Reviewed by Jess
TITLE: Outlaw Girls
AUTHOR: Miss Merikan
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 170 pages
RELEASE DATE: February 10, 2019
BLURB:
Mona. Mafia princess. Rebellious Italian beauty. Runaway bride.
Rain. Motorcycle club president’s daughter. Androgynous biker goddess.
After her sister was forced into an arranged marriage, Mona vowed she would never suffer the same fate. She would do whatever she had to, even set the church on fire, catch the first bus to nowhere without a dollar in her pocket while still wearing her wedding dress.
Away from her controlling family, Mona intends to fight for her financial independence on the stripping pole at the Smoke Valley Motorcycle Club. Her plan is to earn enough cash for further travels, but once she gets closer to Rain, and becomes more comfortable on the back of her bike than she ever was in the world of privilege, staying in the middle of Nowhere, Nevada no longer sounds so bad.
Rain doesn’t do girlfriends. Her biker lifestyle means secrecy and unsavory deeds no girl she’s met would roll with. Her only goal is to smash the glass ceiling of her family-run biker gang and become the first female member. She does do flings though, and the Italian beauty who crashes her birthday party is perfect for one of those.
But Mona sticks around. Rain can’t stay away, and all rules go out the window when Rain finds out Mona is the runaway daughter of a mafioso. Maybe she could just be the kind of woman who understands living outside the law
When the mafia comes after Mona, Rain has to choose between loyalty to the club and the woman of her dreams. One thing is certain – there will be no escape without mayhem.
REVIEW:
With one quick scan of the blurb, I was immediately excited to get reading. An androgynous biker chick and a runaway mafia princess finding forbidden love in the unforgiving Nevada desert? Yes, please! I’ve also been consistently intrigued by the scope of works the writing duo K.A. Merikan (using the alternative pen name Miss Merikan) tackle. Their romance interests reach far and wide, and I admire their adventurous writing spirits.
I love how this book begins—our runaway bride Mona, taking a bus to nowhere, still decked out in her wedding dress, finds herself suddenly onstage at a seedy strip club filled with bikers. And the one biker who catches her eye is Rain, the gorgeous woman who seems at home in the space but doesn’t have the same patches and status as the men around her. After a steamy dance and an extended one-night stand, Mona makes this small Nevada town a safe haven away from her family—and finds love with a cagey, overprotective biker.
Both of our main characters are really well-written. Mona is young, but she’s fiery and fiercely independent. She’s naïve but she manages to hold her own. She’s a good match for Rain, who has had a tough go of life as both a woman and a lesbian in her small community of MC members who will always look down on her. They both want something better from life, but there are always people in the way of letting them get it.
At first, the dynamic between Rain and Mona was sloppy, even if their chemistry burned. Rain was written too much like a male character in the way she treated and talked to Mona. In my experience, lesbians are nothing like straight men, and their dynamics with each other are very different. But as they became closer, we see that much of Rain’s bravado is just an act as she tries to fit in with her family, and we see the real Rain as she and Mona open up to each other. I also really enjoyed their sexual chemistry. Mona is a virgin at the start, but Rain is patient and gentle with her, showing all the ways women can make each other feel good.
Though Rain is close with her family and the tight-knit Smoke Valley MC, I often got pissed on her behalf. There’s a lot of really casual sexual harassment and violence in this book, more than I was expecting, and I wish Rain’s father and brothers were more supportive. I often so badly wanted Rain to just take Mona and start somewhere new, preferably with her own club, but it’s just not that kind of book. It’s about carving space that you deserve rather than starting off on your own, which is admirable in a different way, I suppose. I can’t say I was totally on board with the ending—I don’t think Mona got the ending she deserved—but it works with the characters and setting.
At first, I was put off by some of the callousness of this book, but by the end, this really becomes a story with a lot of heart, emotion, and real drama that keeps you invested. My favorite Merikan work so far!
RATING: 
BUY LINK: