Hard As It Gets

A Hard Ink Novel, Book 1

By: Laura Kaye

Narrated by: Seraphine Valentine

Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

Five dishonored soldiers.
Former Special Forces.
One last mission.
These are the men of Hard Ink.

Trouble just walked into Nicholas Rixey's tattoo parlor. Becca Merritt is warm, sexy, wholesome, pure temptation to a very jaded Nick. He's left his military life behind to become co-owner of Hard Ink Tattoo, but Becca is his ex-commander's daughter. Loyalty won't let him turn her away. Lust has plenty to do with it too.

With her brother presumed kidnapped, Becca needs Nick. She just wasn't expecting to want him so much. As their investigation turns into all-out war with an organized crime ring, only Nick can protect her. And only Becca can heal the scars no one else sees.

Desire is the easy part. Love is as hard as it gets. Good thing Nick is always up for a challenge . . .

©2013 Laura Kaye (P)2013 HarperCollins Publishers

Speed it up!

Good story, great characters and descriptions. The narrator does a great job with helping the characters come to life, but she’s SO SLOW. I had to listen to the whole thing on 1.25x normal speed in order to keep from going crazy.

Really good start to the series. :D

4-4.5 stars

This was a really good story. I liked both Nick and Becca and enjoyed their story. This is the first book I've read by this author and I liked it enough I've already bought the next book in the series to start next.

Becca is an emergency room nurse and has lost all her family except her brother, Charlie. Her brother got mixed up in something bad and is now missing and Becca's determined to get him back. Charlie left her a message to go to their father's old team (their father was a commander of a special forces team) for help. Becca goes to Hard Ink looking for Nick (the second in command of the team) but is surprised to find herself turned away rudely without even a chance to explain what she needed.

Nick is a good guy but isn't in a good place when the book starts. He spent years in the special forces but because of a corrupt commander, he and the members of his team ended up blamed for the something that wasn't their fault in a cover-up and forced out of the Army in dishonor. Nick felt a lot of guilt for not seeing what was happening beforehand and has isolated himself from his team since they all got back to the US. Nick has been working as a Process server and doing tattoos for his brother on the side. Nick wasn't prepared for the daughter of the man that betrayed them to come looking to him for help. He sends her away but has trouble forgetting her.

Regardless of the fact that Nick sent Becca away without hearing what was wrong, he couldn't forget her and ends up checking up on her. At one point he's outside her place when she's just gotten home and he realizes someone else is in the house with her. Becca isn't a stupid woman though and is already making her way out of her house (without alerting the intruder) as Nick goes to help. The intruder escapes and Nick insists that Becca should come stay with him. Considering his past attitude, Becca isn't sure why she should trust Nick but he eventually convinces her it's not safe to stay where she is. Once they're somewhere safe, Nick gets the whole story from Becca and knows he has to help her out because she's not guilty of her father's actions and doesn't even know about them. By this point, Nick is feeling very protective of Becca and is determined to help her out. As he starts to help her he discovers things are much worse than what he originally thought and that things may go as far as corrupt police that aren't even filing the reports for the issues Becca's been having and Charlie being missing. The more he discovers, the more sure Nick is that Charlie found something out about his father's dealings and was kidnapped due to that. Since the police are of no help, Nick realizes he needs help and the only likely source is his old team.

Since Nick has isolated himself from his old team due to guilt, he doesn't exactly get a warm welcome when he calls his teammates for help but they still come. They're rough on Nick for a bit due to his isolationist actions but as they start working the case, things between them all start getting back to something good. The team isn't too sure about Becca either but she soon wins them over with her warm attitude. While the team investigates leads to find Charlie, Beacca and Nick become close quickly and soon the attraction between them explodes. Nick messes up in his initial handling of things but soon realizes his mistake and does better. Nick realizes very quickly that Becca is something special and worth fighting for. Becca is actually a great heroine. She's strong but still very sweet and she's smart...no TSTL moments for her. Even when she's under duress she's able to keep her head on straight. Once Nick got his act together and they started seriously in the relationship I think they complimented each other very well. There's some danger and more investigating as the case progresses. There's some drama as Becca discovers what happened between Nick's team and her father but over all she did very well at handling everything. I liked the way Becca and Nick's relationship came together. It was quick but considering the strong initial attraction and the intense situation they were in at the time, the quick time frame doesn't necessarily seem all that rushed. The action story line is not exactly resolved...the issue with Charlie is handled but the team isn't able to get the info they need to clear their names. The books ends with the team (and Becca and Charlie) pledging to stick together and do whatever it takes to bring the truth to light. And of course, Becca and Nick start their HEA. :)

This was a very enjoyable story. I really liked Becca and Nick and liked how their relationship worked out. I really liked the story, both the action and romance story lines were well done and well balanced. I also liked some of the more light parts of the story, like Becca saving the 3 legged-dog and the ensuing arguments about the dog's name. And the banter between the members of the team or Nick and his brother (Jeremy, who was a very cool character). I found the story and characters to be interesting and engaging and I didn't want it to end. I'm starting book #2 immediately so hopefully I can sustain this book high a bit longer. I'd recommend this book. Thumbs up! :D

Ate it up!

