Own the Wind (Chaos, #1)

by Kristen Ashley

Too hot to handle . . .

Tabitha Allen grew up in the thick of Chaos-the Chaos Motorcycle Club, that is. Her father is Chaos' leader, and the club has always had her back. But one rider was different from the start. When Tabby was running wild, Shy Cage was there. When tragedy tore her life apart, he helped her piece it back together. And now, Tabby's thinking about much more than friendship . . .

Tabby is everything Shy's ever wanted, but everything he thinks he can't have. She's beautiful, smart, and as his friend's daughter, untouchable. Shy never expected more than friendship, so when Tabby indicates she wants more- much more-he feels like the luckiest man alive. But even lucky men can crash and burn . . .

• ISBN10: 1455599255
• ISBN13: 9781455599257
• Publish Date: 25 June 2013 (first published 1 January 2013)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Little, Brown & Company
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

[Rowena]

So this book features Parker “Shy” Cage and Tabitha “Tabby” Allen in their quest to that happily ever after. Shy is a few years older than Tabby and he’s also one of Tabby’s brothers from the motorcycle club that Tack’s the President of. So you know all the drama that can come from a brother banging the President’s daughter. It’s a no-no but you couldn’t help but cheer Shy and Tabby on, especially since Shy has had feelings for Tabby since she was 19. The story covers years and years in the rocky relationship between Shy and Tabby. Tabby used to be a wildcat and Shy has gotten Tabby out of a few scrapes but after one night, Shy’s had enough with her bratty attitude and behavior. She wants to party with the wrong crowd and be a wild child then he was going to make sure she remembered just what she was going to turn into if she continued on the way that she was. That lesson he taught her that, forever changed their relationship and it scared Tabby in a way that she wasn’t prepared for.

After finishing this book, I can now understand why so many people are obsessed with her books. I can certainly see why Ames and Holly can’t get enough of them. Ashley’s writing is captivating at the same time that it’s frustrating. But the frustration isn’t surprising when you’ve got a cast of head strong characters who are strong individuals that really do what they want, when they want. Tabby was a strong heroine, who knew what she wanted and went after whatever it was that she wanted. She’s the Princess of the Motorcycle Club so she was pretty spoiled and she knew it but that didn’t stop her from working her tail off to be a nurse. Tabby worked hard and she loved hard too. She’s put through the wringer in this story and the way that she handled everything life threw at her was admirable. I really enjoyed getting to know Tabby.

Then there was Shy. Shy was everything that I love in a man. He was a man’s man that didn’t take shit from anyone, whether you were the President of his motorcycle club or a freaking General in the Army. You had to earn his respect but once you did, the respect was always there. He wasn’t a pushover and when he loved, he loved fiercely. He stayed away from Tabby when she pulled away from him and the club out of respect for her but seeing his growing feelings for Tabby over the course of this book, gutted me. It got to me. My heart went out to him because he gave her the space she wanted to grow into the woman that she became…and he longed for her from afar. Oh man, I loved it. When he finally confronts Tabby about everything and tries to squash everything, my heart rejoiced like it was me. I’m sighing all over the place right now, as I’m typing this review out. I adored Shy. I adored the man that he grew up to be, the brother he was to his own brother along with the brothers he made in the motorcycle club and I adored the way he loved Tabby. Full and unconditionally. His love for her drove him to do things to protect, not just her, but the people that she loved and goodness, I loved it all.

If you haven’t read a Kristen Ashley book yet, you should fix that. You should read this book because it has everything a romance reader could want. A hot hero, a strong heroine and a romance that will steam up your glasses. You won’t be disappointed with this book.

[Eve1972]

Didn't like this one at all. :( Shy was a huge whore douche noodle, and he just never got any better in my opinion. Reading this one once was torture enough...

[Linda]

I've done this all backwards, Own the Wind is the fourth Chaos novel I read... even if it is the first - and I loved it. Every word, every breath, every kiss.

