclipses your average MC romance story.  There was so much meat to Reaper’s Stand that I felt simply ravenous while devouring this book!  Events that go down will change multiple characters lives.  The violence between the club and its latest foe was just as rife with turmoil as the anarchy happening between Picnic and London at the height of their romance.  You have never seen a hero and heroine face such odds.  The fact that they managed to find their way back to one another is miraculous.  I spent much of the book wanting to snap at London to wake UP and trust Picnic!  Then I spend the rest of the book desperately wanting to shield her from Pic’s rage when he is forced to face her proven willingness to deceive him in the most fatal kind of way.

London is not your typical  heroine.  She is not a fire cracker, twenty-something looking for love and hitching herself to the first bad boy biker that comes riding by wearing leathers.  London is a single parent, stepping up to mother her damaged teenage cousin and has her own business.  She is a thirty something, mature woman who has caught Pic’s eye.  Reese “Picnic” Hayes is a widower who has spent the years since his wife’s passing, pounding into the flesh of the most brainless, young, club ass kind of women who throw themselves (face and ass first) into his lap.  He is emotionally unavailable and operating on autopilot.    Ah, then London comes into his life and nothing is the same.

“Hayes gave me the same look he always gave me.  Calculating  Hungry with just a hint of speculation as his eyes swept down my body.  He lingered a bit on my breasts, but didn’t make a show of it.  Nope.  He was all business, except for the uncomfortable fact that a woman was actively giving him a blow job…”

Getting inside Picnic’s head was extraordinary.  He is such a damn MAN. I loved his point of view.  The inner demons he faced and the guilt he clung to, made his point of view that much more gut wrenching as he struggled with allowing himself to grasp for more. More than using temporary women to satisfy his voids,  More than using sex to escape one particularly strong voice in his head.

Aside from the abundance of “rom-traum” (romantic-trauma, ha) between London and Reese, we get a good healthy dose of Horse who is still as entertaining as he was in Reaper’s Property.  There is also much ado about Painter and new comer Silver Bastard, Puck.  Em and hot-as-hell Hunter appear and have one of the most heart breaking moments of the series.  I find that I am not as giddy as I usually am after a Reaper’s novel.  I definitely feel contemplative, and full of thoughts.  Reaper’s Stand is definitely one of my top rated reads of the year.  Wylde spared not one shred of my feelings with Reaper’s Stand!  She lulls you into her familiar world and goes for the freaking jugular.

“He pounded into me without mercy after that, our eyes glued to each other, lips snarling.  There were no tender kisses, no playful giggles.  Just the raw desire of two people whose lives had crashed together in the worst possible way.  My orgasm didn’t build slowly and wash over me.  Nope.  It slammed through me, ripping apart my existence until I cried out and tears ran down my face.”

London is an amazing heroine.  She is flawed.  She makes insane decisions. She has lived and lost and come out a strong independent woman.  What I respect about her most is she genuinely wants to do the right thing by her little cousin Jess.  She loves her OBSCENELY wayward little cousin to a fault.  London makes heartbreaking decisions based on this motherly love that lets you know that she would literally do anything to help save Jess from herself.  Too many times I screamed for London to just let Jess sink or swim (preferably sink) but stubborn London just tried that much harder to reach the disturbed young lady.  That is the sign of a dedicated motherly woman and London has those traits in spades.

Action packed, mature romance that calls upon your own moral code at times. Not your average romance, at times it was gritty, I could feel the My heart throbbed, my tears welled and yes, my lady juices ran rapid (he he he)- all a testament that Reaper’s Stand is the best offering of the series and Joanna Wylde should be commended for such a bold and exciting MC Club Novel.   This is book four in the series but it could stand alone,  however, who would just want to read one!

Grade: A

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