I stopped and started this one several times and really wanted to get into it but had a hard time connecting. I didn't really like the main characters and it felt like a struggle from the start. I'm sorry to say this book wasn't for me.

Beginning of a series. A motorcycle club gets a new bartender with some mystery in her past. ARC from NetGalley.

This was my first book by Christine Feehan and I'm not sure it was the best one to start with. From the naive heroine to the unlikeable hero to the lack of history/context, this was just a bit too much of, well, everything. I usually love MC/Biker books, but this one was too much of a mess for me to get into and enjoy.

Nikki’s Review:

Christine Feehan is a new to me author. I have heard great things about her writing from fellow romance fans. However, I struggle with trying new stuff. I know what I like. I'm happy to say that picking up this book was a good thing!

Judgment Road is an MC romance. I avoid those like the plague. They are typically darker than I normally like in my romance, and cheating is rampant. Cheating in any form is a hard limit for me. I get really stabby. While this book is definitely raw and gritty, it didn't have any cheating...thank goodness!

Reaper is a troubled soul. The abuse he suffered as a child would break just about anyone. Sometimes the descriptions of past abuse were hard to read, but it was an integral part of the story. You needed to read it to understand what makes Reaper the man he is.

Anya is on the run and looking for a place that she can call home. Reaper doesn't want to want her, but the pull is just too strong to resist.

The raw chemistry between these two was crazy hot. There's a lot of push and pull, but just under the surface, is a sizzling fire that's about to explode! Ms. Feehan may have made me blush a few times with the love scenes. And I loved every second of it.

There's a lot going on in this book. There's so much conflict. It felt like the hero and heroine could never catch a break. It was one hurdle after another. Ordinarily I would have eye rolled at this, but I think it worked in this book. It kept things moving at a quick pace and kept it interesting. I wanted to keep reading to see how it was going to pan out for them.

Because it's an MC romance there are some brutal scenes. The violence is thick, and the blood is plenty. But it's all very authentic to the world that Ms. Feehan has built for her Torpedo Ink MC.

Anya is a strong character. She has to put up with a lot of crap from Reaper, but I never once felt like she was a door mat. She stood her ground and kept her head up. I probably would have folded and walked away, but she fought for her HEA.

This may have been my first Christine Feehan book, but it certainly won't be the last. She has a huge backlist that I can't wait to dig into, not to mention, I'm giddy about the next book in this series!


Rating: 4 Stars (A)

This is an intense read! Reaper and Anya sets this story on fire. Anya is a bartender in a biker bar and Reaper is one of the Torpedo Ink MC reps. In his eyes he is damaged and has no nothing to give a woman in terms of a relationship but Anya draws him to her. When her past comes back will Reaper choose her over his MC? This story revs up to fast in the matter of pages. It covers a lot of sensitive subjects that is not for the mild so beware! Over all Judgment Road is a great story. I voluntarily agreed to receive an ARC of this book for an honest review.

This is my first book by this author but I definitely want to read more of her work.

This series is about a motorcycle gang called Torpedo Ink. They are brothers and sisters that lookout and take care of each other. They are brought together by a tragic event from their childhood.

Reaper is one of the protectors of the president of the club. He can hide in the shadows and not be seen. He has fallen for the bartender of their club but knows with his past a relationship is out of the question.

Anya is the bartender of Torpedo Ink and she too had a hard life. She has something she’s hiding but what is it?

Judgement road is the story about Reaper and Anya. There’s many twist and turns and it’s definitely a dark read along with a biker book. The story will keep you guessing what’s going to happen next and hope for the best. Since this is the first in the series I can wait to find out who’s story is next.

I was dying to get my hands on this book after we met all of the members of Torpedo Ink in the last Sea Harbor book. Reaper meets his match when they hire a new bartender which sets off all of his emotions and feelings that he has no clue how to deal with. Due to his past he tries his best to fight the attraction but fate has other plans. I have to say it is not a smooth road for these at all. They have quite a few issues to deal with along with some outside danger before it all work out in the end. A great introduction to a new spin off series that already has me hooked. I really liked it so I give it 4/5 stars.

Trigger warnings: Abuse, Rape, Pedophilia and More. This is a dark book.

This was difficult to read at times. It's a dark, MC romance with a lot of the bad elements that come with MC's. I didn't expect that since Feehan hasn't gone down that road before, and the two previous series' set in this world weren't like that. Had I gone into it with different expectations, I may not have been as surprised by the violence as I was.

If you're looking for a dark, gritty romance, this is the one for you. It is not for the faint of heart.

It was ok. I had trouble staying interested in parts of the story and did not find the characters all that compelling.

