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thebookrefuge's review against another edition
4.0
I haven't read a Christine Feehan in quite a few years. I figured I'd pick up with her newest series and see how I fared.
There was some fun cameos from the Sea Haven crew and I loved the new MC family that were introduced to. As is Feehan norm for Sea Haven, they are all former Russians trained assassins.
Reaper made me weap, and Anya gave me hope for tomorrow. Very enjoyable but intense!
Triggers for rape, torture and its pretty gorey.
There was some fun cameos from the Sea Haven crew and I loved the new MC family that were introduced to. As is Feehan norm for Sea Haven, they are all former Russians trained assassins.
Reaper made me weap, and Anya gave me hope for tomorrow. Very enjoyable but intense!
Triggers for rape, torture and its pretty gorey.
mreadsbooksnfics's review against another edition
4.0
This is about bikers and how ruthless they can be. Also, they are all violent and not like the greatest people. That being said, I’m not sure this book would be for everyone. Reaper is kind of abusive and possessive of Anya, and I know many people don’t like this. I just thought it worked for the story because of his past. I really do like this series, and I’m looking forward to reading the whole lot.
cindymarie's review against another edition
1.0
I was a huge fan of Christine Feehan's Dark series. It was one of the first adult series I ever read, but now I'm wondering if maybe my judgment was off. Maybe she's changed a lot in the past 10 years? I don't know.
I guess spoilers are ahead but really these aren't plot points just really problematic things that happened that you should know going into this.
Let me start by saying my boyfriend is a biker and certified Harley mechanic. He's spent his time around a lot of bikers and clubs, especially when he lived in Arizona. I explained some things that happened in this book and he said "even 1%ers don't stand for that shit." No biker club would stand by and force a woman to stay with her abuser. Every biker I've ever met HATES woman beaters. I get pretty pissed off with the common troupe in tv and books that bikers are abusive assholes. I also find it funny that they are okay with Reaper beating the crap out of his woman and raping her, but hunt down others who beat and rape women because they don't like that. Maybe because the other women were kidnapped? O wait...he kidnapped Anya too... she didn't want to go with him and tried to escape.
Also consent is just not a thing in this book. Idk if the author knows what rape is. If you are in the middle of sex and you say "no" or "stop" and they don't stop or say "I say when it ends"...that is RAPE. Even if you had previously consented. Even if you are married. You own your body and can take back consent at any time.
I also feel like anyone who has been abused has heard the sob story. They all had a messed up child hood, sexually/physically abused, whatever bs. It makes women like me stay with these men feeling bad for them. Usually they will cry and say they are sorry. It shouldn't be romanticized at all. These men won't get better without serious professional help and your vagina will not cure them. I know you read it all the time in books but that is not a thing.
Also this part really disturbed me because this happened to me before. My abuser left fingerprints on me before in bruises. The next day when he sobered he felt bad and cried and all that bs and of course I stayed, I was 19 and stupid. This abusive POS in this book saw his fingerprints on her and got off on it and wanted them tattooed all over her body. WTF.
I can't tell you how mad this book made me. Idk why I forced myself to finish this. I lived almost this exact same relationship and I can tell you it's not romantic...it's hell.
I guess spoilers are ahead but really these aren't plot points just really problematic things that happened that you should know going into this.
Let me start by saying my boyfriend is a biker and certified Harley mechanic. He's spent his time around a lot of bikers and clubs, especially when he lived in Arizona. I explained some things that happened in this book and he said "even 1%ers don't stand for that shit." No biker club would stand by and force a woman to stay with her abuser. Every biker I've ever met HATES woman beaters. I get pretty pissed off with the common troupe in tv and books that bikers are abusive assholes. I also find it funny that they are okay with Reaper beating the crap out of his woman and raping her, but hunt down others who beat and rape women because they don't like that. Maybe because the other women were kidnapped? O wait...he kidnapped Anya too... she didn't want to go with him and tried to escape.
Also consent is just not a thing in this book. Idk if the author knows what rape is. If you are in the middle of sex and you say "no" or "stop" and they don't stop or say "I say when it ends"...that is RAPE. Even if you had previously consented. Even if you are married. You own your body and can take back consent at any time.
