Tag: Jessie Cooke

Jessie Cooke-AJ

AJ is the latest of Jessie Cooke’s Phoenix Skulls books. I wouldn’t quite call it one of the Phoenix Skulls books, but more adjacent to the world. I mean, the guys are in the book, but the main character, AJ, isn’t a member of the MC. There is also another plot, which features Lion and Madison, who I figure are going to be coming up in a book sometime soon.

So, here’s our story. AJ, AKA Atsa Jacy, owns a big construction company in Tempe. One day he comes home to find out that his fiancee is fucking another man, in their bed. She has the best everything that he could buy for her, including tits. She figures that she is going to be able to use all that everything to get AJ back, but he’s soooo not interested in her skanky ass. Instead, he packs up, leaves their apartment in his super duper pricey luxury car, and drives to a bar. Where his car is promptly stripped. But, when he’s at the bar, he meets an older Najavo man. They have a discussion about their shared heritage. And the man (Rock FTW) tells AJ to search for his passion.

Then there’s Jolene. And yeah, I had Dolly Parton running through my head the whole time I was reading the book. Jolene is from Louisiana and is a photographer. She’s been offered a job documenting various First Nations people, and she will be traveling for the next several months to various reservations and spending time there with host families and taking lots of pictures. Her first stop just happens to be in Phoenix, where AJ is now working construction and working on the Phoenix Skulls clubhouse. They meet each other and sparks fly.

Meanwhile, Madison, who is the daughter of Hawk from the Southside Skulls, is being hidden by the guys in Phoenix, at least until Lion is sent out to get her to take her to the ranch that the Southside Skulls own. There is a lot of tension there.

I don’t mind having two plots going on in the story, along with dual POVs for each plot, but I think that the various plots would’ve been better served being broken down into 2 books. I know that would’ve made both books short, but I think that they would’ve worked better.

I liked AJ and Jolene. I would really like to see more of them in the future. I think that they are going to be a really fascinating couple.

I’m looking forward to seeing more about Lion and Madison.

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I really like the compromise that AJ and Jolene come up with. I think it’s perfect for them.

OK, that’s all for this one! Go check it out! Happy reading!

 

Jessie Cooke-Tse

I think you could rightly say that I’m in love with Jessie Cooke’s Skulls series, whether they are Southside, Westside, or Phoenix. (tangentially, I have to go to the south side of Boston later this week. Maybe I’ll keep my eyes out for the Skulls.) As part of the Phoenix Skulls series, we have met Tse. He isn’t a current MC member anywhere, but he used to be a member of another club, and he knew leaders of both the Southside and Westside chapters. This is his story, his and Ajei’s, before the Skulls came to Phoenix, and they were young.

Our scene is set in the early ’70s. Ajei and Tse are both members of the Najavo Nation. She lives on the reservation with her aunt, uncle, and grandmother. Her family is traditional, and she has grown up soaked in the Dine culture. Tse is a little older than her, and didn’t live on the reservation, except he has an uncle that lives there. They meet one day because she went to his uncle’s store to borrow one of his horses. It’s a beautiful day, and she’s going to ride out to the swimming hole.

Tse and his uncle get to talking, and Jeremiah, his uncle, tells him that he should head out to the swimming hole after her and get to know her better. Tse almost didn’t but it’s a good thing that he did, because Ajei’s creepy-ass uncle was there, doing unspeakable things. Tse managed to save her, and that was that.

I think that Tse and Ajei, Rock and My Heart respectively, were just meant to be together. I think that their souls had followed each other through their various lifetimes and recognized each other. The type of connection and love that they share just doesn’t seem like it would exist in any other way, if you ask me. It is deep, it is intense, and it is just magical. For most of the time, it encompasses just them and invites the rest of the world to stay away, but it does expand, in time.

They have to make some difficult choices over their life, and the book does span about around 30 years or so, and we get to see the results of those choices on Tse and Ajei. We see how they aren’t just easy things that were decided spur of the moment, but how they hurt the person making the decision and the agony of their life from that decision. I really like that we have both Tse and Ajei’s POVs, because I think that some of what happened wouldn’t have had such an impact if we didn’t see it from a particular POV.

I have always liked this couple, and I’m so glad that I got to learn more about them. I really hope that they show up more in the Phoenix Skulls books.

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One of the things that really struck me as an important point in the book was when Ajei had to go to the clinic after her attack. There was just something so raw in that moment.

OK, that’s all I have to say about this one.

Jessie Cooke-Finn

Jessie Cooke’s latest book is the 24th in her Skulls MC series, and the 3rd in the Phoenix Skulls section of that series. However, I kind of think of Finn as the first one in the Phoenix Skulls books, even though we’ve had the two before. I’ll get to why I think that in a bit.

