Kinkaid by Rie Warren

Kinkaid by Rie Warren

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I received a free copy of this book to read and review for Wicked Reads.

I absolutely loved Kinkaid. That said, I was not expecting to cry – at all. After reading Steele: Into Your Heart and Hunter back to back, I was in the MC mindset. While the Bad Boys of Retribution MC is not as gritty as some MC romances because the members are not one-percenters, both books were action-packed and I was expecting Kinkaid to follow a similar theme. Yet Ms. Warren chose to mix it up, step back from the suspense element, and gave fans a heartfelt drama that is more reminiscent of the feel of Stone: At Your Service and Love: In the Fast Lane and I loved every page of it – even the soggy ones.

From the book’s description, I went in knowing that Kinkaid and Sadie are best friends until she finds out he has been stripping and lied by omission about the job. And boy what a way to find out! As the book progresses we come to realize that it’s not the lie that angers Sadie but the fact that he’s “selling his body” to strangers when she’s been harboring feelings for him for years. Of course that information doesn’t come out until Sadie and Kinkaid are fighting and it is definitely entertaining as they both realize they want the same thing. As they take their relationship status from best friends to lovers, Ms. Warren proves yet again that she can write some seriously hot sex scenes. But what surprised me (and shouldn’t have) is that she can write just as hot striptease scenes. Good grief! It’s no wonder that Kinkaid was able to pay for his grandfather’s medical bills and care by working only three nights a week. I felt like I should have been stuffing bills into my Kindle.

Be forewarned, Sadie and Kinkaid are in their early twenties so there is a bit of a New Adult feel to Kinkaid – a bit more angst than you would expect to find in an MC book. Add to the fact that Kinkaid is like most guys in a romance in that his communication skills are subpar and he’s a little slow on the uptake regarding how his stripping bothers Sadie, well there are certainly plenty of opportunities for fireworks between these two. But there is far more heartfelt emotion in Kinkaid’s relationship with his grandfather, the way he takes care of him, and the emotional upheaval he faces as his grandfather’s health declines that keep the angst from overpowering the book. It was two-tissue tearjerker for me. While you can read the Bad Boys of Retribution MC series without reading the Carolina Bad Boys series and you can read Kinkaid without reading Hunter first, it is a richer reading experience if you have read the others because there is an overlapping of characters between the books (even if the plotlines do not rely on knowledge gleaned from the previous books). I know I have already said it, but it bears repeating – I loved Kinkaid. This was a great addition to the franchise and I’m already salivating for Bo because the ending of Kinkaid teased me just enough to want to know what’s going on with our latest addition to the Retribution MC.

Check the Kinkaid by Rie Warren Blog Tour post on Wicked Reads.

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