Tikka Chance on Me

by Suleikha Snyder

Tikka Chance on Me is a bad-boy-falls-for-good-girl romance that, according to the author’s Twitter, was inspired by this photo:

Which begs the question, how many 2018 romance novels (and to-be-released 2019 titles) have been inspired directly by Evans? I feel like at this point he might have started his own subgenre. Or at least his beard did.

Anyway, the Evans inspired hero of Tikka Chance on Me is Trucker Carrigan, enforcer to a local biker gang and notorious bad boy.

If at this moment you’re like, “Elyse, I do not want to read motorcycle club romance because of the implications of racial violence and violence against women,” I get it and agree with you, and luckily…

Pinky Grover works at her parents’ restaurant, The Taj Mahal, where she serves Trucker and his friends drinks and lusts after him from afar. As much as Pinky wants to make a move, she knows it will never work.  He’s trouble, she’s the good girl who quit school to support her parents while her mom undergoes chemo, and there’s no possible future between the two, right?

When Pinky finally flirts back with Trucker (and by flirts back I mean throws down a challenge) things get real fast. The two enter into a super hot, super illicit fling that they know is going to hurt when it’s over: Pinky because she thinks Trucker will eventually bail on her, and Trucker because he knows that once his cover is blown, he can never return to town again.

So this novella has a lot of pining, some hot scenes featuring acting on forbidden desires, and the constant tension of this relationship having a very definitive and impending end hanging over it. Somehow this book makes illicit sex in a Wal-Mart parking lot really hot. Nothing in a Wal-Mart parking lot should ever be sexy, but here we are.

I loved this novella. I’m a sucker for yearning and forbidden desires and not-really-bad-boy heroes and Chris Evan’s beard, and Tikka Chance on Me had all those tropes and executed them well. What’s more, it has very real external and internal conflicts, which I’ve found most novellas struggle with. Despite its short length, the pacing, conflict and tropey-ness of Tikka Chance on Me fall into place perfectly, making it immensely satisfying.

– Elyse

He’s the bad-boy biker. She’s the good girl working in her family’s Indian restaurant. On the surface, nothing about Trucker Carrigan and Pinky Grover’s instant, incendiary, attraction makes sense. But when they peel away the layers and the assumptions—and their clothes—everything falls into place. The need. The want. The light. The laughter. They have more in common than they ever could’ve guessed. Is it enough? They won’t know until they take a chance on each other—and on love.

Contemporary Romance, Novella, Romance