Joint Review: Exquisite Trouble (Iron Horse MC #1) by Ann Mayburn

Publisher: Fated Desires Publishing
Where did you get the book: Purchased
Release date: Out now

Before I met Smoke I’d never been kissed, really kissed, by a man, let alone a biker sex god bent on taking my virginity and my heart.

I got dragged into the deadly world of the Iron Horse MC by my crazy twin sister who is engaged to the club’s President and even crazier mom who only cares about herself. Smoke has been assigned by the club to keep me safe even though he’s everything that I should be afraid of. He’s the kind of man who lives by his own rules and does whatever he wants whenever he wants, but he treats me like I’m something rare and precious, not a socially dysfunctional basket case who has no idea how to love, but needs him more than her next breath.

Not that my feelings matter, because if we don’t find my mother soon, the only thing I’ll have to be worried about is who is going to kill me first.

NOTE- This is Part One of a Two Part book with a ‘Happy for Now’ ending. Book Two, Exquisite Danger'(the final book in Swan and Smoke’s story) will be out this Oct/November. 🙂

*blurb taken from Goodreads*

Lou: I have a love/hate relationship with MC romances at the moment. I abhor how women are treated and the misogyny stinks so bad that I choke on it. Yet Exquisite Trouble is the first MC romance where I was like, GIMMIE MOAR RIGHT NOW. The hero is a smoking-hawt biker hero named Smoke, who is totally and utterly into the heroine. I mean, he’s so so into her (physically speaking also. heh heh heh) which I love. Swan is the likeable, horny virgin heroine who loves watching BDSM porn. She has a screwed up family background with a step-mum as a former mobster assassin and a survivalist father. You can’t make this shit up! Her twin sister, Sarah, is the old lady of Beach, who runs the Iron Horse MC. Mayburn’s writing and characters are so addictive that she’s almost making me break my self-imposed ban on buying books for the next two months so I can buy her entire backlist.

Has: I have the same kind of relationship with MC books too and there is only a handful of authors who have managed to deliver a good story with great characters without the pitfalls of what this setting could bring. I am so glad you liked my recommendation of this book because I knew you would enjoy the romance and the MC aspect which was crazy fun, even though it got dark in places.

I was really drawn to Swan’s character, which Mayburn did a great job in creating so many different layers and I loved how well adjusted and resourceful she was despite the crazy and abusive upbringing she had. I also liked how her thinking processes worked and it gave her character a really different and unique insight which I really enjoyed and it added a wonderful dimension to the romance and story.

Lou: It was a fun book to read. I know there is a lot of derisive comments made about virgin heroines in romance but I think virgin bashing is just as bad as slut shaming. Swan was a fun character. Her enthusiasm for Smoke was fun to read because having the hero and heroine be totally into each other just makes the romance work better for me. Swan was different because of her family history, which I thought was totally bizarre. I didn’t know you could split up twins where both parents take one kid. Anyway, Swan is forced into this biker world because of her twin, Sarah, and their mother. Swan loved her sister but she also had issues with her from their own history. Swan ignored her for two years, and I understood why. But the author did a great job in making Swan realise that her twin was a different woman now, and that Swan didn’t know her as well as she thought she did.

Swan and Smoke’s were made for one another. Their sexual attraction was off the freaking charts and I loved the dirty talk and the dirty, messy sex scenes. Dirty effing hawt! I loved that for most of the book, Smoke concentrated on getting Swan off for her pleasure alone.

Has: There was definitely a soap opera feel with the twins being split up and the insane crazy antics of her family which was really entertaining although it did stretch the believability factor at times. And as for the virgin heroine trope, I really don’t mind it and Mayburn did a fabulous job with Swan who fully embraced and explored her sexuality with a great hero. And oh how much did I love Smoke! He was the epitome of growly alpha smexy male and I definitely agree their chemistry was sizzling and that was partly due to the hot sex scenes!

The MC element was also well done, and although it did have darker aspects, I thought it was well done, and I was intrigued by the other secondary characters who gave the story colour and life and made it such a vibrant read.

Lou: MC will always have darker aspects because of the MC life. I enjoyed that though it didn’t shy away from it’s violent nature, the entire book concentrated mostly on Swan and Smoke. It’s a very romantic book and I loved it. Swan and Smoke have lots of hot, messy sex but there’s also tension between the two, especially in the form of Smoke’s sister-in-law. I think there is more to come from that corner in book two. There’s nothing tortured about Smoke’s background. He is who he is and I loved that though he is an arrogant arse, he’s not hateful towards women like I’ve read in other MC books. God, just writing that sounds incredibly sucky and depressive, doesn’t it?

I’m starting to blabber on so I’ll just state if you want a dirty biker MC romance with an engaging author voice in Ann Mayburn, then you need to read this book.

I give it a B+

Has: LOL! I think this is why this series worked so well for me, although I will warn you the second book gets a bit more darker and violent especially towards the end, although the over the top characters and plot along with the great cast of characters is just as engaging. I think Ann Mayburn has a created a lush series with a wonderful romance and memorable characters.

Exquisite Trouble is a fabulous start to a series and I can honestly I am totally hooked, because I was antzing for the release of the sequel for months before it got released. I am also happy, that the third book will focus on Swan’s sister who promises to be larger than life character and will be interesting to see her story.

I also give Exquisite Trouble a B+

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