Review: Castle of Kings by Betty Shreffler (Kings MC #1)


Note: This ARC was provided by the author via Give Me Books Promotions in exchange for an honest review.

Castle of Kings is my first ever Betty Shreffler read, although I did get her Fire on the Farm when it was available for free on Amazon a couple of weeks ago but I have yet to read it. This first in the author's Kings MC series introduces readers to the Kings motorcycle club, which has Nix as its president, and while we do get peeks at the inner workings of the club itself and their secret wheeling and dealing, this is ultimately the love story of the club's sergeant-at-arms, Jake Castle, and Liz, Nix's sister who's returned to their hometown after being off at college to get her nursing degree. If you're familiar with my reviews, you'll know I have this thing about main and peripheral characters having last names. Maybe it's weird, but it helps feel more connected to the characters. Well, here, the only one that I can actually recall having a last name was Jake. Everyone else had one name, and I'm guessing most of them were nicknames or road names. Sigh. But what can you do, right? Fingers crossed that as the series goes on, we'll finally learn Liz's (and Nix's) last name along with whoever else is going to be getting their own story told.

Jake is, for all intents and purposes, a manwhore and it's not as if he's doing anything to really dissuade people from thinking that of him. He sleeps with whichever woman catches his fancy for the night. He could be the poster child for wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am, except without any guarantees of gratitude on his part. Maybe he expects the woman to be thankful he slept with her. Clearly, my opinion of the guy wasn't stellar and that last for more than half the book. His treatment of Liz was, at times, confusing. He could be romantic if he wanted to be, but was that his way of simply getting into her pants? Liz, too, was sometimes a challenge, but oftentimes, she simply gave in to her own need to be with him. In short, there's a lot of push and pull with these two. They take one step forward and one hell of a leap back. However, they were a rather entertaining couple that I did eventually root for.

The sex is hot and the romance is, indeed, what you'd expect from the MC trope. While I did find myself a wee bit frustrated with the back and forth between Jake and Liz--I seriously wish I could have smacked their heads together so that they get themselves in check and get their acts up to snuff--I quite enjoyed seeing how this motorcycle club worked. There was a distinct difference between them and every other MC that I've encountered in all my MC romance reading--they didn't seem to go for the whole vengeance thing when it came to whatever shortcomings or failings went on within their club. Whether it was what Jake did to Nix or those who turned out to be the snitches doling out information. More often than not, the retribution demanded would be extremely severe, so I was certainly caught by surprise with this new club. I'm definitely looking forward to reading the next story that the author has lined up for the series, regardless of who it may be about. For a first read, I liked Betty Shreffler's writing and will finally get around to reading her cowboy romance soon. Four stars go to Castle of Kings. ♥

Release Date: 01 December 2017

Date Read: 29 November 2017

Learn more about Betty Shreffler.

Purchase Castle of Kings on Amazon.

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