cover image Silver Bastard

Silver Bastard

Joanna Wylde . Berkley, $15 trade paper (448p) ISBN 978-0-425-28062-1

Contemporary romance writer Wylde (the Reapers Motorcycle Club series) serves up another sizzling hot biker bad boy in this sexy, fast-paced novel. Puck Redhouse has just been released from prison at age 21, and a steamy night with Becca Jones is how he wants to celebrate. But when he finds out that she's just 16 and trapped in an abusive home, Puck quickly switches gears, delivering Becca to safety and a brand-new life with a loving family far from her drug-addled mom and predatory stepfather. Five years later, Puck and Becca are thrust together again, and a long-simmering mutual attraction explodes into a delicious, mind-bending boil. Raw language and violent scenes may discourage some readers, and the traumatic roots of the relationship are not dealt with in a meaningful way, but there are plenty of appealing, well written characters, suspenseful intrusions from the past, and lots (and lots) of melt-the-asphalt sex. This is a pulse-quickening kickoff to what looks to be an exciting new series. Agent: Amy Tannenbaum, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Apr.)