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

[Cocktails and Books]

Having just finished The Gamble by Kristen Ashley, I figured I would pick up her latest book. A few days out from finishing the book, I'm still torn over how I feel about it.
Tabby and Shy had a rough start to their relationship and that was made apparent in the prologue to the story. Tabby, raised by a verbally abusive mother and a very caring father who just happened to be the head of the Chaos Motorcycle Club, was a bit of a wild child and it took some pretty harsh words from the one Chaos brother she had a crush on, Shy, to force some changes in Tabby. Those changes not only impacted Tabby, but also Shy. But when tragedy strikes, it's Shy that Tabby reaches out to and Shy who helps Tabby move her life forward and embrace the life she was meant to live.

I really liked the romance between Tabby and Shy. I'm a sucker for any romance that starts as a teenage crush and grows into something more. Especially when that teenage crush has to somehow make up for some wrong he's caused. This romance had that in spades. Shy and Tabby get over that little obstacle pretty quickly, but we find out there are many other emotional issues that need to be overcome with these two. They manage to do that, even though it was sometimes frustrating to have to listen to the somewhat archaic methodologies of Shy and Tabby just letting him role over her.

What took away from the story was the language of the characters...mainly the members of the Chaos brotherhood. And I'm not referring to swearing (because I'm down with all use of swear words). No, what I'm referring to is the use of poor sentence structure. Do members of a motorcycle "club" really speak this way? And, as Krist pointed out during a FB Page conversation, it seems the "g" falls off all words that usually require it to be there. Here's an example:

Shy approached and when he go close Tack asked, "She doin' okay?"
"Sleepin'," Shy answered.

"She's doin' okay," Tack muttered.
Now I've yelled at my kids for writing and speaking like this, so having to go through a couple hundred pages of this was something that became a huge pet peeve to me. It was distracting and really took away from the story for me.

While this was the first installment of the series, I felt like I was missing a huge piece of information when we got towards the big build up a the end of the story since there were a handful of characters that seemed to come from another book. I didn't know their backstory and we didn't get enough information to fill in the blanks. Luckily, they appear at a point in the story where I didn't really care who they were or what they were doing, I just wanted to know what was up with Shy.

I didn't hate the book, but it's not one of my favorite...despite some decent buzz from other reviewers.

[leelu92]

4.5 Stars
It's new era here in KA Land!
I'm having a hard time with this one. Not because I didn't like it. I loved it! I think I'm just still adjusting to a new KA, if you will. Her writing is definitely tighter, we get less detail, less clothing detail, less job detail, less living space detail. I will admit that some of that was a little much when I first read her books BUT... I had a very clear picture of the characters and the world they inhabit.
Now with CHAOS- we already were pretty familiar with that world. We knew Tabby and we knew Shy. I loved their story and I loved how Shy dug his heels in and made Tabby deal when she got pissed. One thing I missed with Tabby was her having a job she really loved. Tess, Gwen, Indy, Faye all loved their jobs. Those jobs were part of who they were. I think Tabby could take or leave her job as a nurse and her identity was anchored more in the MC family.
Shy and Tabby are a wonderful couple. Not sure where they rank for me.
I love Kristen Ashley and I love anything she writes, I'm just ging through a bit of an adjustment I think with changes (which are positive- especially for KA!)
I'm really looking forward to Hop and Lanie's story and Rush! Oh and I think Lan needs a story.

[Ing Cruz]

I discovered Kristen Ashley's (KA) books around the end of 2012. A bunch of blogs that I errr ummm..stalk, kept mentioning how much they loved the hero Tack Allen from Motorcycle Man. So I picked up Motorcycle Man and gave it a gander. Let me tell you, boy I absolutely fell and I mean fell hard for the hero Tack Allen, of Motorcycle Man and KA's writing style. KA hit all the right buttons for me with this hero. It was like she was in my head and knew all the things that would make me swoon. Anyway I went on a reading frenzy of her books. I spent two weeks floating on KA euphoria and on an alpha man high. Point to all this is to mention that Motorcycle Man is part of KA's Dream Man series and it was the last book of that series. Own the Wind is a spin-off from Motorcycle man and is the start of KA's new Chaos series. I've been impatiently waiting for this book since I read the last pages of Motorcycle Man. Now I shall commence gushing about Own the Wind. :)

