I loved Ashley’s Motorcycle Man and was really excited when I found out she was writing a sequel to it with Hopper “Hop” Kincaid and the Chaos Motorcycle Gang in Denver. In the previous book, Hop was a shaky character, and Lanie Heron put her life on the line for her boyfriend. Would they be a match made in heaven or hell?

Advertising executive Lanie Heron, who tried to protect her boyfriend when the Russian mob killed him, suffered bullet wounds for her love. Now she asks Hop to have sex with her. For years after the shooting, she’s been attracted to Hop and thinks one night with him will cure her both of her longing for sex and obsession with the older, mustachioed biker.

After much haggling, Hop agrees although he adds the caveat that they keep their liaison secret from Chaos. He’s not sure what the leader of the group, Kane “Tuck” Allen and his wife Tyra “Cherry” will think. He’s convinced they won’t condone his being with Lanie, just as he knows Lanie’s socialite parents won’t like him one bit.

A philandering father and an alcoholic mother, both snobbish about class and money, Lanie’s parents only agree on two things: Lanie is too good for Hop, and Hop is scum. But Chaos, and especially Hop, are the good guys amid Denver’s drug and prostitution rings since Chaos deals in neither and protects its five square mile territory from those who do.

Hop and Lanie get along wonderfully in bed, and after one night decide to prolong their affair. But love isn’t an easy road between a biker with two children and a house and a woman insecure in her feelings about another permanent relationship.

And therein lies the problem. Hop professes over and over that he will never leave Lanie, but misunderstandings, instead of being ironed out as they crop up, fester, causing Hop to leave time and time again. Lanie waffles between being addicted to sex with Hop and not wanting anything to do with him. Rather than being charming, the ups and downs are just wearing.

At one point, I was so disgusted I wanted to just shake both of them and yell, “Suck it up! You love each other. Deal.”

My other peeve with the story is how repetitive it is. I get that readers have to know the backstory about Lanie’s fiancé Elliott, but by mid-book when this is being rehashed to no purpose at all, I wanted to scream. All I ask is a little forward movement rather than plowing and replowing old ground.

So, while I really, really wanted to like this book (and it did have some nice passages), I came away lukewarm wishing Ashley had a better editor or editorial panel who guided her to write the book all her fans longed to read.