A bold, bruised, and deeply human love story about choosing vulnerability in a world built on armor…
In her second installment of the Iconic Sons MC series, Steele delivers a gritty, emotionally charged romance that rides the edge between darkness and desire. For Clark, grief is not a wave but a constant tide. Haunted by the suicides of her fiancé and loved ones, and struggling with self-harm as a form of control, she’s built a fragile wall between herself and the world. Then she stumbles into Blood Tattoos, a shop owned by two magnetic, maddeningly protective bikers, Vin and Gun, and everything begins to shift. What starts as a job becomes a lifeline.
Vin and Gun, raised in the rugged loyalty of the Iconic Sons Motorcycle Club, are hard-edged alphas with vulnerable cores. Steele doesn’t reduce them to tropes. Yes, they’re brawny, brooding, and tattooed, but they’re also men who recognize pain when they see it and choose, over and over again, to show up. When they discover Clark’s history of self-harm, the impact is visceral. Steele doesn’t shy away from the weight of that moment, or the hard conversations that follow. The men’s response is raw but never cruel; they don’t flinch from Clark’s past; they lean in.
Still, the novel avoids easy redemption arcs. The MC world has rules, boundaries, and a history of violence that Clark doesn’t want to be part of. Her instincts to retreat and protect herself clash with the iron loyalty Vin and Gun have to their club. Steele uses this friction to explore deeper emotional territory: what does it mean to belong? To trust? To let yourself be seen? As the tension simmers into a full-fledged, three-way romance, Steele resists melodrama in favor of slow-burning chemistry and earned intimacy. The sex is scorching, but the heart of the story is emotional reclamation: of identity, of connection, of hope. There’s gang drama here, of course: rivalries, secrets, close calls. But Steele keeps the emotional stakes front and center. At times, the prose leans heavily on exposition, but even when the pacing stumbles, the story’s emotional core remains strong. Steele’s strength lies in the contrast she draws between the rawness of biker life and the tenderness of three wounded people trying to build something real.
For readers who crave romance with grit, heat, and heart—who want bad boys with big feelings and women who refuse to be saved—this one delivers. Fans of “Motorcycle Man” by Kristen Ashley and steamy unconventional romances will find much to devour here.
Pub date April 7, 2025
KBS Publishing
ISBN 978-1763588332
Price $14.99 Paperback, $2.99 Kindle edition
