House of Payne: Styx by Stacy Gail [Review]

House of Payne: Styx (House of Payne #9) by Stacy Gail
Format: ebook
Source: purchased
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: September 18, 2019

House of Payne
1. Payne
2. Scout
3. Twist
4. Rude
5. Steele
6. Max
7. Tag
8. Ice
9. Styx - Kindle
9.5. His Princess
10. Loki
11. Sage
11.5. Good Girl
12. Talon
12.5. Party Girl

Related Series
(Find all the books in the series on the 1st book review)
Gravediggers MC
1. Grave Games

Men of PSI
1. Luke: The Profiler

Scorpio
1. Year of the Scorpio: Pt 1

Stacy Gail
| Website | Amazon |

Synopsis (Goodreads):

Sydney used to make plans. All her life she’d trained to be a ballerina, but that “plan” had turned out to be nothing more than a pipe dream. Reality now consisted of hunting down petty thieves and refusing to make any more pie-in-the-sky plans for her life. That’s why she never approaches the sexiest man she’s ever laid eyes on. Never again would she be crushed by pointless dreams.

Fate, however, has plans for her.

Styx Hardwick isn’t big on plans. As a tattooist at House Of Payne, he’s the black sheep in a family full of pragmatic cops. Now that his twin brother’s getting hitched, all eyes turn to him, the last of the single Hardwick siblings. Getting through his twin’s wedding is gonna be hell.

Or so he thinks.

When a pocket-sized goddess crashes into him with terror in her eyes, Styx’s world turns upside-down. Even scared out of her mind, Sydney is still the hottest thing to have ever graced his life. He offers her a deal—pretend to be his girlfriend until the wedding, while he does his damnedest to protect her from the danger closing in.

As a plan, it’s almost foolproof.

Almost.

Thoughts on House of Payne: Styx: I continue to have mad love for these passionate, outspoken tattooists and those they fall for. Styx continues the streak of fiercely driven, crazy protective individuals who will stop at nothing to keep their special someone safe.

Sydney doesn't even realize she needs someone like Styx in her life until he bulldozes into it (via her bulldozing into him) and plants himself firmly in her path. By that, I mean, he makes sure he gets a chance for them to get to know one another to see if that zing he's feeling is mutual.

AND, BOY, IS IT MUTUAL!

On Sydney's end, when she bumps into Styx, she's had a weird, harrowing day and he's just the cherry on top. He helps her in a huge way and suddenly they're being all couple-y without Sydney being quite aware how it happened. They they get REALLY couple-y and the lady's a goner. Plus, his family welcomes her with open arms and, considering the shambles of her family life, it just draws her in deeper and shows her what an actual family unit looks like.

I loved loved loved seeing a few familiar faces (and a few unexpected ones) and watching two people who seem so very different find that they have a whole lot of common ground when they take the time to get to know one another. The House of Payne crew are one big, crazy family and I can't get enough of them.