Make It Hurt

November 7, 2016
Nora Sutcliffe may not be every man’s dream woman, but in Ashenden’s powerful contemporary romance she is biker Smith’s ideal. Eight years ago she was a demure Houston debutante who flirted with danger when she enticed Smith, a “trailer-park-trash” laborer, to come down off his ladder and get to know her better. A lot has changed since their brief summer romance. Now Nora’s a professional fugitive-recovery agent who turns Smith on because there’s nothing he likes better than “a chick with a gun.” She’s popped back into his life determined to take at least one prisoner—Smith’s bail bond–skipping right-hand man—and deliver him to justice. Smith refuses to turn him over, and Nora chooses principle and righteousness, even if it means giving up on romance with Smith. The second-tier characters lack dimension, but the plot moves along apace, and the mutual attraction between Smith and Nora is convincingly fiery.