Club first. Those are the words Nolan “Wrecker” Miller has lived by for as long as he can remember. As the Vice President of the Phantom Motorcycle Club, his loyalty to his brothers has never wavered. He's got the respect of his club, a beautiful wife at home, and two happy kids. As far as he's concerned, life is good. Macie Miller has spent years being the perfect wife. She keeps their home running, raises their children, and never forces her husband to choose between family and club. When an anonymous text delivers photographic proof of her husband's betrayal, Macie realizes that somewhere along the way, she's become little more than an afterthought in her own marriage. And she's done. Unfortunately for Macie, Wrecker has no intention of letting his wife walk away. But Wrecker’s betrayal is only the beginning of their troubles. As his mistakes come back to haunt them, he discovers that his club first mentality may have done more than cost him his marriage—it may have put his wife directly in the crosshairs. For the first time in his life, he might have to decide what matters his club or his family.
Please keep in mind this is an angsty-rage-read with on page cheating. You will be angry all the way up until the HEA.
This one is kind of a difficult one to review for me. On one hand I liked it, but on the other it had a lot of flaws. Number one being the author not spending enough time on the reconciliation between the two MMCs. We only get that in the last 5 percent which brought my rating way down. I felt the author spent too much time on other characters, and club troubles with another MC that it completely took away from Wrecker and Macie. They do end up getting divorced in the end after having been separated for a year. Wrecker pursues the divorce, but in the same breath says he wants to date Macie again and earn her trust again, so they can marry again in the future on a solid foundation. Plus him saying vows of fidelity that he'll actually commit to. So yes. This is a cheating marriage in trouble book.
The cheating is on page. So you won't be spared there. You will be in both their thoughts and Wrecker coming to realizations of why his way of life has killed his marriage. The book shows the problems and way of thinking MC men have when it comes to women. And I know the author was trying to prove the club was changing even though relationships and marriages were blowing up all around. So you'll have the old way of thinking clashing with the new way of thinking.
There are two epilogues and a sneak peak at what the next book in the series will be. But the problem I have with that is it will be a book going back in the past with Maverick the president and his deceased ol lady Angel. I honestly don't want to read about Wrecker cheating again in there and I hope the author spares us. I'm ok with their ending, but if I have to relive it again I'm going to disagree with them ending up together. Because the books do have a lot of side character plots going on at the same time as our supposed MMCs. Sometimes it can become a little convoluted. Also there was a WIP for a shifter book it seems. Sounds like it could be a doozy. as while the H is with a woman he recognizes another woman as his true mate, and her him. That little snippet ended with said mate coming up and trying to claim him while he looks down at the other woman saying they need to leave to take care of this. Both stories are on her Patreon, but neither are finished yet.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Maybe it’s because I just read a bunch of AI slop right before this….but this was actually pretty good. The emotions were there (thank you human author!) and the book was hard to put down. It was a bit confusing at times with all the different characters, but overall, a cohesive story. Obviously Wrecker wasn’t a good husband or father, but I do that feel that Macie should have had more of a backbone from the start and stood up for herself and her kids. Seeing how he is able to change in the end, makes me think he could have earlier if she had demanded more.
Something that I really did not like about this MC was the culture (which in the end changed as well). The clubwhores had almost as much standing as the old ladies. It seemed like every other married brother had a baby momma clubwhore, as well. The worst part of the club was how they allowed Crank to treat Marge and their daughter. It was very hard to respect the men of this MC.
First off, there were way to many people in this story. They were thrown at you all at once and I literally had to go back two or three times to try to figure out who was with who. Second, believe it or not, there were too many words and too much jumping between the too many people. It was very distracting. I've read a lot of MC books but this club was the absolute worst! There was no respect for their women. They treated them like they treated club whores.
I couldn't get into either of the MC's. I never even made it to the betrayal because they were both so unbelievable that I just gave up.
IMO, this was a waste of time. I'm glad i got it on KU because I would have been upset if I'd paid for it.
Nolan/Wrecker and Macie are married and have been for a few years. They have two kids together. Wrecker is part of an MC and has a lot of the accompanying thought processes when it comes to fidelity. He doesn't think he was wrong for occasionally getting a bit on the side, especially since he stopped once their first kid was born -- gee what a prince. So when he does it again while drunk, he didn't want his wife to find out, but when she does, he doesn't think it should be any big deal.
Macie disagrees.
See, Macie was under the impression they were both supposed to be faithful (cheating bikers in these books never seem to think about what would happen if their wives knew they were supposed to be in an open relationship this whole time), so when, after six years of being a dutiful MC wife who "knows how to behave," (Wrecker's words) she receives an anonymous text with a photo of her husband sleeping naked with another woman, she's understandably... upset.
