Pan’s Salvation (Dueling Devils # 5) by Shyla Colt
Contemporary/MC Romance
Released March 8, 2015
Self Published

Reviewed by Sheena

Lark Rosario spent her entire life bailing her sister, Robin out of trouble. But this time, Robin’s addiction has them both in over their heads. Lark’s working as a drug mule to gain her sister’s freedom from a cartel when she gets caught in a shootout between rival bikers. Captured and given to the biker she injured, she’s at the mercy of a man she doesn’t know.
Battling addiction and self-loathing, Dueling Devils member, Hartley “Pan” Sumner can barely care for himself. The last thing he expected to be was a protector. Then he looks into the brown-eyed gaze of a woman struggling to survive and recognizes a kindred spirit, searching for freedom. Desperate for redemption, he takes his little bird under his wing and shows her the beauty of his darkness.

She’s trapped by her situation, and he’s running from his past. Together they may just have a future.

Forget Pan….where is MY salvation.  This novel did not work.  And it should have worked. It should have been amazing.  It had all the ingredients but the recipe was botched and the result is a mess of a tale that made me so mad because it could have been so good.  I read the blurb for Pan’s Salvation and fell in love with its potential.  I have officially rued the day.

Hero Pan is your typical biker dude.  Alpha complex, a complete bad ass and ruggedly sexy as sin. He is also flawed, bears deep emotional scars and self medicates with alcohol.   Score!  Lark is a hard working, proud woman who is a little naive but is out to save her sister and gets manipulated  into being a mule for the Cartel.  On paper, this should work.  The tone was gritty and on target.  Unfortunately, I knew there was a problem about 15 pages in, when Lark is taken hostage/rescued by Pan and her Stolkholm syndrome kicks in practically immediately.  As if it were a dormant part of her personality just waiting for a trigger.  I’m certainly no Emily Post and I am totally down for falling for your hot captor –  but I am almost certain that injecting some realism is a must here.  What woman, desperate to save her sister and under the gun from the Cartel is finding her own pleasure in blowing her captor (as recompense!) in a room full of mangy bikers?  Seriously.  sigh.  From that moment on, I could not take Lark seriously…sure he is gorgeous and the peen makes you cream, but gimmie a break lady!  Pan saved you from impending bodily harm, your sister is a drug addict, you are a mule- late for a Cartel delivery and you are debased and forced to perform …annnd you’re getting off?  Once more for the people in the cheap seats in the back- seriously!??!

At this point I know that to continue this story I am going to have to suspend some serious belief.  I could only hope that my brave sacrifice of realism and logic for the sake of enjoyment would pay off.

Spoiler alert. It didn’t.

Following the BJ spectacle, Lark is smitten and  leans on Pan when she is dealt another blow regarding her junkie sibling.  To her minor credit she is shocked at her reaction to Pan, though I personally believe she should kick it up a notch and be horrified, appalled, anything but the pliant, yielding woman she became in less than 20 pages.  Where was the spark, the fire I was promised when I met her those first few pages!?  There was  a huge missed opportunity with Lark’s character.  It is not lost on me that heroine development much more often than I like, takes a back seat to the usual super fleshed out and multi-layered hero development.  My equal character development for equal pay picket signs are being manufactured as we speak….

Pan is harboring brutal guilt and depression over an accident that claimed the lives of his parents and nearly killed his twin brother who was badly burned in a fire Pan bears responsibility for setting.  His guilt and self loathing are in stark comparison to his brothers acceptance.  He uses his relationship with Lark to keep his demons at bay, but they continue to fester under the surface.  Of course there is insta-love (lust) and they experience a loss as a couple that begins their downward spiral.  Lark is living in a vacuumed daze and Pan is unhealthily fixated on her.  The sex is explosive and there is absolutely  no lack in their carnal connection.  Pausing to say that they are so self-destructive as a pair and I am so not enjoying the story at this point.  Try cringing throughout an entire book and see how you feel!  Finally, in Pan’s  darkest hour she wakes up from her fog and sees how freaking toxic they are and leaves him.  This is where I lost it.  This heroine needs her head examined! You don’t disconnect from him when he saves you from certain death, or when he helps you bury your drug addled sister, or when you  are splattered in brains and fleshy gore  from the most random murder- eva.  You link up with the old ladies and have a girls night where no huge revelations are made, but somehow you get the lead out and figure out that your dysfunctional relationship is on the skids? REALLY!?  I love a tale of emotional growth and self realization and actualization.  But I have to SEE this occur, not have it hit you over drinks with some new broads you barely know?  No wonder Pan spiraled. His anchor was wrenched from him and he didn’t know why…you just need some time….time for what!?  The holes…the holes and gaps did this story in.  It did not work as a shorter story.  This needed to be a solid 250 pager to incorporate the necessary plot development and character growth.  You can’t cram utter destruction and debilitated characters in 100 pages.  It does not work. It certainly did not work in this instance.  I put this book down agitated and annoyed.  All the ingredients, but the finished product left a bad taste.

You see, I am a self proclaimed MC romance connoisseur. A Biker aficionado. A Club Life appreciator.  MC Romance is trendy. And I get it because DUH, it’s freaking awesomesauce.  But you can’t half ass it.  Biker romance is more than calling a woman your old lady, putting her on the back of your bike, dabbling with the club whores, and tossing around a few “fucking bitches”  and bar fights for good measure.  There is such life and renegade culture in a good MS romance novel.  You have to do the work and really dig in.  Otherwise it falls flat and is just lamesauce.  Public Service Announcement.  Now, can someone kindly help me down from my soap box? I’m wearing heels.

Pan’s Salvation is a part of the Dueling Devils MC club series.  It is the 5th entry and may or may not be a representative of how good (or bad *wince*) the preceding novels may be.  My time with the Dueling Devils is over.

Grade:  D

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