In a Bad Way
Series: Bad Boys of the Bay #2
Genre: Erotic Romance, Suspense
Author: Karin Tabke
Release Date: November 3, 2015
What happens when Mr. Suit and Tie meets Ms. Wild Style? A chemical reaction that leaves them IN A BAD WAY!
A missing stripper sister, the Russian mob, a smoking hot FBI Agent and the enigmatic woman who lies at the center of it all, is as crazy sexy as it gets.
Isadora Fuentes will do anything to find her missing sister, even slip on a bikini and serve drinks at the strip club where her sister worked. But when Andre, the Russian giant who runs the joint, instructs Izzy, aka “Wild Style,” to strip for a federal agent and make a compromising video, Izzy balks…until Andre hints he has information on Izzy’s sister—for the price of the tape.
Special Agent Flynn Ryker is a loner by choice, but when his buddy gets engaged, he shows up at Surf’s Up Strip Club in San Francisco for the bachelor party of a lifetime. What he doesn’t expect is his immediate attraction to a saucy little stripper named Wild Style. When she attempts to slip him a roofie and videotape him in bed, Flynn has two options: Haul her pretty little ass in and arrest her or go along with the sting and see where it leads…
Working together to solve the disappearance of her half sister, Isadora Fuentes and Special Agent Flynn Ryker may disagree on tactics, but there’s no denying the sizzling chemistry between them. Will the secrets they hide from each other ruin their chance for love?
I’ll split you apart and make you beg for more” He dropped his lips to the base of her throat and inhaled her sweet scent. “And I’ll be gone before you wake up.”
“Is that how you court a lady?”
“You’re not a lady and I don’t court.”
“If you don’t court, what do you do?”
“I fuck.”
“Then just fuck me.”
I’ve been a huge fan of Karin Tabke for quite some time. I even loved her PNR titles under her pen name of Karin Harlow. While this is the second book in a series, it’s easily read as a a standalone. While I did read the first book, Breaking Bad, I’d be lying if I told you I remember even a page from it. I had absolutely no trouble getting right into the swing of things here though.
In a Bad Way is exactly the sort of delicious set up I love. It’s this lusty little hate-to-love scenario, though not quite. Allow me to explain.
The sexual encounters facilitated by those worldly goddesses? Neat and a la carte. It was how he rolled. No extras, easily digested, and a fleeting memory.
Special Agent Flynn Ryker likes his women uncomplicated. A sweaty night between the sheets and a mutual understanding that that’s all it will ever be. After watching his father cheat on his mother with countless strippers and defile the sanctity of marriage, the last thing he wants is to end up like him. It’s also guaranteed that he has an ingrained dislike for strippers. So imagine his surprise when a curvy little beauty is exactly who catches his eye at a strip club while at a bachelor party for his buddy.
Izabella “Izzy” or as she’s known at work, “Wild Side”, is not quite what she appears to be. She’s a cocktail waitress at a strip club that’s recently been promoted to stripping. But she’s a girl with a plan. She’s looking for any clue about a missing woman with a deep connection to her that was last seen at the club. She may be on her way to law school, but she’s also moonlighting as a stripper for answers. Then she gets a proposition that she can’t turn down: roofie a cop at the club, get him in a compromising position and she just may finally get the answers that she so desperately seeks. And of course that cop that catches her eye is the too cocky for his own good, Flynn.
But I only pick girls who want to fuck me. And, tiny dancer, your ‘fuck-me’ pheromones are screaming loud and clear to my ‘I-want-to-fuck-you-back’ receptors.”
Thus begins an intricate dance of I hate you/ I want you, with a bit of Get lost/ come back thrown in for good measure. As for me? I devoured every angsty morsel of it even while it did drive me out of my ever loving mind sometimes.
Flynn is exactly the time of man that Izzy knows she doesn’t need. He’s rich, entitled, and a manwhore. He’s way too much like her estranged father and there’s no love lost between her and daddy, that’s for sure. So between her not wanting someone like her dad, and Flynn not wanting to be like his dad, well, it makes for some interesting reading.
As much as I wanted to throttle the two of them at times, I can’t deny that their chemistry was through the roof. Flynn and Izzy burn up the pages together. Though I did get frustrated with Flynn’s borderline antagonistic and demeaning treatment of Izzy because of her “profession” at times. It took much too long for him to finally remove his head from his ass, but again, it did make for some entertaining reading.
