Dirty for Me

Motor City Royals, Book 1

By: Jackie Ashenden

Narrated by: Samantha Cook

Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Ezekiel "Zee" Chase has a complicated past. Born into a family whose wealth grew from the seedy world of big-time crime, he ran away as a teenager and made a home for himself on the streets of Detroit. By day the mechanic works at a local garage. But by night he throws down with the best of them in Detroit's gritty underground fighting scene. With all those muscles, he's never had trouble with women - until he meets one who challenges him to the greatest fight of his life....

Tamara Eliot is a hardworking corporate high-flyer who appreciates the finer things in life, from her expensive perfume to her designer handbags. More than anything, though, she likes to be in control - and when Zee explodes into her life, she feels anything but. He's the definition of a bad boy: brash, fiery, and of course irresistibly hot. And there's a darkness about him that keeps her coming back for more.

As Zee takes Tamara deeper into a world she never knew existed, she just might prove to be the one opponent he won't be able to dominate - at least not without some pleasurable convincing....

©2016 Jean Hovey and Stephanie Jones (P)2016 Insatiable Press

Critic reviews

"The sex is dirty-sweet, with a dark lick of dominance and the tantalizing potential of redemption." ( Publishers Weekly)

SHAME.. BUT SADLY IT JUST DIDN'T DO IT FOR ME

Rich girl Tamara was stuck in a life she didn't want - a life that was all planned out for her - even her forthcoming engagement to a man she didn't love... or even like very much but it was her penance for doing something awful and tragic years previously. Zee was a Mechanic and a Fighter in a rough low part of town because he too was running from guilty demons from his past. And, when these two opposites met, it wasn't romantic or poetic - no, it was lust and a chance to forget, for a brief while, what they were both mentally running from.

So the sex was raw, gritty and what they both needed to get the rage, frustration and memories out of their systems but, as most of the book went by, they began to learn the other's secrets and the truth that they were both caught in a trap with no way out. But the trap was about to be sprung when, after 10 years, the past was finally catching up with Zee and no matter which way he looked the outcome was bad... and just when he'd hit rock bottom he suddenly had an 'ah ha' moment that changed the course of his life and Tamara's too.

I had such high hopes for this dual POV book but sadly it never quite reached my expectations - I love a handsome Alpha bad boy and Zee was certainly that but I didn't feel any chemistry or burning connection between Zee and Tamara until the very end - which saved this from being returned to Audible. Each time they errr 'hooked up' anger flared between them and they both swore never again... a pattern that continued over and over again - along with " his silver molten eyes, his steely glaze, his sharp as steel looks, his piercing gray eyes" etc etc etc. It was 99.9% I don't want you and I don't want to want you and .1% oh hey yeah I actually do want you. Lots and lots of dirty talk followed by lots and lots carrying those words out. The narration was a bit flat - but a good male voice.

Worth a credit? Two angry haunted characters who are each stuck in their own self-imposed prisons meet - have lots of meaningless sex to drown their lives and then, at the end, realization hits them. But, for me, it was all a little bit too little too late so I'm going to have to say that IMO this listen isn't creditworthy if you want a bit of tender, a bit of chemistry and a bit of romance along with your hard Alpha.