Dare to Stay by Jen McLaughlin Series: The Sons of Steel Row, #2
Published by Signet Publication Date: August 2nd 2016
Pages: 336
Also in this series: Dare to Run, Dare to Lie
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Fans of Katie Ashley, Joanna Wylde, Kristen Ashley, Sophie Jackson and Katee Robert will be thrilled by this dark, steamy series, from the New York Times bestselling author of the Out of Line novels, where one gang of criminals knows just how being bad can be so good...
Bruised and bloodied on Boston's mean streets, Chris O'Brien is reeling from the loss of his childhood best friend. But after barely escaping a hit placed on his head, Chris is desperate to live. A safe haven comes to mind - the home of the perfect girl from his childhood, Molly Lachlan. Before he has fully considered what it would mean to involve her in his mess, he finds himself on her doorstep.
When Molly agrees to let Chris inside her home, she realizes she's also letting him into her life. Danger and desperation are coming off him like steam, and yet she can't bring herself to turn him away. His bad boy charm always had a hold on her, but now there's a soulfulness and sorrow in him that she's never seen before. And despite the heart-stopping risk of helping him, she hopes against all reason that he'll stay...
The stakes are dangerously high...and the passion is seriously intense. Follow the exploits of the Sons of Steel Row in Dare To Run and Dare To Stay.
Cocktails and Books received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect our opinion of the book or the content of our review.
At the end of Dare to Run, I hated Chris O’Brien. I knew he had his reasons but his betrayal hurt. In Dare to Stay, Chris gets his story and we get our answers to why he betrayed his best friend Lucas Donahue. The book opens with Chris bloodied, beaten, shot and left for dead and he thinks this is what he deserves. You don’t turn on your family and Lucas and Scotty weren’t his blood brothers but were more of a family than his own parents. Molly Lachlan finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time when she comes across Chris. She should run but instead she takes him back to her place to help him.
Chris and Molly grew up living beside of each other and although they came from different sides of the tracks, they seemed to always run into each other. Chris has been in love with Molly since his childhood but only from a far as he knows he doesn’t deserve someone like Molly: pure, trusting and just generally good. Chris grew up in the Sons of Steel Row and his father bought the fancy house in the fancy neighborhood but it didn’t change where they came from. Chris’s dad beat him and Molly’s dad was a doctor that helped people like Chris. In Chris’s eyes, they could never exist in the same world.
As Molly and Chris get to know each other, it is clear that neither can live without the other. The question is how do you make two polar opposites work in a world where one is part of a gang and sees no out and the other suffered by the hands of gang violence. Watching these two figure out how to navigate through the complications of their lives was quite enjoyable and I wanted them to work. Chris thinks he is undeserving of Molly and Molly needs her projective walls torn down so you can live and love.
I loved their story although I will say that I felt like the ending was almost too perfect. In a world of this much violence, I don’t think the solution would be this easy and I actually wanted more…more drama…more violence and maybe not such a clean ending. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed this installment of The Sons of Steel Row. I am hoping Scotty is next because I can’t imagine his story will be an easy one to tell.
About Jen McLaughlin
Jen McLaughlin is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of sexy books with Penguin and Random House. Under her pen name Diane Alberts, she is also an USA Today bestselling author of Contemporary Romance with Entangled Publishing. Her first release as Jen McLaughlin, Out of Line, released September 6 2013, and hit the New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal lists. She was mentioned in Forbes alongside E. L. James as one of the breakout independent authors to dominate the bestselling lists. She is represented by Louise Fury at The Bent Agency.
Though she lives in the mountains, she really wishes she was surrounded by a hot, sunny beach with crystal-clear water. She lives in Northeast Pennsylvania with her four kids, a husband, a schnauzer mutt, and three cats. Her goal is to write so many well-crafted romance books that even a non-romance reader will know her name.
