Hard As It Gets (Hard Ink #1) by Laura Kaye

Tall, dark, and lethal...

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…

**** 

Ink me up, baby!

Hard As It Gets, the first book in Laura Kaye’s Hard Ink series, is one of those stories that turned out to be not at all as I had expected, but more than I had hoped for. It’s fast paced, romantic, sexy, poignant… an exciting and entertaining read! 

My review

Part of the reason this story took me by surprise is that it’s really not a contemporary romance as I had expected it to be. In fact, I’d be more inclined to place it solidly in the romantic suspense genre due to the ex-military hero and his friends, and the very nature of this ‘mission’ they’re on. There’s kidnapping, sleuthing, fighting, killing, maiming, shooting, stabbing, chasing… all the things that scream romantic suspense, and add to all that the intrigue and passion that makes romantic suspense one of my favorite genres and Hard As it Gets made me one happy reader!

And a very pleasant surprise - I didn’t realize this until I had finished Hard As it Gets, but Laura Kaye also wrote the awesome novella Hearts in Darkness, and I know there are more than a few fans of that story amongst my reading buddies!

The bottom line 

With Hard Inked, Laura Kaye has created a world filled with complex, passionate, emotionally scarred people, and a storyline that grabbed hold and kept me on the edge of my seat wondering who, what, and why. I'm not so patiently looking forward to the next story, Hard As You Can! 

This ARC was provided by Avon Books via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Books in the series so far: