Max and Briony

The Rampage MC #4

by GroveltoHEA

I was supposed to be protecting her.
Instead, I left her to help my former girlfriend.
And she was badly hurt on my watch.
Now, she won't talk to me and I can't get to her for a year.
How can I ever make her believe that I realized too late that she's the woman I love?

Genres: Second Chance, Contemporary Romance, M F Romance

ebook

Published February 1, 2023

About the author

Wattpad author

Reviews

[Mairi Swan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it! H effed up big time but he eventually redeemed himself. In the very first pages you read about the betrayal and the rest of the story is groveling! I really felt his pain and his guilt.

[Laura]

***TRIGGER WARNING: The book opens with the heroine waking up in the hospital with multiple serious injuries, having been severely beaten by her ex. There's a brief flashback scene of her remembering him beating her and thinking she was going to die. The ex is shot and killed in the middle of the beating. There's a descriptive scene with the Hero being whipped with a chain by one of his MC brothers as punishment because he was supposed to be watching the heroine (she was under the club's protection because of the threat of her ex). And towards the end, there's an on-page, pretty graphic fight-to-the-death between the Hero and another guy. ***

**Safety: No cheating; the MCs aren't with anyone else after meeting (99% sure, because their beginning as two people getting involved is kind of brushed over). The Hero has been developing feelings for the heroine and she definitely has feelings for him, but the Hero's ex has him by the balls and he literally goes running to her every time she needs him. The night that the heroine is attacked by her ex, the MCs had just had sex, the Hero was in the middle of saying something nice to the heroine, and then his ex's ringtone sounded and he jumped up to get it, then left to help her.



12/14/23-
This is still a Work-in-Progress on Wattpad, so I'll update this review when the book is finished. I'm not sure how I feel about this one yet, so I'm leaving it unrated until then, too.

It's an interesting storyline, but the Hero just isn't convincing me for some reason. He's shown true remorse, cut ties with the OW, took punishment from the club brothers and a separate club, avenged the heroine, he's told the heroine that he's going to watch over her forever, earn back her trust and love... All that, and I still feel nothing about the guy? Maybe it's just me at this point, or it's me feeling like it's too little, too late...or maybe too much, too late in this case.

I'm not sure how I feel about the heroine at this point, either. The Hero was given more chapters in this book where other books, it's mostly the heroine's POV. Right now she still feels pretty vague, but she's definitely strong.

I still don't like Beard, but this story showed some of his character's background involving this Hero and made him a tad more likeable. I still think he's a twat for interfering with Genny and Levi's story, so if it turns out that he interferes with this heroine, too, I'm gonna be pissed and any progress he's made so far will be shot down the toilet.

3/25/24-
Still unsure about Max. I think because there was so much time with no contact between them, it dampened his grovel and it almost acted like a giant eraser for all the angst I felt in the very beginning. I don't know what to feel about this overall, but I do know that where the published chapters ended, Briony was getting on my nerves for some reason and Max just got cockblocked. I think I just want the story to end now. 😭

[Miki’s⚠️ Safety Reviews & Rants⚠️ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gah this guy

Not sure but he fucked up real bad
Perceived cheating OWD I mean it def OWD but he isn’t cheating he is just an idiot

He went out to pick up his ex when he was suppose to be in charge of protecting the h. He cut and run anytime his ex called. This time the h almost dies and it’s bad man! So bad


He works hard to win her back and does pay his dues but I still wasn’t in love w him.

I mean she would be DEAD! Like dead dead. Dead is dead no second chances

Anyways, long grovel

Both celibate and only w each other after meeting
Slight maybe emotional cheating but I’m not even sure he was just dumb

[Aarann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was surprisingly good. Ever since I found this author I've been mainlining her stuff (I didn't update GR for most of it because they're such quick reads), to the point where a lot of it blends together and have been mostly underwhelmed, but not enough to stop reading. Not this time. (Actually, there was one I read just prior to this, Santo and Fiorella, that broke the "meh" mold I was finding with a lot of this author's other stuff. These two books almost felt like they were written by another person compared to what I read previously because they were so well fleshed out.)

The following happens mostly off-page prior to the beginning of the story, so I'm not calling it spoilers. Max was assigned by his MC to guard Bri from an abusive ex-boyfriend and along the way they started to get bizz-aaay. The thing was, even though he and Bri were starting a new relationship, Max had this super-needy ex-girlfriend who was constantly calling him for help and he'd drop everything for her. One night ex-GF calls him because she's stranded on the side of the road and in his haste to get to her, Max leaves Bri alone before his relief can take over. It was the opening abusive ex was waiting on and he beats the hell out of her. Prospect saves the day and Bri wakes up in the hospital. Open to Chapter One.

So yeah, bro has a lot to make up for. Over the course of this book, he pretty much allows the crap to get kicked out of him multiple times while he mentally thinks of what she went through because of him. He nearly gets kicked out of his MC, and spends a year working 20 hour days 7 days a week and is cut off from any friendly contact, has to stay away from Bri and watch from afar as she physically heals, and isn't sure if at the end of it he's going to still have the MC that has become his family. Then the year is up and the grovel really begins. And honestly, I believed it. It totally worked for me. I felt like not only did he and Bri get to know each other without romance, but by the end of the book, they'd both had character development and grew as people (which we all know I love when done well). And when authors don't focus so much on the smexy times (this one definitely does not seem to) they can build the relationship and this story definitely did. (And quite frankly, I get that I'm in the minority here in the smut community, but a believable romance makes the smexy-times way more fun when they happen.) Either way, I totally got why they'd be together at the end of it.

That said -- and please keep in mind this is more of a nit than anything -- this book differed from a lot of romances I read because I actually felt like Max was the better-developed of the two and Bri seemed a little more like the wooden cut-out we are used to seeing from a lot of male leads. I would have liked more personality from her, but I ended up liking Max so much I didn't care.

This author is super hit-and-miss for me, but this was a big hit.

[Sherron · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Rhea · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't like Max, sorry. He literally fucked Briony and then his ex calls and he leaves her to run to the OW. Briony's ex is basically stalking her and Max is her detailed bodyguard essentially. He asks another guy to come stay with Bri while he tends to his ex, even though Briony begged him to wait until the new guy came, seeing as she felt like she was being watched. Spoiler alert, he didn't. She gets beaten to a pulp. And then they don't speak for a year, lol.

I wouldn't take that man back ever, xo

The thing that pissed me off is that they never really fought it out. Bri would say how he made her feel like shit, he left her, he didn't believe her when she said she was being watched, he ran to his ex every fucking time she rang and all Max had to say was yupp, I can't change it no matter how many times you bring it up. I mean, dude, really??

Anyway, his reason for constantly running back to the ex was that he liked the feeling of being needed, seeing as he was abandoned as a teen by his father. Bri was very independent and therefore was not as clingy, and that scared him, which is why he held on to the ex in case Bri let him go..... Respectfully, sir, go fuck off to therapy.

[Alina · Rating 3 out of 5]

i actually ended up forgiving Max, ME? forgiving a man? the end is near. but im still pretty pissed at some of the shit he said about his ex like " missing having her on his bike" ... " helping her kept the door open for if Briony ever left him"...etc
he said his wake up call was when Briony got attacked, but it also made me think that if the ex got attacked and not Briony would he also have had the same wake up call and spent months nursing her to health because he was needed and lost Briony in the process?
but got torture TWICE and became the entire MC's little bitch for a year so he got what he deserved

[Brittany Exel · Rating 3 out of 5]

4th book. Quick wattpad read. MC Club. He should be protecting her but he leaves to help his ex and she gets hurt. Groveling.

[Ꭿຖᥲ·♡ ྀི · Rating 4 out of 5]