There’s the added element of suspense that ties the entire story together. The mystery of what happened to Alexandra Chasten is one that kept me turning the pages eagerly, only to be left hanging at the end. While the story gives a very satisfying HEA for the couple, it’s unresolved about the mystery of Alexandra’s disappearance. That conclusion is something we’ll be getting in a new spin-off series and damn but the set up for it sound delicious. Too bad the wait till April 2016 just may kill me.
I loved In A Bad Way much more than book 1. It was sexy, suspenseful, and did I mention sexy? My one quibble is the terminology that was often used during the sex scenes. I’m not a big fan of the word “penis” in erotic romance. Nor am I big on things like comparing of her hoo-hah to a raw oyster, or him sliding into her aching void. But in the grand scheme of things, that was barely a blip on my radar. I was so enraptured in the story that I barely batted an eyelash at it. And that says something, because I’m typically extremely picky with that stuff. Everything else about this book worked for me: the pacing, the story, and most especially the romance. Sure Flynn and Izzy had bumps along the way to their HEA but that only made it so satisfying when they finally reached it. Oh and if you haven’t read The Chronicles of Katrina yet (Simon makes a much appreciated appearance in this book), I’m not sure what you’re doing with your life.
Don’t miss the first book in this series
Detective Stevie Cavanaugh is one tough cookie…with a sexy but vulnerable secret…
Law enforcement royalty, Stevie Cavanaugh’s fate was determined before she was born: follow her father’s lead, retiring only after becoming Sheriff. But as capable and strong as she is, one man dared to awaken her dark sensuality, only to leave her aching for more. Now he’s back, the baddest cop in the whole damn town, distracting her from the most important case of her career—capturing the Cain killer.
For Special Agent Jack Thornton, like Stevie, police work is in his blood. So is Stevie, the woman he left behind after just one perfect night. Now he’s forced to work with her to catch a killer. Only he wants more of Stevie, too.
According to Stevie, she’s not interested. But Jack knows her deepest darkest sexual secret—that while she’s a woman used to giving command, she also takes great pleasure in submitting—to him. Despite how things ended seven years prior, Jack is determined to take Stevie to the next level.
When the fire between them becomes an inferno, they’ll both savor the burn…
I get what the author was trying to do with this story and while I appreciate her effort, it just didn’t pan out for me. Not even a little. Why?
Now I hate to name call, so I won’t. I also hate slut shaming, so I won’t. What I will say, is I absolutely hated her decisions and treatment of Devin for basically the entire book. One, she’s dated and flirted with his teammates. She proceeds to go on a date after her and Devin finally sleep together. Then there was her decision to go down on him after she finds him in the middle of a drunk hookup and throwing the woman out of the house they’re currently sharing. Also knowing how Devin is, her decision to continuously sleep with him but refuse anything more was downright infuriating. Considering everything Devin’s been through it was almost callous.
Again, I understand that this happens, and if this was any other character, I could have looked past it. But with Devin? No. I felt like he regressed and just wasn’t the Devin that I ultimately fell in love with throughout the series. I did not like him for a good 75% of this book.
Well, well, well, and so the plot thickens…and how! The Boss serial is my crack and Cari and Taryn are my favorite pushers because this self-professed serial avoider is addicted! Usually I wait until a series is complete, but something about these books leaves me in actual pain until I get my next fit. I should probably look into this.
What Grace doesn’t realize, however, is not only does Blake know what she’s after but he’s hiding quite a few things of his own…and they’re a doozy.
I’ve been waiting for Kai’s book for a long, long time. Ever since he was first introduced as a somewhat shady secondary character in 
Perfect Ruin is meant to be read after 
Kai is not a man that forms attachments. Any feeling has been beaten and tortured out of him when he was still a little boy. He doesn’t want an attachment of any kind any more than he can afford one. But when his job is to keep an eye on beautiful woman that he may have to use to bring her father to heel, it’s no hardship. What he never expects is for something to click inside of him once he does.
The connection between London and Kai is something that’s formed through many years. It may not be orthodox, but it’s them. Kai is not a gentle man, but with London there’s a part of him that comes to light that no one else has seen.