So, Finn is literally a walking dead man. His death was faked to keep him safe from people he owes back in Ireland, and his current ID is that of a dead man, so really, he’s a dead man twice over. Now he’s in Phoenix, working with Beck and Jace, to build up a new chapter of their club. He’s also boozing, wenching, and fighting, and occasionally getting arrested. His father, who is also a walking dead man, has asked him to go meet a guy, for some reason, and he’s not allowed to tell anyone about it. But instead of meeting who his father wants, he ends up meeting a lovely woman who sits down at the table with him and starts introducing herself.

Caitlyn is pretty new to Phoenix. She’s shy, quiet, reserved, and has spent her life living quietly. She doesn’t have a lot of experience with guys, and has no real dating life at the moment. Her cousin Joy, though, wants that to change. So she keeps setting Caitlyn up on dates. Her latest date is supposed to be with a guy who dresses like he’s into “grunge”, so when Finn drives up on his bike and walks into the coffee shop, Caitlyn is pretty sure that’s who Joy meant, so she goes into the coffee shop, sits down, starts talking, at least right up until the guy she’s supposed to be meeting shows up and is all like WTF?

So, here’s why I think that this is the first real story for the Phoenix Skulls. The first book was really about setting up the chapter and creating the new setting. We got to meet a few new characters, but we really didn’t focus too much on one particular character, though there was a lot of Beck and Jace, because, well, Beck and Jace. Jace’s book was pretty much all his backstory, which I really loved. We didn’t know much about Jace until that one, and then we learned all about him. Made me love him even more. This book, though, is the first one that focuses on one character and takes place all in Phoenix. So, see why I think it’s the first real book of this section.

OK, back to Finn and Caitlyn. I like Finn. He has gone through so much shit in his life, just so much, and yet, he’s managed to pull himself through it and is able to thrive on the other side. I mean, he kicked heroin, and though the temptation is always going to be there, he hasn’t backslid, which can be really hard. I have to give him major props for that. I think that he’s a dick at times, which, well, pretty much anyone can be, but once he realizes that he’s being a dick, he’s able to adjust and do better.

Caitlyn is a lot stronger than her family wants to believe. I think that she’s probably stronger than even she knows, and she doesn’t learn that until she had to figure it out. I think that she is good for Finn, and she’s not going to let him get away with anything, which is exactly what Finn needs, as well as someone who supports him so well. I look forward to seeing more of them as a couple in future books.

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OMG, Finn’s dad. That son of a bitch needs to die in incredibly slow and painful ways. I’m pretty sure that there are presidents of at least 3 different MCs/chapters who want to hurt him, a lot.

OK, that’s all I have to say today. Go check it out! Happy reading!

 

 

 

Jessie Cooke-Jace

Jessie Cooke started out with one MC series, and now she’s on to the 3rd series that relates to the first one. First one started in Boston, then it spunoff into Cali, and now we’re in Phoenix. Jace is technically the 2nd book of the Phoenix Skulls series, but I’m not entirely sure I would put it in that space. I would almost think of it as a prologue. Maybe that’s just me, but it works that way, if you ask me.

Jace as the male main male character in Beck, the last book in the Westside Skulls book, and he and Beck were featured in the first book of the Phoenix books. However, Jessie focused more on Beck in her book than she did on Jace, so we don’t have so much info on Jace. I personally loved the way that she handled Beck’s book, and I really loved the book. I thought that Jace and Beck were pretty much perfect together. The first book in the Phoenix Skulls series is talking about getting settled there, and it more sets the stage to move the story along than it talks about Jace himself. So, now we have his book.

Jace’s book starts way back when he’s a child and covers his life right up to when he becomes the Prez of the Phoenix Skulls. Because it covers so much time, we don’t see what happens to him day by day, year by year, but we get to see the highlights and lowlights of what happened to him and what formed baby Jace into the Jace we know and love.

From Beck, we know that Jae has a sister and that he dearly loves Rosie, and we get to learn so much more about her and about the relationship between Rosie and Jace. And I have to say that I love that relationship so very, very much.

I liked Jace back when I first met him in Beck. I thought that he wasn’t the “typical” biker, or at least what you might think that bikers are like. He is fairly shy, hides away from people, and doesn’t have a lot of confidence. There are so many reasons for this, and he has internalized all of those things, which makes me so sad, because I think that Jace is just a wonderful person, and one who deserves all the good things ever.

I’m looking forward to the next books in this series, as well as the spinoff coming soon.

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I love Jace’s run in with his teacher once he’s grown up, I thought that it was just like a perfect circle.

I really, really hate his dad from the very second we meet him.

OK, that’s all I have to say today. Go check out all these books. Happy reading!

