Undaunted by Ronnie Douglas

Title: Undaunted (Knights in Black Leather #1)

Author: Ronnie Douglas

Publisher: William Morrow

Release Date: September 15, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

Following in the tradition of Kristen Ashely, Joanna Wilde, and  Jay Crownover, this first novel in a sexy, dark New Adult series tells the thrilling story of a young woman who finds herself drawn to a Southern motorcycle club’s inner circle—and a dangerously hot biker.

Aubrey Evans needs to get her life back on track after her father indicted for embezzlement. She’ll save college tuition money, hightail it out of small-town Tennessee, and steer clear of hard-muscled boys on motorcycles. yet there’s no ignoring someone like Zion. A knight in black leather, Zion looks like every ad idea she’s been told to avoid, but she can’t resist him. Whenever she’s in trouble, he’s there. Applying as his rough exterior may be, it’s the protective, principled man beneath that tempts her like crazy.

Zion knows Aubrey doesn’t intend to stick around. She claims to want only friendship, but he senses there’s a naughty girl hiding on the inside—one whose intense desires match his own. For now, he’ll be patient and play by her rules. Though he knows it’s just a matter of time before he weakens her resolve.

As they join forces to figure out who’s behind a local crime spree, it’s clear that the danger goes deeper than Aubrey guessed. And when she needs someone tall, dark, and undaunted to keep her safe, Zion intends to be there—now and always.

It's no secret that I love my New Adult stories and I'm always in the lookout for more. The latest I found was Ronnie Douglas's Undaunted. And though it wasn't quite the steamy read I thought it was going to be, I still really enjoyed this story. 

Aubrey's only goal is to get her life back on track. Tennessee isn't exactly where she wants to be, but she's determined to spend this time at her grandmother's getting back on her feet so she can go back to Oregon. Aubrey's been told to keep her distance from the bikers in town but it's easier said than done when she keeps on running into Zion, the dark and dangerous biker she can't seem to resist. Zion knows Aubrey won't be sticking around and he knows better than to get involved with someone who doesn't know anything about motorcycle clubs. But Aubrey could be the girl who makes him want to give it all up if it means he gets her. As circumstances keep pushing them together, Aubrey and Zion can only resist he attraction between them for so long.

In the last couple of years, New Adult has become my weakness. I've always been a sucker for a good romance story but until NA really became a thing, I didn't really stray too far from YA romance. But once I discovered NA, that was it, I had found the thing I would never get tired of reading. And that still stands true after two years of reading the genre. Inevitably, though, I've developed certain expectations when it comes to my NA books, things I expect to happen or how the romance might play out. With Ronnie Douglas's Undaunted I got something different. It's not that I didn't enjoy the story, because I totally did, it was just different from your typical NA. What I mean by that is that at times it almost felt like the romance wasn't the sole, or even the main, focus of the story. It was also about figuring out who was behind the crime spree in the seniors neighbourhood, it was about the inner workings of a motorcycle club. And the romance was the definition of drawn out, to the point where I was starting to wonder if it was actually going to happen. But in spite of this not being a typical NA read for me, I still found myself really enjoying this story and look forward to reading more.

When I first started reading about Aubrey and her plan, I was snickering to myself a little because I totally knew how it was all going to work out for her. Meaning that she would have to throw her plan out the window and just go with what was actually happening in front of her. But as much as I knew things weren't going to work out the way she planned and I wanted her to loosen up, I still really enjoyed Aubrey as a character and really liked reading this story from her perspective. What I liked the most about Aubrey was how much she wasn't afraid to speak her mind to all those bikers. Sure, she had to warm up to them a bit, but once she did, she spoke her mind. I wish that I could have gotten more of the story from Zion's perspective. I liked him a lot and I was so curious about him and his backstory and I wish I could have gotten more of him than I did. And I'm definitely curious about some of the other characters I glimpsed and look forward to finding out more about them in future books.

Even though it wasn't entirely what I thought it was going to be, I still really enjoyed reading Ronnie Douglas's Undaunted. The story was interesting and it was enough to get me to be curious about any future books in this new series.