Reaper’s Claim (Satan’s Son MC 1)
by Simone Elise
Publication Date: February 15 2017
Genre(s): Romance
Pages: 400
Reaper:
I didn’t know what love was, but I knew what want was, and I wanted Abby. When I walked out of the club and saw her I was stone cold sober. She was quietly beautiful and unlike any other woman I’d had before. But she was the daughter of the president of Satan’s Sons MC and completely out of my reach.
Abby:
Everyone knew The Reaper and how he got his name, so I never expected him to be my salvation when my sisters drunk boyfriend wanted to lay hands on me. I thought my innocence would be lost in that alley, until he showed up and saved me. I know being with Reaper will lead to trouble, but I don’t know if I have the strength to stay away.
Being together might be dangerous, but outlaws are meant to break the rules.
First and foremost, I’d like to say happy release day to Simone Elise! Her Wattpad story has garnered over 10.8 million reads, and now, Reaper’s Claim is being published! While I may not have had the best experience with this book, I know that there are many people this book would appeal to.
Onto my review!
The whole motorcycle club thing; I like it. It’s interesting and fun. However, I haven’t read many motorcycle club romances (none at all, if I’m remembering correctly), and this book has not set the bar very high for me. I love the story, I do; bad boy tropes are a guilty pleasure of mine. But the plot points in this book just didn’t cut it for me.
The story follows the life of Abby Harrison, daughter of the president of the local motorcycle club, as she becomes involved with one of the most dangerous members of the club. After he saves her from an incident, she begins to look at him in a new light. Kade, or Reaper, as he’s better known by, becomes intrigued in her as well. The two star-crossed lovers have to overcome many hardships as they experience what it’s like to fall in love.
The first third of the book was good. The characters are set, conflicts are introduced, and motivation towards solving those conflicts are there. This created the ‘want’ to finish the book, and for Abby and the Reaper to end up together. But, after what I thought should have been the climax, the plot drives itself off a cliff, and the proverbial car is smashing against the sides of an endless chasm.
There was a constant (and rather useless) stream of drama being thrown at the couple that the story began to feel kind of strained, like the author was just making things difficult for the sake of making things difficult. I can see where the author was trying to go with these obstacles though; testing the romance through all of these trials, but it didn’t make the romance feel anymore special, in my opinion, than if she hadn’t added all those extra twists and turns.
While I enjoyed some parts of the romance, the whole cycle of being consumed by this intense love and then getting mad about something the other did and making up again, was plain boring after the first time. Instead of it tearing my heart apart, I was thinking: “Not this again!”
The writing itself is quite easy to read; I breezed through the book within the span of a day or two. I disliked a lot of the dialogue though, which seemed forced, and not at all like how people would speak in real life.
Here is Abby’s dad:
“I’m a fucking president, and he is under my fucking control. MY CONTROL! And I can fucking promise you that never will I let you be with one of my men.”
Which brings me to another point about characters: their actions don’t seem to correspond with their age. Abby’s father sounds like a teenage boy on a rampage! The same goes with Abby at times. Near the end of the novel, she’s in her mid or late twenties, I believe, but again, acts like a child. Whenever she complains about things, I’m reminded of whining children, and not a mature adult with a reason to rant.
I also don’t like how the author constantly switches POVs, even to the perspectives of secondary characters, as a cheap way to develop characters and plot. Those insights don’t really offer much else.
Despite all of this, the ending has me hooked, and I’m tempted to read the next book (not yet published!) just to see what happens. Again, I can definitely see certain readers enjoying this novel, even though I may not like it.
Overall, this book was not for me, and I think there are more books out there that are better worth your time. I rate this book 2 stars out of 5.
The Jinxed Goblet 