My Synopsis:

Tabitha "Tabby" Allen has had a crush on Parker "Shy" Gage since she was sixteen yrs. old. Tabby is the daughter of Tack Allen, who is the Chaos Motorcycle Club (MC) president. Parker nicknamed Shy by his MC brothers is the resident man-whore. Shy, being the resident man-whore really says something since I think most of the guys in the club are pretty free with their peener lovin'! :) Shy and the other boys from the MC had to step in and rescue Tabby, when she was sixteen from a bad situation. This incident has stayed with Shy and it's his basis for deciding to dish out a cruel lesson towards Tabby three years later. This lesson changes the course of things for both Shy and Tabby. Tabby spends the next years avoiding Shy, and Shy spends the next year unable to forget the taste of "the kiss" Tabby gives him at the end of that lesson. Fast forward three years later and a heartbreaking tragedy strikes for Tabby. Tabby never imagines that she'd be able to dream again after this tragedy and then Shy re-enters back into her life. Shy has his own tragedies that has shaped him. Will these two be able help one another live and dream again?

My Thoughts:

A lot of KA fans were worried about how this book would differ from her self published books. Own the Wind is her first non-self published book. KA's writing style is magic and her books are addictive. She sucks me into each world she writes about every time with her special magic writing powers. In my humble opinion I think KA's writing style, still rock balls and kick ninja butts. Was it perfect? No! But it was near darn perfect for me. Yea, I miss the epically long books and I miss some of the girlfriend chatting moments but none of these for me, took away from how awesome this book still was. She still delivered on all the things that I needed to love her books.

She gave me the alpha hero, Shy. Shy, oh shy...how I love thee! You are so a mini Tack. We didn't know much about his character going into this book, except that he was a major man-whore to the 10th power. I wasn't sure how KA was going to make me believe that Shy would drop his man whore ways, to just give his magic stick loving to just one special gal. I had nothing to worry about because again, KA made a believer out of me. I love the way Shy loved Tabby. The things that came out of that boys mouth had me in a puddle. His bossy alpha side had me wanting to drop down and give it to him! And Tabby..yea love that girl. She so sweet but at the same time holds her own and will go toe to toe with Shy when it's needed. I loved watching her come into her own. Favorite scene in the book was her going toe to toe with her step-mom, Tyra and the Chaos boys. Made me tear up for Tabby and Shy, during that scene.

One of the things that I love about KA's writing is I feel like she allows us to watch the couple grow together. You are on that journey with them. She delivers this in Own the Wind again. I adored watching the two, fall in love. KA still manages to throw in the little things that make you swoon over the story of the couple. The foil wrapper ball...so love that. I really enjoyed the fact that these two were friends and each others support system before they became lovers. It was the foundation and what made me believe that Shy in all is whore ways could give it all up for that one girl. And once these two love...there is no holding back for either. They are the rock for each other. They have each others back and it was a beautiful. And the sexing was yummy. It was filled with hot smoking and sweet poignant moments that makes a girl sigh.

Fans will be happy to hear that we get, lots of yummy Tack in this book. Tack and Shy's come to Jesus moment was great. Love how Shy gave it to Tack on how it is with his and Tabby's relationship. I was in Chaos heaven when we got glimpses of one new recruit (Joker) and getting page time with some of the other Chaos members. One new character also stole the show for me. Can we say Landon? I hope KA finds a way to somehow fit this boy somewhere in her world and give us his story.

To wrap this up...I freaking loved this book. I cannot wait for the next book in the series. If you haven't discovered this author yet...now you've been ed-u-macated. This book stands alone very well without reading Motorcycle Man, but I would still recommend you read that book first. I say this only because I think you'll get more enjoyment. You'll get the full affect of the motorcycle club.

Note: Own the Wind picks up about three years later from Motorcycle Man. Tabby is nineteen and Shy is twenty-four at the start of Own the Wind. Also on a side note..seriously this title cracks me the fudge up. Makes me think of breaking wind...anywhoo...anyone else think that?