Title: Mess Me Up

Series: Bear Bottom Guardians MC, #1

Author: Lani Lynn Vale

Genres: Sports, MC Romance, Romantic Suspense

Release Date: September 4, 2018

When Rome Pierce moved to Bear Bottom, Texas, it was his intention to lay low. To not be seen. To find a way to heal his body and soul—as well as his son’s. 

Nobody would know by looking at him that he used to play professional football. Not with the Bear Bottom MC cut covering his back, and definitely not with his friendly smile completely obliterated. 

No longer is there charm in each smooth word that comes out of his mouth. What’s left is an angry, bitter, scared man that’s terrified one day he’s going to wake up and his entire world is going to be gone. 

Nobody knows what drove him to leave the game he loved—nobody but her. 

She’s the one person that has helped him make it through the dark days and even darker nights. She’s the bright and shining star in his pitch-black sky. 

And he doesn’t even know her name. 

He should be afraid that she knows things that not anyone—not even his best friend—knows. 

Yet, with each encounter, he gives what little bit of his soul remains, and before he knows it only two people on this earth—one dying, and one too afraid to live—make his life worth living. 

Until one day he has to choose—the love of his life, or the life he brought into this world. 

Two impossible situations. One decision that would change him forever.

Mess Me Up (Bear Bottom Guardians MC, #1) by Lani Lynn Vale
Rosa’s rating: 5 of 5 iScream Cones

“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…well apparently, I’m a dumbass.”

Mess Me Up messed me up. I can’t blame anyone though, I knew it going in. I had already met Rome while reading Too Bad So Sad in the author’s Simple Man series which featured Tyler, his best friend. So I had a peek into his life and knew what I was in for, and I went anyway. I don’t regret it, but I haven’t recovered from it either.

Rome is double-trouble, a big muscled sexy badass biker and also a retired pro football player. He’s all kinds of hot, but unfortunately, he’s all kinds of broken too. When he retired from playing football at the peak of his performance his fans didn’t understand his decision and some of them turned on him. One, however, gave him more support than even his own family at the time he needed it most. He doesn’t know her real name, she just signs her letters as RP’s Biggest Fan. When he’s feeling especially low he’ll pull out her letter and read it to find the strength to keep fighting.

When she meets him for the first time she feels more than she should, because she knows more than she should. He’s shared secrets with her, but he doesn’t realize, it’s her. He needs her too much for her to risk ruining things by revealing her identity, but what chance do they have if she doesn’t? Sometimes there’s no way to avoid the pain, you just have to survive it.

I’m a big fan of Lani Lynn Vale and have enjoyed her work for years. Even when she makes me cry, she still makes me laugh with her hilarious chapter headings. She creates beautiful stories and amazing characters, including the pet variety, and I love how her different series intermingle and I get to see them again and again. This first installment in the Bear Bottom Guardians MC series introduced a whole new cast of characters that I’m excited to spend more time with. The line forms here…