cover image To Have and to Harley

To Have and to Harley

Regina Cole. Sourcebooks Casablanca, $7.99 mass market (384p) ISBN 978-1-4926-6795-7

Cole (Indelibly Intimate) brings humor to the gritty biker romance subgenre in this appealing contemporary. Trey Harding’s only family is his motorcycle club. He’s always assumed that his mother was an addict who dumped him when he was an infant. Then he learns that he was kidnapped by a nurse and has a well-off, loving mother who has searched for him his whole life. He’s afraid she wouldn’t love a biker, so he desperately claims to be a wedding planner—and conveniently, his biological sister, Sarah, is about to get married. Enter Sarah’s best friend, Bethany Jernigan, who has already agreed to plan the wedding when Sarah’s long-lost brother suddenly reappears. Despite DNA evidence, Bethany thinks Trey’s out to scam her friend’s family, until she realizes he’s the man of her dreams. A few of the characters could be more developed—especially Bethany’s cruel, deranged grandmother—and a drug dealing subplot is a little jarring, but Cole creates a hero and a heroine to root for, and the scenes with bikers arguing over wedding details are hilarious. This unconventional take on tough guy tropes will melt hearts. (Aug.)