I also feel like anyone who has been abused has heard the sob story. They all had a messed up child hood, sexually/physically abused, whatever bs. It makes women like me stay with these men feeling bad for them. Usually they will cry and say they are sorry. It shouldn't be romanticized at all. These men won't get better without serious professional help and your vagina will not cure them. I know you read it all the time in books but that is not a thing.
Also this part really disturbed me because this happened to me before. My abuser left fingerprints on me before in bruises. The next day when he sobered he felt bad and cried and all that bs and of course I stayed, I was 19 and stupid. This abusive POS in this book saw his fingerprints on her and got off on it and wanted them tattooed all over her body. WTF.
I can't tell you how mad this book made me. Idk why I forced myself to finish this. I lived almost this exact same relationship and I can tell you it's not romantic...it's hell.
carollee's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
aliterarylion's review against another edition
2.0
This book was insane. Totally steamy, but problematic as hell. The only reason I completed this book so quickly was because I tended to skim and I was stuck at the car dealership for four hours with nothing else to read. The book deserves a whole star for how hot it was but it was even disturbing at times how far the author chose to go. I will say, despite my reservations, Torpedo Ink is far superior to Christine Feehan's Carpathian Vampires series. Why would you start off the series with an utter sociopath and a woman with the personality of dryer lint?
Reaper
I had an incredible amount of problems with our "hero", or piece or garbage, Reaper. His real name was never even addressed but it was the beautiful Russian name Savva Pajari. Everyone in the Torpedo Ink Crew came from a horrific compound in Russia where they were trained to be murderous sexual machines. Reaper and his brother Savage were the Sergeant at Arms who protected their leader, Csar, at all times. Like I said, the entire plot of this was so interesting and I had never read a motorcycle romance before Judgement Road. The cringy dialogue and psychotic character ruined it for me.
Reaper was reticent and was whining about the new bartender, Anya. Anya is a wet dish rag and the apparent love interest. He has no legitimate reason for disliking her other than being new and she gives him a boner. Really? Get over yourself! He does nothing to tell her of his disdain but stares at her the entire shift and goes over her head to complain to Csar. He gives her a ride home to find out she's living in her car and orders her to live on the enormous Torpedo Ink compound instead. Nobody locks doors and they walk around naked. WTF?
All you need to know about Reaper is he's an alpha, only uses boring "babe" as an endearment (I swear he says it 50 times), possessive, and is severely damaged. I'll get to that final thought later, but jeez get that dude a psychiatrist.
Anya
Cheese and crackers, Anya had to be one of the most one-dimensional "heroines" I have ever read. Christine Feehan puts so much effort in creating her alpha males that all her females are pathetic and boring. Anya had zero personality and the only thing that entices Reaper is her body. He pontificates endlessly about her long hair, hips, butt, breasts, and not much about her face. Burn.
She is tied into the plot for the dumbest reason in the world and when she announces that she can do fancy bar tending tricks I actually said to myself, "They better not incorporate this into the drama." They did. She was so boring and utterly compliant to the madness happening around her. The only times she would deign to refuse were at the worst moments. She yelled at the leader of the motorcycle club when Reaper was conflicted to pick her or TI, when Reaper inevitably chose her to be his "old lady". Which is an incredible honor in the Motorcycle Crew world, mind you, and she was as weak as watered-down wine. She was totally awful and I have high hopes for the future women in this series to be stronger than the human 5-pound DUMB-bell known as Anya.
Problematic Issues
Where do I start? This book would have gotten one star due to the awful content but those scenes were hot. Most of them, at least. Slightly spoiler-y but you should be warned:
-Aggressive behavior towards woman he likes including staring, nonverbal body language, and sense of possession despite his disdain
-Pulls and drags her to places he wants her to move
-Demands her to leave doors unlocked in unknown place to her
-Dominating personality and takes over her life
Sexual Red Flags
-Has unprotected sex twice with her despite her wanting to use protection after thinking about it. They don't use condoms at all in the book and it is never discussed again.
-Spunks on her back, writes "Reaper's Property" in the mess, and makes her wear his mark under her clothes all day without rinsing it off. Gross
-Violates her mouth when she's sleeping from a nightmare and doesn't quite apologize
-She is handcuffed in front of the entire crew for an interrogation and she vomits onto herself.