My review of Judgment Road was published at All About Romance on March 25, 2018. It can be located here: https://allaboutromance.com/book-review/judgment-road-by-christine-feehan/

Reaper is one of those heroes that is beyond tortured. I really wondered how he could even come away with a happy for now, let alone a happily ever after. We first met Reaper in Bound Together, which was Viktor and Blythe’s book. Viktor is the leader of a motorcycle club called Torpedo Ink, whose members all grew up together in “schools” in Russia. In actuality their parents were all killed like Viktor’s were and they were sent to schools where they were brutalized and only few survived. They survived any way they could. The survivors of Vicktor and Reaper’s school formed Torpedo Ink. These are men and women that would kill and die for each other. They are naturally suspicious of outsiders.

An outsider is exactly Anya Rafferty is. Motorcycle clubs aren’t exactly her thing, but for a bartender the money is good. She has a nice little nest egg going when Reaper takes notice of her. And not in a good way. She has noticed him noticing her but he has never said anything. Then she walks in on him telling Czar (Viktor) to fire her and she goes through the roof. She’s never been anything but a good employee and Reaper has no right to tell Czar to fire her.

Reaper wants her away from Torpedo Ink because there is something suspicious going on. It has nothing to do with the fact that she is the only woman that he has ever had an honest attraction to. When Czar tells him if he wants her gone, she’s gone, he just can’t do it. There’s something about Anya that calls to him, something that tells him that she’s the one. Reaper doesn’t know what to do about that because he’s never been in love, never been with a woman because he’s wanted to be with a woman. He has so many hangups that there is no way he can ever be in a healthy relationship.

Something tells Anya that if she can get through to Reaper, they could have something special. She knows there is something different about the members of Torpedo Ink. She can tell that they are different than other motorcycle clubs, but she can’t quite pin it down. Reaper knows she’s in hiding, but when he finds out who she’s hiding from he and his whole club go through the roof. What happens after that is so unforgivable, Anya doesn’t think she can stay.

What happens here is the darkest part of the book to me. It shows that Reaper and his brothers and sisters have been through hell and back together and they will do anything to protect each other. They don’t care about collateral damage. Even if they know what they are doing is wrong, they will still do it, especially if it will protect Czar. Anya recognized that early on. They will always put each other and the club before an outsider and she would always be an outsider. It took her a few times to be beat down with that realization, but she learned.

I really admired Anya for sticking with Reaper with all his issues. I also admired Reaper for admitting that he had all these issues that would most likely prevent him from being with Anya. He admitted to himself that he would let her go, he would probably even give her a few months, but eventually he would go after her. Reaper was always very honest with himself and with Anya about his feelings.

As a whole, I really enjoyed this book. I liked the dark aspects of it, even what I thought was the darkest part of the book. It really showed Anya’s strength. There were a few things I didn’t care for. Anya getting the tattoo, Blythe calling Viktor “Czar”. Little things. Otherwise I thought that it was a good read.

I had not read a Christine Feehan book in a while. Judgment Road is the first in a new series, coming off her Drake Sister and Sea Haven books, which I had not read. I am now going back and reading them. Reaper is deeply flawed, and Anya has had a very difficult life. I think C.F. does a good job of showing Reaper's need for Anya, and her need to be needed. I think they work together. As the book is fantasy, I do not except reality in their relationship.

Dear lord, I absolutely loved Reaper and Anya's story! Smart, sexy, tender, engrossing, and heartbreakingly beautiful! I was entranced from the very first page and couldn't put Judgment Road down until I finished. I am captivated by all of these Torpedo Ink characters and cannot wait for more in this series.

It has been forever and a day since I read anything by Christine Feehan and then I saw her name and MC and I said what the heck. Don't get me wrong I did like this book but it took my quite awhile before I was hooked. There were ALOT of details and characters that it took me awhile to get my head wrapped around it all, plus it also felt like I was missing back stories even though this was the first in a series. I think this may be a spinoff but I'm not quite sure where to start to know where to jump off from. I think if I had read the original starting point it would have taken me less time to wrap my head around things. I also can't put my finger on what exact genre it fits into. Technically it reads like a contemporay MC book but it has supernatural elements in it as well.

"Can't kiss you because my lips are cut to hell. Can't talk because my cock is gettin' in the way. Makes it hard to think when I hurt like a son of a bitch. You shouldn't be so damn beautiful if you don't want me hard as a fuckin' rock when I look at you."