Jessie Cooke-Rise of the Phoenix

Rise of the Phoenix is the first book of Jessie Cooke’s new series, the Phoenix Skulls, which is a spinoff of the Westside Skulls, which is a spinoff of the Southside Skulls. The Phoenix chapter starts with Jace, Beck, and Finn, and then more members start to file in. Jace and Beck, of course, were the focus of the last book, and the primary couple in this one, but there are more couples that show up as well.

So, the Skulls have bought some land that used to belong to the Navajo, many, many years before, but had gone through several hands before the Skulls got it. They are going to build a clubhouse for the entire club to hang out and a garage for Jace’s motorcycle design/building business. There is currently a house where Beck and Jace live and a small garage where Jace and the guys are trying to keep up with the demand for motorcycles. Down the road, we have Rock and Ajei, a Navajo couple who used to belong to an MC, and their adult son, Tommy.

There are problems happening. There’s been a dead and mutilated bunny that showed up on the property and left with a sign that said Go Away. But, that’s not the only thing. There’s also someone who painted headless bodies on the side of the house, again saying Go Away. There’s some worry that it’s Tommy doing this, because he’s been very vocal about the Skulls being on that property because that’s traditionally Navajo land and it belongs to them, even though it really hasn’t for decades and decades.

There are obviously a lot of other things that happen in the story, none of which I’m really going to talk about, because they are really interesting and the whole story was great. I love Beck and Jace, and yeah, there’s a reason I tend to put her first, because I really like Beck. She’s a total badass motherfucker, and pretty much everyone associated with her agrees with that, and agrees that fucking with Beck is not the smartest thing ever. There’s a line in the book that is from Jace’s POV where it says that he knows that she wouldn’t kill the guy, but that if she found him, he would wish he were dead. I love that line. And the BAMF factor is part of why Jace loves her the way that he does. I think between the two of them, the Phoenix Skulls are going to be in good hands. I’m really looking forward to seeing where the series goes next.

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I’m really interested in seeing if Tommy joins the club. I think it would be really fascinating if he did. I don’t think Rock and Ajei ever will, but I do think that they are going to be like the grandparents of the club maybe. They’ll be there to help the guys out when necessary, but not get in the way. That’s my opinion, at least. We’ll see, I guess.

OK, that’s all I have to say on this one. Go check it out. Happy reading!

Jessie Cooke-Beck

Beck is the 7th book in Jessie’s Westside Skulls series, which is a spinoff of her Southside Skulls books, and which is spawning its own spinoff. It’s called the Phoenix Skulls, I think, I should go look, but if I get on my Kindle, I’ll end up involved in the book I’m reading, and I’ll never get back to blogging about this book. Damn books, always waiting to suck me in.

So, Beck is kind of unique to the MC books. While it does focus on the MC and on Jace, he isn’t the primary focus or even the primary voice. Beck is. Or more properly, Rebeckah. Yup, you read that right, she’s a woman. And she’s the one that the book is named after. And frankly, calling her a badass motherfucker is kind of insulting to Beck, because she can and will out badass the toughest badass. I mean, Chuck Norris calls her to help him when he can’t handle everything on his own, and he totally hero worships her. Beck is my kind of chick. She cusses, she loves sex and will go out and have sex whenever and with whoever she wants, and she’s just totally free and totally comfortable being who she is. I think that she is on my list of top heroines, because yeah. She’s fucking awesome. So, here’s how the story goes.

Beck was delivered on the side of the road by Coyote, of all people. Coyote, at the time, was the Prez of the Westside Skulls, the position which is now held by his son, Wolf. But there was a bond formed between Beck and Coyote. Each year, he sent her a letter and a gift for her birthday. She got to know him in a way that no one else really did. They talked about a lot of things, including the possibility of her patching into the MC after she proved herself. She really wanted to do that, because she thought of Coyote as kind of a surrogate father because hers died before she was ever born. She wanted to be like both of her fathers, a sailor in the Navy, and a member of the Westside Skulls. Not only did she want to be in the Navy, she wanted to be a SEAL, but the military, in its infinite wisdom, decided that women couldn’t be SEALs, so even though she could pass all the tests, and do it better than the men, because she was XX instead of XY, she couldn’t join. So now, after 17 years in the Navy, she’s totally done, and ready to move to the next part of her goal.

Jace has been a nomad going back and forth in between the Southside and the Westside Skulls. He’s also a famous bike guy. He makes custom bikes that are in high demand, and right now he’s out with the Westside guys so that he can customize a bike for a kid named Nate, who is 13, and who wants a bike just like his dad’s. One day, when he’s working on the bike, the bad guys come into the garage while he’s talking to Bruf, and they want to talk to Wolf. When it ends up as a gun battle, the guy who is trying to shoot Wolf ends up shot, but none of the guys did the deed. It was a woman who had just ridden in on her Harley, saw what was happening, and made a difficult shot to save Wolf. Jace is impressed and more than just a little turned on, but he figures that she will never be attracted to him. Right up until she is.