4✯

-dual POV
-both MCs experienced
-both celibate after meeting
-Max and Briony had been hooking up for a few months when he fucked up (they were not in a serious relationship when this happened) - the MC Max was a part of was asked by another MC to protect Briony from her ex and they decided the best way to do that was for her to go live with him, the night he fucked up they had just finished having sex, he was about to tell her that he loved her when his ex called him, he left Briony to go help his ex, while he was with her Briony's ex attacked her, he punched her repeatedly, he broke her nose and her wrist, he was going to kill her but another member of the MC, Darren, saved her, he shoot her ex and killed him... when Max went to to see her at the hospital he tried to apologize but she didn't let him, she told him that she wouldn't be returning to his house, he said they were not done but she told him they were done the moment he left her to go take care of his ex...
-Max's ex, Wendie: he said there had always been a sweet helplessness about her that called to the man in him, that it was the first time he'd wanted to commit to a woman and he would have if she had been serious about him but she hated the biker lifestyle and she always felt like she was his second choice after the club -that's why after a year together she broke up with him-... he said even if she wasn't his girlfriend anymore he still cared about her... for 2 weeks after the break up he tried to change her mind but she refused so he accepted her decision, that's when she started calling him and texting him for help or to talk, that made him feel like she was keeping the door open between them 🙄... the night Briony was attacked he was helping Wendie with a flat tire, he took her to her house on his bike and I hated when he said that a part of him missed her behind him on the bike 😒... later in the story he clarified that he had never loved Wendie, he just liked feeling needed and Briony was strong and capable which made him feel like any moment she would end things with him, that's why he always answered the second Wendie called or texted... his need to feel needed comes from childhood trauma, even as an adult he always made sure to make himself indispensable so people wouldn't leave him... Max told Wendie to fuck off a couple days after the attack, she didn't appear in the story until much later -when Max was trying to fix things with Briony- I thought she was going to cause more drama but she apologized to both of them, she said she kept calling him because she thought he would come back to her and tell her he'd give up the club once he realized she was serious about choosing between the club and her, she told Briony she realized he might have a girlfriend because the change in him was pretty obvious, yes he kept helping her but he stopped spending extra time with her, there was no chatting, no talking, he would help her with whatever she needed and that was it...
-a few days after Briony was attacked the MC dealt with Max, they punished him for not following orders, he was whipped with a chain (he wanted to hurt, to feel what Briony felt), I hated this part of the story and I hated that Chain/Levi was the one who did it, Max was like a little brother to him so he said he felt terrible for doing it and he resented Max for choosing that punishment, he even had tears in his eyes when he told Briony what he'd done...
-no real OM drama: Darren, the brother who saved Briony, kissed her while he was drunk, she pushed him away immediately, Max saw them but didn't make a big deal out of it because it was obvious to him that Briony had hated it... Darren was dumber than a rock but he was a good friend to Briony and Max (I hope the author is already writing his story with Rie 👀)(edit: the author said they will not have their own story 😩)
-after Briony's attack, Beard, the MC prez, stripped Max of his rank as Sergeant-At-Arms and for a whole year he was demoted to 'prospect', he was banned from club rides and from speaking to the brothers except to confirm orders, he was also prohibited to leave the compound except to go to work or for errands for the MC and he couldn't ask the brothers about Briony, during this time he tried calling and texting her but she never answered, he still managed to grovel though, he did so many things for her without her knowing 👍🏻
-after his year as a prospect ended he was accepted again as a member of the MC, the first thing he did was to go see Briony, after some time she agreed to be his friend, he groveled the whole time and around 6 months later she finally forgave him
-the groveling was satisfying imo, I liked all the chapters from his POV because they made me feel his guilt and regret, at one point Briony made him promise to stop saying that he didn't deserve her, he agreed but he thought 'I promised never to say that again. I could think it, though.', so yeah, I think he's going to feel remorse for what he did for the rest of his life...
-the epilogue was good: 8 years later, they're married with a kid and she's pregnant again (I loved the promise he made to his son, it was so sweet 🥹)
--------------

"You're looking at her like she's your reason for breathing -- but she's the woman you left on her own to be hurt by her ex. If it weren't for Darren, she'd have been beaten to death. Because of you, prospect. Her beating is on you. You left Briony so you could ride to the rescue of a woman who'd played you for months. That act alone means you gave up all rights to this woman and no amount of looking at her with puppy-dog eyes will make you worth her forgiveness." He was right, but that didn't mean I could stop thinking of her. If life had a do-over button, I would have re-done that night even if it had cut forty years off my life. Anything so Briony wouldn't be hurt, wouldn't suffer because of me.

***************************************

"You left me, Max. We'd just had sex, you were talking sweetly to me, and then Wendie called and you went running. I begged you to stay and you left me. You were in such a hurry to get to her you couldn't even wait for Darren to show up. All because you thought your ex girlfriend was in danger. I didn't mean anything to you, and that became crystal clear in that moment. Wiped my blinders clean off. Maybe that was on me for letting it go on so long, for not saying something sooner about you constantly helping Wendie, for not giving you an ultimatum to choose one of us." "Bri, this isn't on you at all in any way. You shouldn't have had to say anything or give me an ultimatum -- I should have stopped running to help Wendie on my own. And I'm sorry, Bri. I'm so sorry..."

***************************************

"Do you think I didn't learn from the biggest fuck up of my life, Briony? I left you, the woman I love, for someone who didn't mean shit to me because I had to go play hero. You know how that knowledge eats away at me like a fucking disease? You don't think I wish I could have a do-over for that stupid fucking decision just about every hour of every day? Do you honestly think I'd leave you for her or anyone else ever again?" I grabbed her soft hands in mine and just let myself enjoy the feel of her skin on mine for a minute. "Briony, it wasn't Wendie I missed for a year. It was you. It wasn't Wendie I had to go see the same day my time as a prospect was up. It was you. It wasn't Wendie I tried to get information on for a year. It was you. And it was you that fucking made my heart stop when you walked through the club house doors after I hadn't laid eyes on you for six months. A half a year of wondering how the hell you were doing. That's a really long answer just to say no, no way in hell would I leave you if Wendie was somehow able to get ahold of me."

