Named for her late father’s most prized possession, Aston McNeil shares a deep connection with the classic car she inherited upon his recent death. When she learns her reckless stepbrother lost the car as collateral to Houston’s most feared loan shark, she fights the urge to throttle him and vows to do whatever it takes to get the car back.
Mechanic and mob enforcer Ben Beciraj can’t believe his eyes when Houston socialite Aston McNeil storms into his chop shop and demands the return of the car he’s just repossessed. He counters with a deal he never expects the fiery blonde heiress to accept—one week at his beck and call for the keys to her late father’s favorite toy.
But Ben’s plans to have a little fun with a girl way out of his league are shot to hell after one taste of sweet, beguiling Aston. When her stepbrother’s shady dealings are revealed, Ben will do anything to protect her from the seedy underworld he inhabits—even if it means crossing the only family he’s ever known.
Even though this is the first book in Roxie Rivera’s Debt Collection series, I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had read the previous series, Her Russian Protector. There are a few character cross-overs, not to mention the ‘family.’ That doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy Collateral, it just means that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I think I could have. I spent a lot of time wondering about what happened before this book.
The only other thing that kept me from falling in love with these characters is that I didn’t have time to get to know them. Things happened fast in Collateral… almost too fast. I liked the characters, the smexiness was just right. There was more than enough action and even though it was kind of predictable, there was still enough suspense to keep the pages turning. I just wish there were more pages to turn. *sigh*
I still consider this a worthy read in the Alphas After Dark collection. It’s given me another author to follow, because it was my first Roxie Rivera read and it’s given me at least 2 series to catch up with. I’ll have to double check, but I think that I only have 2 books left in this collection. It might be a little while before I get to them because they’re a couple of books into series that I haven’t started yet.
creativedeeds 