Reviewed by Dan
TITLE: One Step Too Close
SERIES: Sex & Mayhem #6
AUTHOR: K.A. Merikan
PUBLISHER: Acerbi & Villani, Ltd
LENGTH: 373 Pages
BLURB:
— One love. One motorcycle club. Two stepbrothers. —
Ryder. Controlling. Ambitious. Protective.
Jed. Self-destructive. Trapped. Lonely.
Their love? Forbidden. Taboo. All-consuming.
For Jed, the Coffin Nails Motorcycle Club is family. With them, he learned how to think, what to enjoy, and how to fight, but there is one thing he knows his friends can’t find about. They would never accept him as gay, and so his life is a constant struggle with desires that fill him with despair. Only there is a much darker secret lurking in Jed’s heart. His feelings for his stepbrother, Ryder, go far beyond brotherly. Trapped with a yearning that can never be fulfilled, Jed spirals out of control and unwillingly puts the love of his life in danger.
Ryder is climbing up the ranks. Recently promoted to sergeant-at-arms, he has it all: drive, respect, and the love of his biker family. When his stepbrother gets into trouble with the law, Ryder decides to take the blame and save him from a long sentence. Deep inside, he knows there is nothing he wouldn’t do for Jed, but through a desperate attempt to suppress his own hidden desires, he might irreversibly break the man he secretly loves.
But finding out what they feel for each other will test their loyalty to the Coffin Nails MC and change their lives forever.
REVIEW:
I’ll start this review by saying that I usually absolutely LOVE the books these ladies write. Key word “usually”. But I have to be honest and tell you that I didn’t even vaguely like the characters in this particular book and that made it harder for me to read the book. They say it is a sign of an excellent author, or in this case authors, when characters are so believable that they instill strong feelings in the reader. If so, the authors did a good job with this one. But there was also the premise of this book which didn’t really do it for me either. Two step-brothers, Ryder and Jed, raised together since they were young boys, suddenly discover they both have been lusting after each other all these years. Having some step-siblings myself, I thought the entire, “well…we’re not related by blood…so we might as well fuck”, thing was a little far-fetched.
We met Jed in Swamp Blood, book three in the Guns n’ Boys series as the biker who had an interrupted blow job which he filmed on his phone, which he then lost. This time around we’re hearing the story from the other perspective. It was a hookup that went bad, not a “forced” blowjob, and it was the first and only time Jed has ever even attempted sex with another man. We also met Dana previously as well, I think back in book two of Guns n’Boys. She is the protégé of Dom and Seth who we heard a lot about in Swamp Blood. When they left town they left Dana behind…on a mission.
In this book Dana is back. She has been blackmailing Jed for months with the video, which she now has made several copies of. She moved herself in with him and has been forcing him to tell everyone she is his girlfriend, so that she has access to the Coffin Nails Clubhouse. She has been treating him like total crap and is threatening to send the video not only to his brother Ryder, but to all of Jed’s MC Brothers if he doesn’t do exactly what she says. I hate her. I’d like to see her dead…and an extremely long and painful death with lots of blood and gore would suit her fine. No spoilers, but what happens to her near the end of this book is nowhere near enough. Evil Bitch has to die.
But I digress. Back to the story. Suddenly from left field, the whole love affair between the step-brothers develops. When Ryder saves Jed from killing himself, the truth comes out that Jed is actually gay. And of course they both jump each other’s bones immediately. Need I remind you they are step-brothers who have considered each other brothers for all these years? The further into the book I went the more I lost all respect for the characters and really started to dislike the Coffin Nails MC Louisiana.
As the storyline continued, we heard about the man from Columbia. Toro is a notorious Columbian gangster, with whom an arms deal is seen as the only hope of saving the Club, which is basically broke and can’t even pay their next month’s electric bill! When the meeting happens, the members of the MC are so childish that they sabotage it by getting drunk, spilling cooking oil, inviting a bunch of cheap sluts to party while the Columbians are there, and doing the opposite of everything that was agreed upon up front. Oh, and did I mention somehow the garage just happened to catch on fire at the same time? This whole section of the book irritated me.
After the shit had hit the fan, the cheap sluts had been thrown out, and the fire was out, the Columbian left with Dana in tow. So what do Jed and Ryder do? Well, of course they go up to Ryder’s room and have sex! While the Club is going to the Table to talk about what just went wrong, and Ryder is the VP? WTF ladies, you’re killing me here. And that isn’t the only time they have “inappropriate timing” sex in the book. I disliked that when huge drama was going on, or they were in a spot where they needed to get their shit together, they just decided to drop everything and have sex.
I’ve never personally belonged to an actual Motorcycle Club, because frankly the 1% guys scare me. I have though belonged to one of the largest Motorcycle Associations in the United States, which is a tamer version. They still have prospects, you still need to earn your rockers and your club patch. They are still a pretty scary looking group. I’ve also personally met the President of the Florida chapter of a very notorious MC, who was one scary motherfucker and I have to tell you the guys described in this particular story are nothing like a real MC or their members. Hell they aren’t even up to the standards of the members of the MA that I belonged to. I found the members of Coffin Nails MC Louisiana to be beyond pathetic.
There were also some things that were open ended. What happens to Dana? Who is the guy near the end of the book that gets killed? What will happen with the Club next, and what will happen with Ryder and Jed? Honestly, I’m not sure that I’m invested enough in any of those questions to read any continuation of this storyline. I miss Dom and Seth. I’d much rather read their story.
I’m going to rate this one a little more harshly than the other books in these intertwined series. I know it is billed as a standalone, and it could be, but I still saw as it as the next step in both series. I didn’t like the stepbrother premise, and I really disliked some of the characters. I guess I should give kudos to the ladies for writing characters that are so flawed and annoying that they seemed like real people, and they really had me pissed off and swearing at my Kindle while I was reading.
In closing, I must say that in my opinion, this book is way, way, way too long. I’m not sure if I’m dreaming it, but it seems that every book from these ladies gets longer. There comes a point when long is too long in my opinion, and this book hit it. I found myself getting bored, and doing something I’ve never done before with a book from Kat & Agnes. I skimmed! Particularly during the hook-up that started it all between Ryder and Jed…which seemed to go on and on and on. I have to give credit though, the sex was, as always from these ladies, very hot. I’m going to give this one a 4.0, which is the lowest rating I’ve ever given these ladies. I love their writing, and I recommend the whole entire combined two series thing, with the exception of the m/f book which I haven’t read. This one though, will have to go on record as being my least favorite of the series so far.
RATING: 
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