I think one of the reasons it took me ahwile to buy into Reaper's feelings because in the beginning he couldn't stand her but then we find out he ordered her a cut the moment he met her? What? That came out of left field his feelings. First I could see his growing feelings but not she's the one from the begginning. If he's feelings weren't such a sudden turn around I would have bought into them more as a couple but as time progressed I did quite like Reaper and Anya and now I'm hooked onto the other chracers and can't wait to read more and also from the orginial series once I find out what it is. :)

At first, I thought this was going to be a knock-off and I don't know why because this author does an awesome job creating worlds and stories. However, the biker thing has been done and then been done again, so I was at a total loss for what I was about to read. When I first started reading I ate it up and the characters just became life to me - I fell in love with Reaper and his group of mismatched misfits, but then Anya stepped into his world and I didn't know what to think. She had never had that kind of family, love, and devotion. What develops is one of the best storylines this year. I didn't want it to end and I came to love all the characters. It's full of angst (which I normally hate) full of violence (which I usually abhor, it has some things in it that had me questioning why I was reading it again, but it also had some stellar writing which made it worth it. Another Christine Feehan book that was a five star read.

Loved this new novel! It was exciting, and dramatic but still very hot. I was sad to have finished it and the book left me wanting more! Please come out with the new one ASAP!!

Readers familiar with Feehan’s work will be well-acquainted with her off the charts sexy style, so it should come as no surprise that Judgment Road—a story about dangerous outlaw bikers —is a deliciously dirty good time. You’ve been warned, or lured, whatever suits your reading preference. Personally, I loved Judgement Road. The damaged bad boy motif never seems to get old for me. While the basic plot isn’t overly original, Judgment Road is some fine storytelling to kick off what will likely be a fan-fave series. While I find some aspects of Feehan’s biker club construct to be problematic, I was able to suspend my feminist outrage and enjoy the ride; a few eye-rolls notwithstanding.

The paranormal aspects of the Torpedo Ink club are subtle so far. Members of the club are highly trained assassins, each member possessing ‘gifts’ that make them dangerously indispensable to the group. These gifts seem to have been honed rather than inherited. Through extreme duress, club members learned to use their minds to survive. I cannot wait for the rest of this series to roll out. With a complete cast of varied members, I look forward to reading the next member’s story. I especially look forward to reading the stories of the female members of Torpedo Ink.

Read the vast majority of CF's works and love them. This just didn't sit well with me. I didn't dislike it just wasn't something I would want to read normally.

This is the first time that I have read this author, and though I don’t agree with everything in this book I do realize that it is just a story. A good story at that. This bike club is all Russian that came over from Russia and they all look out for one another as well. A new bartender starts to work for them by the name of Anya and she has caught the attention of the enforcer Reaper. He wants her fired but instead she continues to work there. From there the two of them begin a romp that is a little unexpected but you could see it in a way. When they begin to help another bike club with a problem someone thinks she might be a spy when they find out that she used to work for this place called ghost. Now after they find out she not most normal people would have left but she stays and she and Reaper become closer and she helps him overcome his childhood which was beyond awful. Overall the characters were good for this story and the action was good as well. And I am thinking Reaper needed someone like her in his life. I remembered that this was a book and tried not to take so much literal and remember it is a story. There are some dark scenes though so just be aware.

A new series spin off with deadly men and women, trying to find a new life. I won't lie, I'm addicted to this world Ms. Feehan created. I usually do not read motorcycle club stories because for the most part, I do not like the MC world. There are a few series I do read, primarily because they are a vanilla-ized version of the club. This one, I admit is a sanitized version of a MC club, because there are no hos ready and waiting around to be used, abused and tossed aside. Instead, it's an intriguing story of a sinister group trying to infiltrate another larger MC turf.

The male character is the stubborn and elusive Reaper. He is someone who doesn't want complications and yet he is lured in by Anya's sweet personality. Anya is doing her best to stay under the radar. She's seen something she probably should not have and now she's on the run. If she could only continue to be paid cash and no questions asked, she might just survive.

Whenever I read a story where one of the main characters is on the run, I think about how restricting our world is now. How difficult it is to disappear and how hard it is to make a good living without credentials. How does one start over? For Anya, she isn't make a good living or even ends meet. I feel for Anya who has nothing and lives out of a car in a park. It is stories like this that motivate me to continue to work hard at my day job so I never end up destitute and desperate like she does. It's hard for Anya and without a helping hand, how can she survive?

Luckily enough for her, she is adopted by by the Torpedo Ink MC. Without their funds and protection, she might as well be another statistic for collateral damage. What I liked about this story is the character development and plot. There was more than just a romance. I would say the romance took a back seat to this story even though it is integral. Just when I thought it would be merely Reaper doing his #wantyoudon'twantyou dance with Anya, a threat materializes. This leads to secondary characters from another series to make an appearance and mobilize the community. I love this small town community as it showcases the best parts of living in a small town where everyone knows each other.

This first book starts out nicely and I can't wait to read the story and matches for each member in this deadly exclusive MC. This romantic novel is recommended to readers who enjoy motorcycle clubs and alpha males mixed in with a bit of magic.