There are a lot of things that I really liked about this book. One of them is the chemistry and connection between Beck and Jace. From the very first time they have sex, Beck thinks that Jace is sexy, even though Jace doesn’t think so because he’s covered in nasty scars. Beck likes them because they make it look like he’s lived. Jace likes more than just her beauty. He likes the fact that she’s a total BAMF. And I mean, she is. She can outshoot, outfight, and outride any guy there. Like I said, fucking awesome. I really like that about Beck and about this book. While there are a lot of strong heroines out there, there aren’t a lot who are like Beck and who are as comfortable with themselves as she is. I am going to need so much more of her, K, Jessie?

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The list that the boys make up for Beck to go through is just ridiculous. I really do hope that Wolf put them all through the shooting test she had to go through, at the very least. I would, however, have loved to see the riding test between her and Bruf. That would have been pretty fucking awesome, I think. I mean, yeah, it sounds like some kind of dance.

I’m really looking forward to the next book in the Phoenix story. It sounds really interesting.

OK, that’s all for this one. If you like MCs and tough heroines, go check this one out. Happy reading!

Jessie Cook-Wolf

So, this is another motorcycle club book. I really enjoy reading these books. I mean, the bad boy is such a hot and sexy idea, right? I don’t know that I would actually want to hook up with any of these guys, but that won’t stop me from thinking about it and reading the books. And frankly, if any of them were like Wolf, I may certainly consider it.

This is sort of the first/second book of a spinoff series. There is a prequel to this book, but in my opinion, it’s much less a prequel and much more a first book, with this one being the second. In fact, if you look at it on Amazon, this is listed as Wolf 2, so it’s up to you how you want to think about it. It’s a spinoff of the Southside Skulls MC books, but if you haven’t read them, don’t sweat it, this is a standalone and you will understand what’s going on.

Here’s the story. Wolf is the head of the Westside Skulls, in CA. They are trying to partner up with the Southside Skulls in Boston. To that end, they’ve created a MMA gym and some of the guys from the Southside Skulls are there to train because one of them is going to go on a big pay-per-view fight.

Meanwhile, Wolf is dealing with the betrayal of his wife and all the fall out. He isn’t looking for a new ol’ lady because he’s pretty sure that he will never love anyone ever again. He’s just perfectly happy occasionally spending happy sexy fun times with his soulmate, who is his best friend. They don’t love each other romantically, but they are absolutely best friends and incredibly close. (I love that Wolf thinks of Tricia as his soulmate and says something along the lines of soulmates don’t have to be romantic love, they just have to come into your life and match your soul. I think that’s a great idea. I also like that Jessie wrote it so that the only people they have sex with without condoms is each other. For some reason, that was just an interesting point to me.) Anyway, he finds out that his Veep is having problems with trying to figure out the money, so they try to get their money guy, only to find out that he’s missing. They get a message from the person who says he has him and he wants stuff, because of course.

On the other of the law, we have Bailey. She’s a psych for the Department of Corrections. Her job is to talk to parolees and such to determine if they are safe to come out and be around society and to make sure that they are meeting the conditions of their parole and aren’t a danger to anyone around them. When her weasally co-worker sends one of his patients over to her, the guy ends up kidnapping her. Apparently her scummy co-worker had been bondying with Mouse, the kidnapper, and told them that he and Bailey were lovers and that she was fucking kinky. When Mouse was betrayed, he decided to pay the scumbucket back by taking, raping, and killing his girlfriend.

Wolf and his guys are looking for their money man, who just happens to be tied up with Bailey, and they end up saving Bailey and their guy, while Mouse ends up dead. Bailey and Wolf aren’t able to get the other out of their mind, even though they are both sure that nothing will work out between them.

There are a lot of things that happen in this book. There’s betrayal, love, lying, stress, hot sex, and of course, MMA fighting. There are also a lot of discoveries, apparently even brothers from another mother can have secrets from each other. I didn’t particularly like Bailey’s suggestion as to how Wolf could handle certain things, but I understood where she was coming from. I also understood where Wolf was coming from when it came to her suggestion and how he handled it. They have two opposing viewpoints from opposite sides of the world and it was one of those things that made it difficult for them.

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I think that Bruf’s history is very interesting, and I can’t wait to find out more about his story. I’m really pulling for him and Sabrina, because it’s so obvious how much they want to be together. I think Wolf needs to get the hell out of their way and let it happen.

OK, that’s all I have to say on this one. Go check it out! Happy reading!

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