Review: Beauty and the Bad Boy by Scarlett Dupree

A bad boy biker from the Ghetto. Born to the gang. Born to kill.
A beautiful, young woman from the Heights. Born to be free. Born to love.

Polar opposites. But one thing binds them: A tragic past.

Jake vowed never to love again after his girlfriend was brutally murdered. He’s never forgiven himself for her death. As for Dakota, her happiness was killed by a loss so deep she'd stopped living. After years of sleeping with biker groupies, Jake's bad boy reputation is ripped apart as soon as Beauty steps into his life. As for Dakota, the hunky, inked, heavily muscled, bad boy forces her to live again. Her very life depends on it.

This story tells of Beauty's transition into Bad Boy's world of violence, betrayal and death. A world dominated by men who live by a strict code where love and beauty come second to the gang. It would take a woman of a certain calibre to stand by such a bad boy. But Dakota isn't just any woman. She can fight. She can shoot, and she has the mouth of a sailor. Her grim past has forced Dakota to be headstrong, and so she rebuffs Jake's need to protect her. But Dakota must realize she is as tough as her understanding that, once in awhile, she needs a tenacious man to lean on, especially if that man’s idea of love is to lay his life down for her.

They say when you're at your lowest point your soul is lost. But what happens when the ties of fate bind two lost souls? Would they choose to risk their last remnant of hope to be together?

Beauty and the Bad Boy is about two lost souls who made such a choice one night, and the dangerous journey they embark upon because of it. But, will their instinct to fight for love save them or will it be their undoing in the end?

3. 5 Star Review by Lisa Kane

Jake is a member of the Fire Birds MC. He is rough and gorgeous and free as the wind. He likes to have sex with the bird feeders, another name for the groupies who hang around the bikers. A few years ago he had a girlfriend, but she was brutally murdered and raped by some of the bikers’ enemies and he doesn’t do relationships anymore. He has a 6 year old daughter, and while he talks to her on the phone, she lives with her grandmother. Jake thinks it’s for her own good. 

Dakota has an equally heart breaking story. Her husband died of cancer and her son died from an accident. She is alone with no other relatives. She teaches school and gardens as a hobby. Her husband rode a motorcycle that she can’t bear to part with and a classic car she inherited from her dad.

That car is what leads to her meeting Jake. He is a mechanic and the shop he works at has a reputation for knowing how to fix and restore classic cars. The attraction between these two is off the charts! Jake assumes she is a rich snob from the Heights side of town and as much as Dakota is interested in Jake, she thinks they could never mix. Despite their differences they do end up going out and once that starts there is no stopping this train.

Jake’s friends like Dakota and are accepting of her. She brings a lightness to his life and he brings passion back to hers. But all the passion in the world will not change the fact that Jake is involved with dangerous people doing dangerous things. Several times Dakota is hurt by outsiders and Jake feels the guilt by association. How can they have a future together if he can’t or won’t get out of the Fire Birds?

I liked this book. I did find the change in POV to be confusing at times. Besides Jake and Dakota’s there were other voices and they weren’t always identified. I also had a tough time understanding why a woman who lost her husband and child would gravitate towards a life of death and danger. I would think she had had enough heartbreak. Having said that, both characters are likeable and their banter and flirting is enjoyable. There are strong secondary characters who support the main plotline and add interest. This is a nice easy read.