Ride Steady (Chaos, #3)

by Kristen Ashley

Meet the intense and sexy bad boy bikers of the Chaos Motorcycle Club in Carissa and Joker's story from Kristen Ashley's New York Times bestselling series.

The ride of her life . . .
Once upon a time, Carissa Teodoro believed in happy endings. Money, marriage, motherhood: everything came easy---until she woke up to the ugly truth about her Prince Charming. Now a struggling, single mom and stranded by a flat tire, Carissa's pondering her mistakes when a vaguely familiar knight rides to her rescue on a ton of horsepower.

Climb on and hold tight . . .
In high school, Carson Steele was a bad boy loner who put Carissa on a pedestal where she stayed far beyond his reach. Today, he's the hard-bodied biker known only as Joker, and from the way Carissa's acting, it's clear she's falling fast. While catching her is irresistible, knowing what to do with her is a different story. A good girl like Carissa is the least likely fit with the Chaos Motorcycle Club. Too bad holding back is so damned hard. Now, as Joker's secrets are revealed and an outside threat endangers the club, Joker must decide whether to ride steady with Carissa---or ride away forever . . .

• ISBN10: 0606371583
• ISBN13: 9780606371582
• Publish Date: 14 August 2015 (first published 30 June 2015)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 6 April 2021
• Imprint: Turtleback Books
• Edition: Bound for Schools & Libraries ed.
• Format: Hardcover (Library Binding)
• Pages: 640
• Language: English

Reviews

[Linda]

*I received a free ARC of Ride Steady from Forever via Netgalley in exchange of an honest and unbiased review*

#COYER Scavenger Hunt item #53: Read a book with just half a face on the cover (4 points)

Ride Steady was an amazing story! Ashley took me on a tender, tough, sweet, sad, funny, happy and very hot ride along with Carissa and Carson.

This and all my other reviews are originally posted on my blog (un)Conventional Bookviews

[Eve1972]

I've changed my rating for this one because as time passed I realized I really didn't like it all that much.

[stacey_is_sassy]

Steele...to...Chaos...to...Joker - the perfect transition

Ride Steady was the perfect Kristen Ashley party I hoped for. The release day was planned...bubbly, snacks and family organised. I went to my Mum cave for reading hibernation with regular visits from my boys to check on my progress. Luckily it was hubby who caught me crying, gave me a cuddle and kiss on my cheek, with a - it will be ok Baby. Then it was my 11 year old son that I gave my smile and PG explanation of why the book was so good. My poor 8 year old copped the men can be so silly speech and why he needs to learn to respect his wife and marriage vows when he married in the future. My boys are used to the KA party, they know what to expect and go along with it with a smirk on their face.

I loved this story. From the sad and bad Carissa had faced from the douchewaffle ex-husband Aaron to the wonderful love and support she received when Chaos made her part of the family. I hated seeing what Carson had faced growing up, but loved the people who cared about and wanted better for him. This story covered every emotion. I loved, I hated, I laughed, I cried, I blushed and I felt the one thing that always leads me to a 5 star read...connection. These characters felt real to me. I want to visit Ride and Cherry in her office, I want to run into Lee, Indy and their family at La Delicias (hope I got the spelling correct) and I want to see hot guys on bikes ride past.

I've seen mentioned a few times that there wasn't enough angst or kidnapping in this one. Maybe KA is giving us what we want, no TSTL heroes and heroines. It was mentioned early on in the book that Chaos had learnt their lesson when Tyra was kidnapped (which was in Motorcyle Man). Chaos had taken every precaution that no more family would be hurt because of fallback. We don't see the kidnappings and retaliations because they did everything in their power to make their loved ones safe.

Ride Steady had everything I love in my favourite reads. A couple willing to work towards their happiness, hot and smexy scenes, great laughs, some reality and a little magic to make everything work out in the end. Kristen Ashley is still one of my favourite authors of all time and Ride Steady just reinforced it.

This review and more can be found at http://edgyreviews.com/

[Rowena]

What a book!

I’m not sure why I keep dragging my feet when reading Kristen Ashley books because I always end up loving the heck out of them. Yeah, they can go on forever but I don’t even care, I love these motorcycle men!

Carson Steele grew up in a bad way. His Mom left him before he started crawling. His Dad was a piece of shit who beat him and did all manner of bad things to him and around him so by the age of eight, Carson had a plan. To get out. He just had to survive until he was old enough to get away, but he was determined to get away. He was a loner at school because he wasn’t much of a talker and didn’t want to make friends and then have to fend up their attempts at wanting to come over and do normal friends things. So because he was a loner, people talked, they saw his bruises from the beatings and they talked some more. He was used to sneers and looks of pity but the one bright spot in all of the madness was his crush on the golden girl, Carissa Teodoro.

Carissa came from a loving family. Her parents doted on her, they loved her and she was popular at school even though she didn’t feel like she fit in with her friends. When tragedy struck her family, she didn’t let the loss of a loved one change who she was at her core. A kind-hearted girl. But as she grew up and the happily ever after she thought was hers goes south, Carissa is stuck in a bind. Her husband left her for someone younger while she was pregnant with his baby and keeps taking her to court for custody of their son. Her debt keeps mounting but her slimy lawyer ex-husband keeps bleeding her dry until one day, a knight in shining armor pulls over to help her change her tire. She didn’t know how much her life was going to change after running into the biker known as Joker.