Honestly, the best part of this book is Macie's bestie and sequel bait, Roz. The second-best part was Macie's also-sequel-bait brother, Eric. Macie was third, mostly because even though she does grow a shiny new spine when she tosses her husband out on his shocked-Pikachu face, it's still Roz and Eric who throw literal and metaphorical hands at some of these very real asshats that are in the MC. Wrecker doesn't even think he should be sorry for quite a while after Macie tosses him out of their house. See, there's some serious emotional rot in this club. The MC Prez thinks that bikers' relationships aren't any of his business even when that means a biker is abusing his wife, either physically, mentally, or emotionally. This creates a total trap for the old ladies in this MC where they're less than their husbands, can't leave due to their own "protection," and given lip service to being above the club whores, but because the Prez doesn't interfere in relationships, the CWs tend to get more power. Meanwhile the old ladies can't leave because their husbands don't put any of the property in their names, to the point where another wife/old lady had to disappear to get away from her husband because otherwise the MC was going to bring her back.
Macie's situation is the catalyst for change, but really, why would anyone marry into that life if they actually love their husband? (Not that Macie was told about MC life or what to expect beforehand -- Wrecker definitely tricked her on that score.) Why would Wrecker and the other bikers in the group who aren't necessarily bad, but do have their heads up their asses, think this is a life to consign anyone they care about to? It honestly sounds like being (hopefully only emotionally) beaten with a velvet glove. They seriously think that because they work while their wives don't have to, everything else they do should be totally cool. Wrecker is a crap father at the beginning of the novel, repeatedly breaking promises to his son due to "club business" and he really doesn't see why anyone would have a problem with that. I mean personally, I'd rather be a single mom too, just so I could manage expectations.
Anyway, I did believe the grovel, and I'm a fan of cheating books where the guy actually learns something and has character growth by the end. I did find myself wishing Wrecker had to see Macie potentially move on with someone else -- sort of a "what's good for the gander is good for the goose" situation, but I tend to feel that way about all cheaters in these books and most authors just tend to turn that into OM bad guy drama anyway. I did wish the third-act drama hadn't lasted so long, but I won't say the book didn't build up to it.
I am looking forward to seeing what I assume are Roz/Maverick and Eric/Marge's stories. I'm also curious about the return of the character I mentioned had to disappear entirely to get away from her husband -- she seemed like sequel bait as well. But given the author tends to put out books pretty slowly (I had to stop following her Patreon because I just want to read a story all at once and most of the books there were WIPs -- but I am a fan of the author and her writing), I am not sure when to expect those, especially since it looks like there will be a prequel focusing on a doomed couple coming out first.
After re-reading, wanted to edit this review to add that another thing I liked about this book is that it presented some of the dark sides of MCs. Not that I'm an expert, but I suspect that in RL, old ladies are not as venerated as most of the MC romance novels pretend they are. I suspect it's a lot more like the author presented here, where they're given lip service to being honored, but are really just glorified housekeepers and bed warmers -- and that's if they're lucky. This vibe felt more real than a lot of the other MC books I've read -- not that I want realism in romance novels and especially not genres like MC romance, which are rife for DV and women-as-second-class-citizens. I also liked that while I mentioned Wrecker's growth as a character, we also got growth from the sequel-bait Prez and a few of the other members of the club. Love it when authors can do that.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I love reading and I know that everybody interprets books in a different way. When it comes to books about betrayal, some people say they’re willing to put up with more in books and some people say that they follow the same standards as real life. I am one of the people that follows the same standards. So with that being said, I do not believe record deserved forgiveness. I don’t think he really did much to earn it to be honest. I get that he went through character changes, but I don’t feel like any of them are actually what needed to happen. The club life that he was living was not conducive to being loyal. And I know that the first chapter the book was basically shock value with everything going on to get you hooked, but a club with those sorts of standards would never allow a brother to safely become a better person. Additionally, the inner dialogue and the outer dialogue of the FNC was really obnoxious. She would say my kids or my daughter shouldn’t see me be a doormat and then guess what she was? An absolute doormat. She literally filed for separation and said that she was willing to do couples therapy after saying she wanted a divorce. Then she said it was a dealbreaker and then she’d say if they reconciled. She was all over the place. Have some standards and some self-respect. He had absolutely no respect for her. She wasn’t his partner. She wasn’t the love of his life I don’t believe that he was in love with her. I really don’t. He felt like he owned her and that is the feeling I got the entire book. That being said, the writing quality was high. The plot quality was good. The only real complaint about the book and world building was that there were so many people. And they were just dumped on you. So many road names over and over you couldn’t keep track of who was whose parent etc. just way too many people just dumped but overall, the book was very well written. I just truly believe that he completely would cheat in the future. And the fact that she never even tried to date anybody else really bothered me. I’ve strongly believe that in the 21st-century women can be sexual beings and go date that they do not have to be tied to a husband who cheated on them.
Started as a dnf at about page 120 when I did most of this review.….I put it down, slept on it and picked it back up again….
