CUSTOM BUILT (Fast and Fury #1) by Chantal Fernando

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release date November 23, 2020

After losing her job, saying goodbye to a lifelong dream and having an all-around cruddy year, Bronte Pierce needs a break. A job at Fast & Fury might be just the thing to reset her life, even though she knows nothing about custom motorcycles. But taking a job isn’t the same as keeping it, and her fresh start quickly turns into a fresh nightmare.

Starting with her boss. Crow is hard-headed, stubborn and brutally honest. He may be easy on the eyes, but he runs with an MC and he’s anything but friendly to Bronte. She suspects he has a softer side—just not for her.

Her whole life, Bronte has known that the only person she can truly count on to save the day is herself. But when a single murder turns into a conspiracy and the threat to her life is more than she can handle alone, it’s Crow who comes through—and her newfound family might just become her greatest strength.

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REVIEW: CUSTOM BUILT is the first instalment in Chantal Fernando’s contemporary, adult FAST AND FURY erotic, romance series-a spin off from the author’s KNIGHTS OF FURY MC series. This is twenty-four year old, PA Bronte Pierce, and mechanic/Knights of Fury MC member Xeno Crow’s story line. CUSTOM BUILT can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty but I recommend reading TEMPER (Knights of Fury 3) for back story and cohesion.

Told from first person perspective (Bronte) CUSTOM BUILT follows the building relationship between twenty-four year old, PA Bronte Pierce, and mechanic/Knights of Fury MC member Xeno Crow. Bronte Pierce was let go from a job she loved as the assistant to a private investigator. With no other job prospects in sight, she reluctantly tells her father and uncle about her struggles when her uncle comes through with a new source of employment. Enter mechanic/Knights of Fury MC member Xeno Crow, the manager of Fast and Fury Custom Motorcycles. What ensues is the building romance and relationship between Crow and Bronte, and the potential fall-out as the sins of the father demand payment in full.

Bronte Pierce is the only daughter of Freddy Pierce, and as such is the apple of her father’s eye but family secrets run dangerous and deep, and Freddy is about to pay the price for sins of the past. Caught up in the mayhem, Bronte calls in her former boss to start an investigation into the who, how and why, only to discover that her father and uncle’s secrets run much deeper than she could have ever imagined.

The relationship between Bronte and Crow begins acrimoniously as Crow appears to take an immediate disliking to our story line heroine but a night out with friends finds Bronte on the dance floor with Xeno Crow, and all bets are off for the foreseeable future. Crow had struggled to keep his distance from our story line heroine but the heart wanted something more than a working relationship. The $ex scenes are passionate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

We are reintroduced to several members of the Knight of Fury MC: Temper and Abbie, Skylar and Saint, Renny and Izzy; mechanic and custom motorcycle designer Cameron, as well as Bronte’s father Freddy, and her uncle Neville; Bronte’s friend Billie; her former boss and PI Nadia, Crow’s sister Heidi; Jean and her daughter Anne.

CUSTOM BUILT is a story of family, secrets and sooooo many lies. Bronte Pierce was hit with the reality that everything about her life and the family she knew and loved was predicated upon a lie, and as such she was pulled into the fall-out of her father’s hidden life. The romance is seductive; the characters are colorful; the premise is intriguing but there was something missing. I felt disconnected from the characters; there was no palpable energy even though so many murders, deaths and threats to our story line heroine- it was like everyone was just going through the motions, like a bad B-movie.

As stated in a previous review for the author, I wish the story line was told in dual perspective as we are oblivious to Crow’s whereabouts on many occasions, and the behind the scenes happenings. Our hero would appear and disappear without explanation or reason, and in this I felt there could have been so much more detail to add the world building and the series.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

New York Times, Amazon & USA Today Bestselling Author Chantal Fernando is thirty years old and lives in Western Australia.

Lover of all things romance, Chantal is the author of the best selling books Dragon’s Lair, Maybe This Time and many more.

When not reading, writing or daydreaming she can be found enjoying life with her three sons and family.

Chantal loves to hear from readers.

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