Corrupted (Deathstalkers MC, #1)

by Alexis Noelle

[Cocktails and Books]

This review was originally posted on Cocktails and Books

CORRUPTED was a book that totally pulled me in by the blurb.  A girl runs to an MC for protection and let's see how her life ends up from there.  But what could have been a fantastic story, ended up taking turns that left me wondering how we got there or cringing with why we go there.

Lucy was a fourteen-year-old girl who ran from her religious cult family, hiding in a building she knew a local MC hung out at.  When she's discovered and tells her story to the MC President, he makes a deal with her for room and board.  Over the next four years, she grows up while keeping the clubhouse clean and the boys fed all under the watchful eye of prospect Jordan.

I was with the story at this point.  She was a young girl, the men are going to protect her.  But then Jordan, who I think was 21 at the time, finds himself attracted to the girl.  So he vacillates between being protective and being an ass to her.  Lucy, of course, thinks herself in love with Jordan, so she relishes any kind of contact.  But then Lucy's eighteenth birthday rolls around, suddenly Jordan is ready to make her his ol' lady and Lucy's crazy ass family starts wrecking havoc.  It all seemed too much too fast.  I needed the relationship between Jordan and Lucy to develop more, understand her place within the MC now that they considered her an adult and then maybe the crazy family could cause trouble.  But with both of those things happening practically on top of each other felt too rushed to me.

And let's talk about Lucy's family.  I get that her family was batshit crazy, but a little heads up in the storyline that they were THAT crazy would have been a nice warning.  I went from thinking her parents were religious zealots willing to marry off young girls in the name of whatever religion they practiced, to finding out they were much more evil.  Which made me question why Lucy hadn't clued the MC in on just what she was running from and if she did, how the hell I had missed that information.

For the most part, CORRUPTED was an enjoyable read.  Lucy and Jordan are sort of star-crossed lovers, which gives a bit of an "aw" factor (or as "aw" as you can get with an MC).  And I loved how the brothers all embraced this little girl, making her part of their family.  Despite my storyline issues, I still look forward to more Deathstalker MC books.