The story started with lots of people and names being thrown at us, without any real context to any of it. It just felt all over the place and erratic. Then the main characters were placed in front of us and we were told that wrecker and Macie were married and had kids. The only thing really written about them up to that point that gave me any insight about them together was she’d been a ‘good little housewife’. Then one phone call from one of the other old ladies……boom….miraculously the veil had been lifted. Macie pushed back a little and they argued, then Wrecker had to leave for a run, and Macie then got sent a photo….but unfortunately because there was no real basis of their marriage in the story, for me it just fell flat. There was just no character development. I was just reading about random people, I didn’t care about the characters in any way as there was just no basis or grounding to their story. I love a good cheating book, especially an mc one, but I need to know about the characters first. I felt it was all just thrown at us. There was no angst or gut punch….I felt nothing.
This is when I slept on it and picked it back up again. It did start to come together the more I read, the characters revealed themselves and the author hit their stride. But unfortunately I still didn’t feel much. For me the beginning of the story is so important to the rest of the book, it’s the basis for everything that comes after, especially for a marriage in trouble book. I think with all the side characters thrown at us right from the start the first page it distracted from the main couple. I could see why the author did it, but the story between the main couple suffered for it. Of course other readers might feel differently.
Having an ai cover was a bit pointless, even though it gave a visual, there was were no character descriptions in the book, so a non ai cover would’ve been better.
I'm not one for actual cheating books.... But I found this on Wattpad and read the synopsis, and I was hooked on the story. I totally fell into the story, it was like I was an extra in thr background. Yeah... it was that good. You have an MC brother marrying an "outsider". She has no clue how the MC runs, or that the brothers that have wives or ol'ladies.. consider it a normal thing to cheat on their women, cause, you know, it's the way things are done. Macie eventually realizes her man went there, and then sh÷t hits the fan. Angsty with grovel. There is an eventual hea for the couple. The ride to get there.... bumpy and uncertain, for sure! Good read👏
The writing was good, but I don’t think I ever warmed up to him. The whole club is kinda gross but I’ve definitely read about worse MC clubs. I love that nothing was over the top.
Wrecker guy seemed real put out about having to work for his wife’s forgiveness. He literally didn’t even come clean about the cheating in the beginning of their relationship until almost 90% of the book.
I’m glad Macie left right away but I kind of cringed when she acted like him not coming clean about the previous cheating wasn’t the worst thing in the world because then she would’ve left him and then she would have been a single mom and wouldn’t have had her second kid with him. I think Macie was a great mother but I don’t like that she seemed to be dismissing her sons feelings of anger towards his father (rightfully so) in lieu of him being respectful.
Love, love, loved this book and I absolutely loved and enjoyed Wrecker and Macie’s story ❤️❤️❤️ It was a brilliant, gritty novel with men that gave all to the club and what was left to the women in their lives until Marcie took a stand against Wrecker’s behaviour. A definite page turner and very entertaining. 100% recommend this book to everyone ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ you will not be disappointed 😎🖤
This was a promising start to a new MC series. Wrecker and Macie have built a life on a rocky foundation. Secrets, selfishness, and skewed priorities lead Wrecker down a road that will have lasting repercussions on his family. He must fully accept what “Club First” has done to his family and whether Macie will ever feel safe enough to forgive him and try again.
at the first half i was so angry reading this. the men were just awful there was no redeeming them. until there kinda was. wrecker didn't end the book perfect but he ended up trying which I'm all honestly is all that matters. i really wanna know more about Roz and Eric and Marge!
DNF at 50%. Cheating loser ass piece of shit MMC. Do these terrible motorcycle romances HAVE to always have cheating husbands and pushover FMC’s? Rancid.
I was ready to DNF at about 55% but ended up skimming the rest of it. There were far too many characters thrown in to keep anything straight. I absolutely do not believe in their HEA. I feel like the next time they hit a rough patch he will cheat again.
The FMC started out strong. She found out about the cheating and had an immediate plan in place that was SOLID! Then she filed for the separation and completely lost her spine again. She was immediately thinking that she probably wasn't going to divorce him and getting mad at the lawyer for basically just having her back. It didn't make sense.
The book needed some editing too. A couple spots it flipped from third person to first person POV. Then some character names were misspelled.
This book is a total mess. There are so many secondary characters that I got a headache trying to keep track of the plot—and, for the record, I failed. By the middle of the book, I simply stopped caring what happened to any of the characters. The women spend their time gasping, crying, and screaming, while the men are constantly growling and cheating. That’s pretty much the whole plot.
This was a good story. Love the action parts of it. The betrayal was also good, but the redemption wasn’t what I was Hoping for. I’m glad the villains got what was coming to them I would have Like to known how the women were actually doing in their new home.
I'm going to assume this is book one in a series because there are a LOT of characters. We did see Wrecker grow mentally in this story and Macie kept up with making him grow. I just wish we got to see them together more at the end.