(Not sexual but very disturbing)
If a psychologist were to analyze these characters, they would have a grocery list of diagnoses regarding the disturbing behavior featured in this book. Most of it was hot, but I was skeeved out most of the time. Anya was awful and Reaper was an alpha male I hated. I want the following books to be much better but yuck. Be wary of this book and don't idealize your relationship over this motorcycle wreck.
Reaper
I had an incredible amount of problems with our "hero", or piece or garbage, Reaper. His real name was never even addressed but it was the beautiful Russian name Savva Pajari. Everyone in the Torpedo Ink Crew came from a horrific compound in Russia where they were trained to be murderous sexual machines. Reaper and his brother Savage were the Sergeant at Arms who protected their leader, Csar, at all times. Like I said, the entire plot of this was so interesting and I had never read a motorcycle romance before Judgement Road. The cringy dialogue and psychotic character ruined it for me.
Reaper was reticent and was whining about the new bartender, Anya. Anya is a wet dish rag and the apparent love interest. He has no legitimate reason for disliking her other than being new and she gives him a boner. Really? Get over yourself! He does nothing to tell her of his disdain but stares at her the entire shift and goes over her head to complain to Csar. He gives her a ride home to find out she's living in her car and orders her to live on the enormous Torpedo Ink compound instead. Nobody locks doors and they walk around naked. WTF?
All you need to know about Reaper is he's an alpha, only uses boring "babe" as an endearment (I swear he says it 50 times), possessive, and is severely damaged. I'll get to that final thought later, but jeez get that dude a psychiatrist.
Anya
Cheese and crackers, Anya had to be one of the most one-dimensional "heroines" I have ever read. Christine Feehan puts so much effort in creating her alpha males that all her females are pathetic and boring. Anya had zero personality and the only thing that entices Reaper is her body. He pontificates endlessly about her long hair, hips, butt, breasts, and not much about her face. Burn.
She is tied into the plot for the dumbest reason in the world and when she announces that she can do fancy bar tending tricks I actually said to myself, "They better not incorporate this into the drama." They did. She was so boring and utterly compliant to the madness happening around her. The only times she would deign to refuse were at the worst moments. She yelled at the leader of the motorcycle club when Reaper was conflicted to pick her or TI, when Reaper inevitably chose her to be his "old lady". Which is an incredible honor in the Motorcycle Crew world, mind you, and she was as weak as watered-down wine. She was totally awful and I have high hopes for the future women in this series to be stronger than the human 5-pound DUMB-bell known as Anya.
Problematic Issues
Where do I start? This book would have gotten one star due to the awful content but those scenes were hot. Most of them, at least. Slightly spoiler-y but you should be warned:
-Aggressive behavior towards woman he likes including staring, nonverbal body language, and sense of possession despite his disdain
-Pulls and drags her to places he wants her to move
-Demands her to leave doors unlocked in unknown place to her
-Dominating personality and takes over her life
Sexual Red Flags
-Has unprotected sex twice with her despite her wanting to use protection after thinking about it. They don't use condoms at all in the book and it is never discussed again.
-Spunks on her back, writes "Reaper's Property" in the mess, and makes her wear his mark under her clothes all day without rinsing it off. Gross
-Violates her mouth when she's sleeping from a nightmare and doesn't quite apologize
-She is handcuffed in front of the entire crew for an interrogation and she vomits onto herself.
(Not sexual but very disturbing)
If a psychologist were to analyze these characters, they would have a grocery list of diagnoses regarding the disturbing behavior featured in this book. Most of it was hot, but I was skeeved out most of the time. Anya was awful and Reaper was an alpha male I hated. I want the following books to be much better but yuck. Be wary of this book and don't idealize your relationship over this motorcycle wreck.
naaytaashreads's review against another edition
4.0
“I swear to you, on my life, on the lives of my brothers, you’ll be happy. You’ll be safe.”
Okay I say alot of reads are my guilty pleasure. But this is definitely a guilty pleasure.
It's not for everyone, trust me.
But I love MC romance, I read them on wattpad. So this is my first like actual MC romance book.
And I hate to say this but I love it.
I won't say the story line is like wow but it kept me entertain.
I want to say its like trashy read I need when I am just in a mood to be entertain.
This book is hella dark, kinky, R21, language is abit crude but I knew what I was getting into.
The side characters are everything to me. I want more of their story and I can't wait for more!
“For the first time in his life, his body chose. He chose. His choice was her. Anya Rafferty.”
