This is a spoiler-free review! Rook & Rebel will be published by Avon and Harper Voyager on January 13, 2026.
I would first like to thank NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for providing me a copy in exchange for an honest review. I had seen rumbling about this book for a little while, and it appears that it has found a new home with Avon and Harper Voyager - I was thrilled to see it available for request on NetGalley. I have not dived too deep into the world of motorcycle dark romance before, but this one caught my attention.
This was a lot tamer for something falling under the erotica category, but I will say the plot was actually developing, unlike other books where the plot is thrown out the window after four chapters to make room for more smut. The plot was certainly intriguing and I do love a wronged-man falls for the "sunshine" girl, but for some reason, this book was just not doing it for me. I thought this book was going to be a lot more insane and freakier than it actually was, and unfortunately, I was really hoping it was going to go in that direction. I felt as though there was so much build up with the way that Rook and Regan met, and yet their chemistry was subtle at best in my eyes. Yes, the tension was there and they were clearly drawn to one another, but I did not think their relationship was well-developed.
Rook's perspective chapters mainly focused on dealing with his little motorcycle gang family and their personal issues as a group, or stalking around watching Regan. I love a stalker romance, but my word this man cannot even call himself a stalker because he makes it blatantly obvious that he is watching her every move, which is ironic considering her father runs a security system empire. The little text message conversations between Rook and Regan were amusable at first, but they lost their novelty very quickly and I found myself wishing they just spoke on the phone or literally in person. I would have loved to see Regan have more a relationship or more interactions with Rook's gang family because they felt very far removed from Regan's life and felt out of place when we would get her perspective chapters.
Regan's relationship with her father is clearly strained and while she is an adult, he still has this large hold over her as she attempts to get his attention and try to make him understand that she wants to be involved in the company. He is clearly a misogynist at heart, but also just simply does not seem to care about her at all for some reason? Their dynamic was honestly confusing and felt like it was being pulled in different directions. I honestly did not even care that her and her dad were basically at odds with one another even though it became somewhat of a main plot point as the story went on.
I really, truly wanted to love this book - all of the preview snippets I had seen had really drawn me to the story, but unfortunately it seems that those were the only highlights worth mentioning about this first installment. If you are looking for a more crime and plot-heavy book with a romance sub-plot, then this may be the book for you.
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