Terrific first book in an intelligent, tautly plotted romantic suspense series. Although each book centers on a romance (complete with HEA), the threads of an overarching mystery are cleverly doled out over the course of the series. Narrator Seraphine Valentine nails it.

Very well done!

great story & wonderful narration

I really enjoyed the story and the narrator did a fantastic job. . .especially with changing voices with the number of characters involved.

Suspenseful and Steamy

I absolutely loved Becca and Nick's story. Ends on a cliffy but I am racing to get the next book in the series. Audible was very well done and Seraphina is a joy!

Exciting..mysterious..keeps you reading...

Love love this series....really love the storyline. If you like mystery and some romance ...please listen to this series. Not a disappointment.

Wow!

What did you like best about this story?

What didn't I like is more like it! I like the characters, the story, the tension, the back story, the team of alpha males that make up the beginning of this series, and the relationships-both romantic and friendships-that began to be formed. I also appreciated the danger and the intellectual turns the story took.

What about Seraphine Valentine’s performance did you like?

She is one of the most phenomenal performers I have listened to-I often find that I don't enjoy a story fully because a female performer does a poor job of male voices or vice versa. Valentine, however, is definitely talented with her ability to do both genders, and it became very easy for me to identify the different characters through her unique voices very quickly. I'm certainly a fan!

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

There were several--without any spoiler alerts, moments that helped to heal some of the broken team's relationships were moving, as well as the way that Rixey and the team started to become Becca's "family." The tender joking moments were a hit with me as well. And how couldn't I be moved by Ilene?

Any additional comments?

I couldn't get online fast enough to order book 2!

awsome read

I love the hard ink books awsome reads. i have re read them many times

action and romance

i am eager to read the next book in the series. Book 1 did a good job of laying a foundation and establishing background along with a newly formed romance and building a plot.

Intence, Heartfelt, Action Packed And Sexy

Becca Merritt has lost most of the people she loves. Her brother died far too young, and her father was killed during a Special Forces assignment in the Middle East. Now, her younger brother has gone missing, leaving behind nothing more than a cryptic clue, and Becca is determined to save him at all costs. Following up on Charlie's final message, she tracks down Nick Rixey, one of the men on her father's Special Forces team, now co-owner of a tattoo parlor with his brother. But rather than the helping hand she was expecting, Becca finds Nick buttoned up, tough as nails, and utterly unwilling to have anything to do with Becca or her family's issues.

Nick has spent the months following his return from Afghanistan closing himself off from his remaining Team members and desperately trying to come to terms with the betrayal that ended his military career. When his commanding officer's daughter shows up in his tattoo parlor, looking as sweet and innocent as can be, his first instinct is to send her packing. But the more he thinks about Becca's brother—and Becca herself—the more he knows there is more going on than a simple missing persons case. Before either Nick or Becca realize it, they are in the middle of a war with an organized drug ring, and the only men that Nick will trust to aid them are the men of his team. The men he turned his back on so many months ago.

One of the most pleasant surprises of this book was the depth and complexity of the two main characters. Nick may have all the traits of a dyed-in-the-wool alpha male, but he is also sweet, deeply emotional and able to admit when he is out of his depth. The events surrounding the attack on his team is still shrouded in mystery, but the scars he bears, both physical and mental, are clear, present and clearly painful. As the daughter of his commanding officer, Becca's presence, at first, is a threat to every wall Nick has thrown up and every defense he constructed to forget his past. But as they work together, she becomes the key to his salvation, and it's marvelous to watch how much they both make each other grow, develop and change.

The supporting cast that Laura Kaye has crafted, from the rest of Nick's team to Becca's adopted puppy, from Nick's brother Jeremy to his older P.I. buddy, is three-dimensional, sympathetic and completely engaging characters. I can't wait to meet the rest of the team in more detail, thanks to the tantalizing introductions to their personal stories we received in this book. Even the villains of the piece have an interesting story to tell and will no doubt keep the suspense high for the rest of this series.

Laura Kaye has created a steamy, surprising and totally engrossing romance, but she has also crafted an absorbing mystery, with plenty of suspense and intrigue. The two elements work extremely well together, without inhibiting the development of either. I cannot wait to watch the rest of this tough, sweet, tense and funny series unfold. If the debut is any indication, this is going to be a series to remember!

Seraphine Valentine was outstanding with the delivery of the story. Some listeners did like her narration but I thought the reading was great.