***************************************

"The back of your bike's seen a lot of action," I said icily. "If you're talking about Wendie, yeah, she's been on the back of my bike, and so have some other women. All clubs are different," Max explained. "In the Rampage, we'll put women on the back of our bikes and it doesn't mean anything except we're going somewhere and she's going with us. Nothing deeper than that. But that all changes when we make someone our ol' lady. Then no one sits behind us on our bike except her and she doesn't sit on any bike but ours." "So, essentially, I'm just another in a long line of women who have been on the back of your bike?" "You aren't the first, no," he said evenly. "But you're the last woman who'll ever be behind me on my bike. And to the Rampage, last is the only thing that matters. Last is your ride or die."

***************************************

"Wendie and I would never have made it for a lot of reasons. She hated my lifestyle and I wasn't willing to give it up for her. More importantly, I didn't love her." "But you always ran to her when she needed anything," I reminded him. "I did. You were the first woman I dated that wasn't...needy, I guess would be the word. You didn't expect me to solve all your problems or handle every issue, and, to be honest, that confused the hell out of me. I didn't know what that meant for us. For me. In my experience, I had to be needed to make sure of my place in someone's life. And since you didn't need me, that made me uncertain." "And you got that neediness with Wendie." "Definitely got the neediness, and in the back of my mind, by running to help her, I was keeping the door open with her in anticipation of you ending it with me. At one point, I'd been willing to let what I had with Wendie be enough. That would have been a huge mistake, but it was hard to let go of that feeling of being needed."

***************************************

"Being friends with you is the hardest thing I've ever done, Briony, because I want so much more with you and I don't know if you'll ever be able to accept me as your man. But I want you to know our friendship has also become the most important thing in my life. It's the most real relationship I've ever had with anyone, and every day I fall more and more in love with you because I'm discovering there's more and more of you to love."

***************************************

"Every time I'm with you, I feel happy, Max. This friendship we've built is everything to me." "It's something new for both of us, I think," he said. "But whichever way it goes, we needed this. We needed to be friends outside of the circumstances we were in before." He was right about that. It had been so incredibly artificial before. I was confined to the compound, I was with Max most of the time cause he was assigned to protect me and we'd become friends then lovers inside of that bubble. But we'd never labeled what we were; we'd never set parameters around what we were to each other. We'd never discussed feelings. I'd let sex cover a multitude of relationship sins. Now we'd been building something almost entirely new.

***************************************

"My whole life was based on not being alone and needing to be needed, Briony. Ran from one girl to the next to meet that need because I couldn't stand being alone and not being needed. Well, I've been alone for a year and a half now and I've survived. But what I learned in all those months was what I really wanted was you. Want, not need, and it's taken me until this point in my life to figure it out, but I finally figured it the fuck out."

***************************************

"I'm just going to put it out there once and for all so you know, so there's no doubt in your mind. I love you, Briony, and I want to marry you, spend the rest of my life with you, raise a family with you, build a home with you. I know what I did -- that night, even before that night with running to help Wendie, failing to commit to you because I was so fucking insecure -- but I can't take any of it back, and I'd give my right arm if I could. I'd take it all back if I could, swear it on my life. Briony, I know I don't deserve your forgiveness, but that hasn't stopped me from hoping that someday you'd find your way to it. I was hoping that somehow my remorse would be communicated to you through my actions, that you'd see I would give my life to keep you safe. I will never leave you, Briony, and I would die a thousand times before I'd let you be hurt again."

***************************************

I will never leave you again. I will never let you get hurt again. I will never make a wrong choice with you ever again. I will always put you first, over everything and everyone. I will spend the rest of my life showing you how grateful I am for your forgiveness. I will show you every single day how much I love you and how unbearable my life would be without you. I will protect you and cherish you until the day I die.

[Lu Bielefeld · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Liked it!
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WattPad
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The story hooked me from the beginning and I really thought that our hero had no redemption, but little by little he shows with actions that he really regrets it and that he deserves a second chance.
Suddenly I found myself rooting for him to be forgiven and complaining about the heroine's delay in seeing that he changed. LOL!
There is no cheating. The secondary characters are great and made me curious about their possible story.
I strongly recommend.