Oh how I loved this story. I loved Joker. I loved Carissa. I loved Baby Travis and the love that Joker came to have for that little boy. I loved the romance between Carson and Carissa. I loved the family that Carson brings into Carissa and Travis’ life and I loved the easy-ness that came with the love between Carson and Carissa. I loved Mrs. Heeley. I loved Linus and Kamryn. I loved Elvira and her crazy shopping sprees and every crazy thing that came out of her mouth. I especially loved the scene where Carissa tries to get back at Carson’s terrible Dad after everything he did to Carson. I loved that Carissa cared enough about Carson to want to avenge him and just love him. I loved Mr. Robinson and the talk he had with Carson when Carson was in high school.

There is a lot that I loved about this book but there were things that drove me crazy too. The descriptions for some things confused me and kept taking me right out of the story. Like when Carson’s in high school and he’s planning on getting his degree but didn’t see himself going to college (according to his talk with Mr. Robinson), that confused me. The description of Joker when he shows up to change Carissa’s tire.

He had a full black beard on his face. It was trimmed but not trimmed enough (as in, the beard being nonexistent).

Huh?

The nickname Joker. This is actually what kept me from reading the book for so long. His name was freaking Joker. I kept seeing images of the Joker from Batman and well, that’s not a good thing to think about when reading about a hot biker in a bad ass motorcycle club.

But even after all of those times where I thrown out of the story for weird descriptions and weirder nicknames, that did nothing to dim my love that I came to have for the MC, Tack and Tyra, Shy and Tabby, Laney and Hop, High, Snapper, Big Petey and the rest of the club (cause you know, they’re NOT a gang). I just loved this book to pieces and can’t say enough good things about it.

The romance was fantastic. I enjoyed getting to know both Carson and Carissa. I loved that their relationship was an open communications kind and that Carissa was finally able to get the easy she deserved. Especially with all of that drama with her ex. I loved that Joker was by her side when she needed him and that they talked their issues out and had a grown ups relationship. No petty fights over stupid things. No immaturity. Sure, Joker was an ass when Carissa first started coming around but once he put his insecurity shit away, he was all in. Loved that.

I loved seeing that Carson realized that he may have had a shitty home life as a kid but he had good people in his life as well. I loved seeing him reconnect with Mrs. Heeley and Linus and Mr. Robinson. I loved seeing him try to take care of them now the way that they took care of him then. He didn’t turn out too bad. He was a pretty fantastic hero.

Carissa won me over from the very beginning. When she spoke up for Carson with her so-called friends in high school. I loved that she had a crush on him and wanted to take him to Dairy Queen and he turned her down. I loved seeing her rise from the ashes and fight for her life against her punk ass ex-husband. I loved seeing how strong she became over the course of the book and how close she became to the Chaos family. She wormed her way into their hearts and I just loved it all.

This was another fantastic addition to the Chaos series and I’m pretty anxious for the next book. At first, I didn’t have a clue who the hell Logan Judd was but after some digging I found out. We’re getting High’s book next guys. Yippy skippy! I can’t wait. If you’re looking for a great contemporary romance with a motorcycle club in it, look no further. This is the book for you.

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

[leelu92]

I'll admit that the last few KA books have not worked out all that well for me. I was a bit concerned that Ride Steady was going to be one of those too. Luckily, I LOVED Ride Steady! I loved Joker and Carissa so very much. Everything I love about a KA book was there- the alpha men, the strong women, the whole Chaos crew was in effect. Tack and Tyra played an important role in Ride Steady and it was so nice to have Tack and his protective and somewhat meddling (?) ways back. Getting Carissa and Carson (Joker) together definitely took a village. They needed a push towards each and Carissa truly needed some support on her side. Enter Tack. Good Lord, I love that man.

Joker reminded me of Tack. He had a hard out shell, that no one could crack open until Carissa came along. Once she was in, Joker was protective, caring in the same way Tack was with Tyra. Which, let's face it, that is hard to resist. While a tad on the long side, I still enjoyed the whole dang thing.

After reading Ride Steady, I cannot wait for more from this series. I'm so glad that the KA mojo was working for me with this one. 4.5 stars

[Cocktails and Books]

This review was originally posted on Cocktails and Books.



Ride Steady was my first foray into the world of Kristen Ashley and the Chaos MC and I was not disappointed. That at such a young age Carson Steele had suffered so greatly broke my heart. With his home life a living hell, a father who could literally care less about him other than giving him his next beating, you would expect Carson to be a bitter and hard individual. Instead Carson had so many qualities that made him leading man material there was no way he could have been anything other than the perfect man for Carissa and her son after what her ex-husband put her though.

The big, silent biker has a softer side. I wondered if maybe his brothers giving him the name Joker was done with a tongue in cheek intent. Joker was anything but funny. He was silent and brooding. He would lay his life down for his brothers and help them fight their battles, all the while silently fighting his past on his own. This all changes when Carissa comes into the picture again. This is when his character truly develops.

I found Ride Steady to be one of those books that, once started, I just could not put down. Once Joker stopped fighting his feelings for Carissa, theirs truly was a beautiful relationship. It was smooth and to quote Carissa, “Easy”. This is not to say that their relationship was without obstacles. However they weathered everything being thrown at them together. It truly touches the heart. And if your heart doesn't melt just a little bit with every interaction between Joker and Carissa's son, there is seriously something wrong with you.

I couldn't speak more highly of this book and look forward to reading the rest of the series.This book was reviewed by a member of the review staff at Cocktails and Books. The name of the reviewer can be found under the post categories.