Fire Inside

by Kristen Ashley
My rating: + 4.5 Stars ++

~Welcome to the life of Chaos…

Where rules don't apply, only feelings do.

You go with your gut, you lead with your heart, you do what you want and you don't think of consequences.

You live

You're free. ~

Lanie has survived hell, and continues to live it.
Since her near death experience with the Russians, she has shut off emotionally and mentally from living.
She doesn't believe in love or happiness.
Her life exists around guilt.

Having always been attracted to Hop, Lanie wants a one night stand.
She chooses Hop cause he knows her history, she knows he won't be up for anything more.

~"Hop, I swear, no kidding, seriously, so strings. No expectations. Just us. One night. Tomorrow, it will be like it's always been. Like it didn't even happen. I promise."~


That one night stand, turns into a morning, and then another night.
Hop can't get enough, He isn't finished with her. He has had his taste and won't let go.


~"Yeah, I liked skank. Liked the taste. Wild, free, and easy. Went back for more. Repeatedly. But that was before I had my mouth between the legs of the lady. You get that, you don't go back."~


Laine and Hop continue their hidden affair while they get closer.
Determined to win Lanie's heart, Hop wants to break through Lanie's shield and beat back the monster she keeps inside of her.


~"You won't let me in, I'll break in, sneak in, blast in," he promised.

"It lives in me, Hopper. I know it. It can't be beat." ~





Slowly Hop sneaks in, Lanie fights it with everything she has but in the end she can't fight what feels right and Hop makes her feel alive again.


~"Please be real." his hand in my hair stilled, curled around my head and Hop whispered back. "Lady, I'm as real as it gets."~


Hop and Lanie really do struggle with their relationship.
It felt like a constant battle, but what I loved about it, was that it was real. It hurt to read the pain that they both put each other through.


~ "Jesus, Lady, are you seriously gonna stand there and tell me you don't remember all the good we had, and there was a lot of good in there, Lanie, good so good it was the best and it totally fuckin' outweighed the bad in time and importance, and you're gonna throw us away just because you're shit scared?"~






~"You love me?” I breathed.
“You’ll never know,” he replied, turned, slid the door to and walked away.” ~


But when things are good between them you feel it, and they don't give up on each other.
The tender moments when Lanie lets Hop past the walls she has built were amazing. I fell in love with Hop every time.


~"Every step, every breathe, every second I lived on this earth, I'm thankful for, no mater how fucked up or whacked or hard or good, 'cause all that shit led me to you."~



As alway K.A bossy Alpha sex was amazing!



~"So tight, baby. Wet, sleek glove. Nothin' like you, Lady. Nothin' like that beauty."
I lifted my head, pulling him to me with one are, pressing my chest to his as my toehr hand slid over the skin of his back and I urged, "Faster Honey."
"Takin' my time, Lanie."
"Faster, baby." This time it was a plea.
"You take me as I give it and I'm takin' my time." ~



If I'm being honest, I wasn't too excited to hear that Hop was up next. I didn't really connect to him in past stories. I knew I was gonna read it. I will read anything K.A writes.
I just wasn't super excited, pissing my pants over Hop.

I'm not sure if it was because I wasn't expecting to fall in love with Hop, or because Im in withdrawals of K.A but….

Fuck me Lady..

I love HOP..
Yes he has all the characteristics of a K.A hero

• Sexy
• Bossy
• Alpha
• Bad ass biker


But there is something else there.

He is more reserved. He has a softness.
Seriously every time he opened his mouth, I almost died..

~"You mean somethin' to me in way, for a man , he wants the world to know it. I'm proud you're on my arm and in my bed and I want to share that with my family. Don't keep takin' that away from me."~

I loved that we got only their story for a while. I really enjoyed the love story that was Hop and Lanie.
I have read a few reviews that didn't like that aspect.
That they missed the secondary characters for the 1st half of the book.

But as Lanie tells Tyra

~ "It was Hop, I needed to guide me through letting the past go. It couldn't be you. I was blaming myself for you getting hurt. It had to be someone else and there isn't anyone in my life, even my sister, who could do it with the tenderness and understanding Hop gave me." ~

I can see what people are saying but, Hop and Lanie's story is timed around the same time as Shy and Tabby's story.
So we get a little cross over.
I'm pretty sure the next in the series, we are gonna get it good with all the drama dealing with Benito.

So yes this was a little different to past works, but that's a good thing.
I loved it. I loved Hop.
Love Kristen Ashley.



Buy it.
Read it.
Love it.

*Arc provided by Forever (Grand Central Publishing) via NetGallery*