Okay I say alot of reads are my guilty pleasure. But this is definitely a guilty pleasure.
It's not for everyone, trust me.
But I love MC romance, I read them on wattpad. So this is my first like actual MC romance book.
And I hate to say this but I love it.
I won't say the story line is like wow but it kept me entertain.
I want to say its like trashy read I need when I am just in a mood to be entertain.
This book is hella dark, kinky, R21, language is abit crude but I knew what I was getting into.
The side characters are everything to me. I want more of their story and I can't wait for more!
“For the first time in his life, his body chose. He chose. His choice was her. Anya Rafferty.”
franjessca's review against another edition
4.0
Full Review posted at Book Lovin' Mamas
There is a lot of dark times in this book, and after finding out what happened to Reaper, I can understand why he’s the way he is now. There’s also the big issues that are happening in the book that will show off some of the other Torpedo Ink club members. I’m interested to read more about Absinthe, Code, Steele, Savage, etc. There are so many different characters that are mentioned briefly in the book, but those stuck out to me in this book the most.
Overall, I give the first book to the series 3.5 stars and recommend it to fans of Christine Feehan’s other books and readers that love a mixture of PNR/motorcycle club in their books. This book may not be my favorite, but that is due to certain elements that bothered me. I did enjoy the book though it just took me a while to read this book.
Will, I read the next book in the series? Yes. I want to find out more about the other club members and find out about their troubled pasts and find out who they will fall in love with in their stories.
There is a lot of dark times in this book, and after finding out what happened to Reaper, I can understand why he’s the way he is now. There’s also the big issues that are happening in the book that will show off some of the other Torpedo Ink club members. I’m interested to read more about Absinthe, Code, Steele, Savage, etc. There are so many different characters that are mentioned briefly in the book, but those stuck out to me in this book the most.
Overall, I give the first book to the series 3.5 stars and recommend it to fans of Christine Feehan’s other books and readers that love a mixture of PNR/motorcycle club in their books. This book may not be my favorite, but that is due to certain elements that bothered me. I did enjoy the book though it just took me a while to read this book.
Will, I read the next book in the series? Yes. I want to find out more about the other club members and find out about their troubled pasts and find out who they will fall in love with in their stories.
mfred's review against another edition
4.0
I was so engrossed, I read the book in a day.
Judgment Road is a standalone, the first in a new series, but it is also a continuation of characters and setting from Feehan’s previous books (which I haven’t read). So sometimes, what should have been exposition felt more like info-dumping. I could tell I was getting filled in on things that Feehan expected her readers to likely already know.
Anya and Reaper both are good, solid characters, that are easy to root for and enjoy reading about. Reaper especially stands out– his past is darker (really, really dark), his issues with trust and love harder to overcome. And even though sex is used to heal some of his problems, it’s not in a magical penis kind of way. It’s thoughtful and cumulative, part of the relationship building instead of a wham, bam, all my major psychosis are cured!, thank you ma’am.
It’s also a pretty darn good biker book. There’s suspense, action, danger, and a nice, twisty plot that’s fun to unravel. The Torpedo Ink clan is a little different– there are female members, for one– but also very immersed in all the MC romance tropes and characterizations. I really liked it!
Judgment Road is a standalone, the first in a new series, but it is also a continuation of characters and setting from Feehan’s previous books (which I haven’t read). So sometimes, what should have been exposition felt more like info-dumping. I could tell I was getting filled in on things that Feehan expected her readers to likely already know.
Anya and Reaper both are good, solid characters, that are easy to root for and enjoy reading about. Reaper especially stands out– his past is darker (really, really dark), his issues with trust and love harder to overcome. And even though sex is used to heal some of his problems, it’s not in a magical penis kind of way. It’s thoughtful and cumulative, part of the relationship building instead of a wham, bam, all my major psychosis are cured!, thank you ma’am.
It’s also a pretty darn good biker book. There’s suspense, action, danger, and a nice, twisty plot that’s fun to unravel. The Torpedo Ink clan is a little different– there are female members, for one– but also very immersed in all the MC romance tropes and characterizations. I really liked it!
princexbibliophile's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
adkwriter15's review against another edition
This is the second Feehan book I've attempted, and both have had male romantic leads who have no likeable qualities and women who desperately need to be protected. This is not the trope for me.