[Paige · Rating 3 out of 5]

3-3.5

I liked Max in joy and atlas’s book so it wasn’t hard to like him here. The majority of the book was them apart though which wasn’t my fav. I liked that he didn’t demand to be forgiven or felt like he immediately needed to be forgiven. He actually worked for it for over a year, even when he wasn’t allowed to see her. I loved the women in this one but I hated all the men aside from Max. This solidified my reasoning for not reading Chain’s or Beard’s book because I absolutely hated those men. Some of the worst I’ve ever read honestly and it wasn’t even their book.

This book did have slow updates though so reading it over the course of many months kind of took away from the excitement of reading it because I forgot a lot of things that happened.

NO CHEATING
OW DRAMA (but it’s not the whole book just the beginning really)
SEPARATION BECAUSE THIS AUTHOR LOVES LONG SEPARATIONS
ABUSE, VIOLENCE AND MURDER

[Hope · Rating 3 out of 5]

He screws up bad when he rushes to help his ex leaving h open to her ex's attack. He was assigned to to protect her but instead he has sex with her and then immediately runs out to his ex. h gets beaten up badly only to be saved by someone else so he grovels

Safety - H starts sleeping with h but also runs out anytime his ex calls. Every single time. He also tells us how much he looks forward to her calls. He has his ex on his bike, tells how good it feels to have her hug him from behind (h has never been on his bike).

He constantly puts her before h and choose her every single time. h was literally begging him to wait for a few minutes so that his replacement could arrive but he ignored her because he thought his ex needed him more. She was attacked because he didn't wait for a few minutes. There's no cheating but it really depends on how you look at it, he was well emotionally invested in ow than with h imo.

[aleah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This started out , like many books , really good. But the main issue with this one was the repetitiveness . Briony - something awful happens to her that was partially Max’s fault. And yes I would be pretty mad at him for choosing to go attend to someone else over her safely. BUT after I while i got so sick of her rehashing what he did. THiS BOOK is definitely a GROVEL. He really tried hard , went above & beyond to make things right . He took pain on himself because of the guilt he felt. But he didn’t deserve her to just keep going on & on about it. Especially because this author turned him into an absolute CHUMP. He was waaaay to grovelly and that’s saying something. This could have been epic had the balance been right and it ended before we got to see them together properly… I was waiting the whole dam book!! . We didn’t even get a single bedroom scene!!! So this was lacking in a few areas

[Lana · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

As always, GroveltoHEA writes a great story. This one wasn't my *favourite* only because I started to feel really bad for Max. The heroes in other stories make the decisions to do the act/say the words that they know will hurt the heroine. But poor Max made a mistake, thinking Briony was safe and thought was doing the right thing. Yes, he was doing the right thing by the wrong woman, but the man was trying to be a good person.
He definitely had a lot to make up for in the sense of putting the OW first multiple times, but in comparison to the other GroveltoHEA fuck ups - this was pretty low on the meter. Yet, the poor man took beating after beating, had to be away from Briony for a year before he could start making it up to her, and even then, it took months to gain back her trust.
It felt like over kill for me at that point because I just wanted to give him a hug.

[Nyla Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was a little hard for me, until the last few chapters! I hate her ex but I honestly hated him a bit more because at least with the ex we knew what to expect. She beggeddddd him to stay and he basically said “f off” for the next woman that wasn’t in grave danger like she was .. but he made up for it in the end & I loved reading her develop a new form of trust in him!

[GigiReads · Rating 3 out of 5]

In all of the series this one is probably the most dark. It starts with extreme violence towards the FMC and the following chapters feature a lot of punishments that can be difficult to stomach.

Max is probably the best MMC in the series but I’m not sure this is one I would return to often for a re read as it’s heavy.

[Lara Bayfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable enough I like a MC love story but I probably should have read the other Ravage MC first, however, I like the redemption type story from both POV. But Max let’s be honest thought he could have his cake and eat it keeping two women strung along!

[Lor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another emotional book- heavy on the grovel. It always amazes me when “issues” that were already in play before the pivotal issue occurs, is finally realized and faced. Adored these Max and Briony. Flawed but perfect for each other.

[artsandgrace *ೃ༄ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yeah he’s not the brightest but he’s repentant and not a bulldozer

[Eliana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Top notch

[Annelie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Groveling fan, you must read it!

One year and a half of groveling...I very much liked this😏😏😏

[Dre · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually love this author's stories, and I did like this one, but it was overly long.

[Gilroy Garlic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great couple 🥰

[PB]

You just never see the good parts of the relationship in these books so it's hard to root for the characters or even feel their betrayal. The books all start after the betrayal has just happened.

[Susan (susayq ~) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Max's grovel was AMAZING!!!!!

[Star · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25

[wench · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gripping intro, but their story isn't too remarkable.