Title: ANGUISH (Jokers’ Wrath MC, #3)
Author: Bella Jewel
Release Date: October 27, 2014
Blurb
There are a lot of things in this world that are easy to escape from. Having a son you didn’t ask for isn’t one of them.
Mack is a nomad. He likes his own space and he struggles with emotion. His past is grey and his future looks about the same. That is until his ex-girlfriend dies and his son is handed over to him. A two month old baby he didn’t know existed. Until now.
His world comes crashing down around him.
Desperate, he hires a nanny.
Jaylah has gotten herself into some serious trouble, so when she sees the job opening for a nanny pop up, she jumps on it. Of course she’s not a nanny, but she figures she can pull it off. I mean, how hard can it be?
She’s thrown into a world of diapers, hourly feedings and a whole lot of laundry. She’s also introduced to the most rugged, gorgeous man she’s ever had the pleasure of meeting.
The best part, he’s the baby’s father.
The worst part, he’s a biker.
Their sexual tension is huge, but he’s a hard nut to crack. She’ll get in, though. She makes it her mission to break through the wall Mack has built so high around himself.
Her world is about to spiral out of control, and she’s taking Mack along for the ride.
Review
an·guish – severe mental or physical pain or suffering
For Mack, the torment comes from always being put second…from never feeling like the people in his life who were supposed to love him did. His suffering is mostly done in silence, never allowing himself to get close to anyone…shutting his emotions and heart down, so it can’t betray him again like it did with Ingrid. Connections are not something he’s been willing to form since everything went awry with the only woman he’s ever loved, so he lives the nomadic lifestyle and uses women for release and nothing else. But when his world gets rocked by a baby boy who’s a part of both him and Ingrid, the torture gets even worse because now he has a constant reminder in front of him of the woman who destroyed him and isn’t there to take away his suffering.
For Jaylah, her distress is self created. She put herself in harm’s way trying to help her boyfriend out, and it ends up biting her in the ass because he’s a cheater and a deadbeat, and now she’s in deep to someone who won’t settle for anything less than being paid back in full or taking payment out on her in any number of harsh ways. With nowhere else to turn and in desperate need of money, Jaylah takes a job as a nanny for Mack, a member of the Joker’s Wrath MC, and even though she doesn’t know anything about caring for a child, she embraces her role and does her best to care for little Diesel by learning as she goes. But what she doesn’t count on and what quickly becomes a problem is her attraction and desire for her moody biker boss, and while she knows it’s not a good idea, she can’t help but want to connect with him and help him have a relationship with his son, the baby he refuses to even acknowledge.
But if readers know anything about Bella Jewel’s biker worlds, nothing is ever easy, and while Mack can’t deny that he’s drawn to Jaylah in a way he hasn’t been to any other woman but Ingrid, his stubbornness and his need to control all aspects of his life and keep a wall around him, prevents him from giving himself fully to her, making it all about sex and nothing else, and with danger coming at the club as well as both Mack and Jaylah personally, Mack may never get a chance to truly see how connected they really are before something happens to further torment him.
I can’t get enough of the Jokers’ Wrath MC series. Each book has an alpha male hero who is willing to risk it all and a kickass heroine who stands by her man not behind him. But while I loved Krypt and Ash’s story as well as Maddox and Santana’s, there’s something special about Mack and Jaylah’s. Maybe it’s because readers don’t know much about Mack before this book or maybe it’s being able to witness a stubborn and determined man being brought to his knees by his little boy, but I absolutely adored Anguish. It might even be my favorite of all Bella Jewel’s books, and that’s saying something because I’ve almost read them all.
Despite both Mack and Jaylah’s need to stay away from each other because they know Mack can’t truly give her what she needs, they’re drawn to one another in a way that cannot be denied, and Bella Jewel does a great job of illustrating the slow torture that they both go through by giving readers their firsthand accounts. Jaylah wants to be the woman who shows Mack what it truly means to be put first, but whether or not Mack will let her or if he’ll even have a choice due to the drama that’s brewing around them is something readers will have to find out for themselves.
Anguish is a steamy and angst filled ride that will leave readers both shaking their heads at Mack’s stubbornness and biting their nails as all of the conflict comes to a head. When lives and hearts are in danger, people are willing to do whatever it takes, even if that means leaving themselves open to torment.
A complimentary copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.
5 poison apples
Anguish (Jokers’ Wrath MC, #3)
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Precarious (Jokers’ Wrath MC, #1)
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Melancholy (Jokers’ Wrath MC, #2)
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Prologue
“You stole my fuckin’ drugs.”
The foot at my throat presses me further into the cold, scratchy pavement. I gasp, my fingers clawing at fleshy ankles. His skin doesn’t budge; my nails are too short to break the flesh that I’m so desperately scraping at. It does nothing to move him, or send him on his way. Instead, he pushes harder, cutting off more of my air supply.
“That’s not exactly how it went down,” I croak, struggling.
“You were meant to deliver them; instead you fuckin’ sold them, and ran with the money.”
He’s right about that. I did take the drugs and sell them. I had good reason—my boyfriend was in trouble, and I was doing anything I could to get him out of trouble. I didn’t think ahead. I didn’t realize that I’d then owe a very unhappy drug dealer money. Not my finest moment, that’s for damned sure.
“I had no choice . . . I was helping someone I care about.”
He presses his boot down further into my throat, and my air supply narrows down to a dangerous level. My head pounds as the blood and oxygen are cut from my brain.
“I bet that person ain’t here helpin’ you tonight, now, are they?”
No, he’s right about that. Samuel is probably sleeping with someone else. The moment his debt was cleared, he left me. The dirty, cheap fucker left me. Now I’m dealing with the backlash. A furious drug dealer who wants his money.
Money I don’t have.
“Don’t I get,” I gasp, “one chance to get your money?”
He glares down at me through angry grey eyes. I squirm again as my vision starts flittering in and out. Shit, I’m going to pass out and he’s probably going to kill me, or worse, drag my helpless body away to do God knows what with.
“I have m-m-m-money,” I croak.
“If you had money, you wouldn’t have stolen my drugs.”
“I . . .” God, I’m on the edge. “I can get it. I s-s-s-swear.”
He stares at me, and for each second he does, my vision swims. Then, much to my relief, he lifts his boot off and reaches down, hurling my weak body up. He pulls me close, so close that our noses touch. My knees wobble and I have to push all my focus into not falling flat on my face and giving him another chance to take me.
“Listen, and listen fuckin’ good. You’ve got two weeks, and trust me, that’s me bein’ fuckin’ generous. Get my money, or I come for you.”
Shit.
I nod.
“Don’t try and run. You do, I’ll fuckin’ find you.”
I close my eyes, take a deep, burning breath and nod again.
“Two weeks.”
Then he’s gone.
And I know . . . I just know . . . I’m in deep, deep shit.
About the Author
Bella Jewel is an Aussie girl through and through. She spent her life in Western Australia, growing up in many different areas of the state. She now currently lives in Perth with her husband, children and mass amounts of pets. She’s crazy, fun, outgoing and friendly. Writing is her passion, she started at the young age of 18 but finally got the courage up to publish, and her first novel Hell’s Knights was released in August 2013.
Author Social Media Links
Facebook | Website | Goodreads
Check out more of Bella’s work
The MC Sinners | Criminals of the Ocean | Rebels on Bikes | Number Thirteen | Life After Taylah | Wingman
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