Tag Archives: Chicago Underground

Review: Fierce (Chicago Underground #3) by Skye Warren

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Title: Fierce
Author: Skye Warren
Publisher/Year:  Book Beautiful 4/16/22
Length:  155 pages
Series: Chicago Underground #3

Overview

I’m torn between what I want and what I need. Between the men in my past and the man by my side. Colin has tried to control me, to use me. He also guards me so fiercely my heart aches. But there’s no protection left for me. This is my battle, and I’ve already lost.

My Thoughts

We were left at a point in time where Allie had to choose the man she saw a future with or her own family and safety. It’s a tough position to be in, at her age (we forget that she’s still a teenager) and the fact that she’s got a child, that she’s got to make choices that aren’t the smartest and definitely not the most informed. She’s at Phillip’s house – Colin’s brother – looking for information to get a cop to leave her alone.

What happens next is a story that’s a bit of a roller coaster. We watch how Allie gives misinformation in the hopes that it’ll protect her and Colin. We watch how that backfires as he discovers her secrets, and we also see how Shelly gets them all into even more trouble. While it’s not Allie that puts the detectives and cops on the ‘right’ trail, it’s Allie who’s the one blamed for it and has to suffer the consequences.

There’s a trap laid, we watch the warehouse set on fire with people trapped inside and we watch a shootout happen when people don’t trust what side is what. Someone is left on the brink of death and relationships are torn apart.

What’s interesting here is that we see the dynamics shift quite a bit between characters and relationships that we didn’t know existed become something great, bonds that we thought were strong are broken and pasts become a bit of wisdom and window to the future. Add to that, there’s pain and torment since no one gets the ending that they were hoping for.

There’s romance for sure in this story, but it’s more about secrets and emotion – no one trusts one another and that means that we’re going to get a lot of angst. Which i suppose is appropriate given that Shelly and Allie really are like 18-19 years old and haven’t made the most sound choices in life. Not sure what the point of this story is, and I don’t mean that in a bad way necessarily – there doesn’t always have to be a deeper meaning for things, but this one is a bit all over the place in discovering what the narrative is, what the motivation is and what the future outcome should be. So, enough deep and philosophical from me for now – I’m off to find something else to read. Enjoy!

Review: Hard (Chicago Underground #2) by Skye Warren

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Title: Hard
Author: Skye Warren
Publisher/Year:  Book Beautiful 4/16/22
Length:  150 pages
Series: Chicago Underground #2

Overview

What Colin doesn’t know can’t hurt him. At least that’s what I tell myself about the secrets I keep. I don’t have a choice, not if I want to keep my daughter safe. There are enemies in the shadows waiting to strike from all sides. I’m holding them out with my bare hands, but it’s hard not to get crushed in the process.

My Thoughts

We’re back with Allie and Colin an we watch how their relationship grows from what was meant initially as a one night stand to something. more real. Andrew, the father of Allie’s daughter is back and that’s not a good thing for anyone – we don’t know his motivation, but we know that Colin is incredibly protective of her, and that’s not going to bode well. What we see happen is his alpha side come out and he offers to help, and does. Challenge of course is that Allie’s been taking care of herself for such a long time, that she’s not willing to just sit back, and she meets with Andrew as well. We all know that’s going to bite her but we’ll see how that happens.

Add to that, Allie is now living with Colin, their lives are intertwined, and she’s learning more about what his life entails. While he has the cafe, there’s other work that he doesn’t for his brother that’s less than savory and one day that crosses into her world. The police come looking for her when they know that Colin is out, scare her and try to get information that they likely shouldn’t have and will get her in further trouble if she discovers it.

While this is going on, we learn that Shelly is with Colin’s brother – so the families are intertwined. We don’t know what everyone does, what the motivations and implications are, but what we do know is that there’s no lack of excitement and energy.

We’re left off on a cliff – knowing that there are investigations into people’s past and connections between people that shouldn’t make sense. We don’t know what meetings were organic and what was a set up, and we don’t know what that means for the future. Who’s on what side, who’s going to lose trust and love and who’s going to end up with what they should rightly have. So, onto the third and final installment of this series (I think) to see what happens next. Enjoy!

Review: Rough (Chicago Underground #1) by Skye Warren

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Title: Rough
Author: Skye Warren
Publisher/Year:  Skye Warren 2/8/17
Length:  164 pages
Series: Chicago Underground #1

Overview

Survival doesn’t come easy…

I’m a cautionary tale. A statistic. A victim. A single teenage mother from the poor part of town. Most of the time I’m too busy working and struggling to care what people think. Survival doesn’t come easy.

I have a dark secret, a pressure valve, a rare moment just for myself. On these nights I visit a club. There I find men who give me what I need. Men who aren’t afraid to take what they want.

Men like Colin.

But he takes more than a few stolen hours. He demands more than my body. He wants my heart and soul–my happily ever after. I never thought I’d be Cinderella. I never thought a man that rough could be my prince.

My Thoughts

The summary makes you think that this story is more dark and seedy than it is, but on the flip side, it’s not a fairytale. Pasts make the present into a situation that no one really wanted, and yet we all have to figure out how to find the happy ending.

We meed our leading lady Allie on her monthly ‘date night’- the one night a month that she gives herself to be selfish and to take what she needs, just to feel. See, events of Allie’s past have created this woman that she is today. She got pregnant by someone she thought was her friend, yet he up and ran. Mind you he also forced her, which I’m not sure we ever get the full story. She finds out she’s pregnant and is immediately kicked out of her house. Her friend Shelly decides that they are in this together, and they run away together.

Fast forward about 2 years, they are living in their own apartments, Allie is working at a bakery to support her daughter and Shelly is selling herself essentially to help cover off on costs that Allie can’t manage. They don’t have an easy life by any means, but they are surviving.

It’s on Allie’s night out, when she’s looking for someone to strictly take her mind off life, and in a non-gentle sort of way that she meets Colin.

He’s sitting at the bar and he’s broody and moody. He’s incredibly sexy and he turns away women as they approach him. Allie makes her move, and their worlds change.

For some reason, they are right for each other. While Colin is hard on the outside, he’s really a good guy – and we start to learn about that throughout this story. Allie doesn’t have trust and faith in men, so she fights what he has to offer, but some how Colin weaves his way into her heart.

He’s there to protect her and to bail her out when things get dicey and that’s more than anyone has ever done. When Allie’s ‘baby daddy’ shows up, Colin is there with a plan to help her out and offers her protection. Just when she thinks that he’s the one to do it, something changes, and their balance is thrown off. She feels alone again and isn’t sure what has happened and what to do to fix it. That’s where we find ourselves at the end of this first book – so of course that means that i’m off to read the next one to figure things out. Enjoy!