Reviewed by Sammy
TITLE: Totally Trucked
SERIES: The Men of Bear Springs
AUTHOR: BJ Blakely
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 299 pages
RELEASE DATE: January 6, 2021
BLURB:
Anything can happen at a truck stop. If you’re not careful, you can even fall in love.
I hate relationships. It’s why I became a trucker.
Long nights on the road mean you’re never in one place long enough for a guy to break your heart.
But when my rig breaks down in the small town of Bear Springs, I discover my ideal life might not be so ideal after all.
How can I keep truckin’ after the anonymous man at the local rest stop steals my heart?
I find myself falling for him more each day, until I learn a secret about him and I can’t keep pretending it’s a casual fling.
He’s stolen my heart, but can I push past my fear of rejection and make him mine?
Or will I fall flat on my face like last time, and end up totally “trucked?”
Totally Trucked is an opposites attract low angst MM romance with an age gap, high levels of heat and steam, and a happily ever after that will leave you feeling warm and fuzzy as “truck.” It is the first in a series of four age gap novels slated for early 2021 release.
REVIEW:
Jax enjoys driving his big rig but there is definitely a down side when it comes to calling someplace and someone home. Of course his last breakup from his cheating ex cemented the idea that a trucker’s life has no chance of lasting due to being on the road so much of the time. Still, every once in a while Jax wishes he had a boyfriend like the anonymous man who he meets in the glory hole at Truck n’ Munch every time he drives through Bear Springs. But love is just not meant to be—not for Jax.
Logan is determined to lose his virginity one way or another but being one of very few gay men in Bear Springs means his choices are limited. When he finally gets up the courage to visit the glory hole at the truck stop he never expects to meet a stranger who captures his fancy so much. If only the guy showed up more often! Of course that shadowy man slides to the background when Logan waits on the handsome trucker at the diner and discovers how nice he is and how easy it is to talk to the guy. Maybe he and Jax could have something together…if only Jax would just ask him to go with him, Logan would jump at that offer but it seems it’s just not meant to be.
A new author, BJ Blakely has released their first novel, Totally Trucked, about a cross country driver, Jax, and a lonely waiter, Logan, from a small town diner who meet in the most interesting of ways—as participants at a glory hole. The two men meet first as total anonymous hook ups in a truck stop bathroom but the action then explodes into a full on romance complete with a nice happy ever after. With little angst but lots of sex, Jax and Logan get to know one another and discover they can trust each other with their hearts.
This novel is not for the faint of heart in terms when it comes to rather dirty and unsanitary sex. The glory hole scenes sometimes even made me shudder but what may not necessarily turn me on might thrill another reader. Be forewarned, Bj Blakely is graphic when it comes to discussing sexual fluids, public sex, glory hole interactions and more. I will admit there is little discussion about catching communicable diseases until near the very end of this novel—something I would have expected happening earlier since these guys even kiss on the lips through that glory hole in the dirty bathroom. But no—they throw caution to the wind, so to speak, when it comes to public sex acts and I am sure this story will find its audience for this type of plot.
There is an age gap between Logan (who is just twenty-one) and Jax but the amount of years is never revealed, just hinted at a few times. I did like that these guys were just average men—stuck in lonely professions where neither could find the one person who they could trust with their hearts. It is quite poignant when Logan begs Jax during sex to praise him, to claim him, to make him his. Logan’s family life was not the best and he has been on his own for a while—Jax’s kindness and caring go a long way to making Logan feel special.
Unfortunately, there are several technical issues with this novel. In my opinion, it was difficult at times to know exactly when Logan was joking around with Jax and when he was serious. If he was mostly serious then his character bordered on being much younger than Jax emotionally and, if I’m being honest, both hot-tempered and whiny. In the last fifty percent of the book, Logan speaks his mind much more freely—a welcome change to his character. However, he is rarely nice to his roommate, Forrest, and often rather nasty to Jax. For instance when asked to wait in the hall so Jax can ready their room for their big night together Logan gets impatient and bossy—again making him seem very young and ill-tempered rather than cute and eager. Perhaps the author chose to do this to reflect the age difference between the two men but it didn’t really come off as that to me.
Also it appears the author didn’t take time to really learn about a trucker’s life on the road or his job for that matter. Jax and his buddies come off as horndogs who seek out glory holes along the interstate to get off most of the time—at least that is all they seem to discuss. Beyond my former observation that a truck stop glory hole is not the cleanest of places to hook up, there is this idea that these men are constantly horny and commitment-phobes, desiring nameless one-offs to seemingly avoid heartache. I’m not sure one can paint an entire profession as such. Making them lonely yes, for sure, it is a hard job but I have listened to truckers on the radio often enough to tell you they rarely discuss sex. My brother, for instance, was a long distance hauler and a happily married family man—still is in fact, some thirty-two years later. I think there is a fine line between fictional characters and reality and I am the first to give the benefit of the doubt and call romance, fiction. Still, this story makes Jax and his friends seem so one-dimensional and, again if I’m to be honest, rather reckless when it comes to their health and well-being.
I want to preface this next item with the knowledge that I received an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy). These are often released before a final edit and a reviewer understands that and rarely cites typos or small consistency issues because of that. However, there are several times I got lost in this novel due to anything from sudden shifts in narrators making it difficult to know who is speaking to whom to Jax’s boss going from threatening to fire him to joking around with him about not having sex in his rig. Then there are more obvious issues like the fact that Logan is a virgin and Jax should know that yet seems to be shocked and excited by it multiple different times in the text. Or the fact that Jax up and decides to suddenly drive back to Logan forgetting about the job he is on and the need to deliver his goods. I could go on and on but I will stop there as I think it’s clear there are several times the author duplicated a plot point I assume for some kind of emphasis.
Finally I have to speak about the language usage in this novel. I am not a prude and throwing around the F-bomb truly doesn’t bother me but honestly when it’s in nearly every third sentence I have to ask if the author is just lazy or unable to come up with other descriptive words to reflect a character who is expressing shock, passion, anger, etc. Honestly seven or eight times using the same explicative on a page or repeating the idea that every sex scene ends with someone “screaming” out their release is just a bit too much. The same goes for the overuse of Jax or Logan being amazed at each other being such a marvelous human being. I get they are falling in love but truly it did little more than lengthen a story that is already in need of a good edit to tighten up the plot.
I think that in the hands of a good editor author BJ Blakely will be able to refine their writing and tighten up their stories into ones that might not be so repetitive or lacking in better descriptive language. I definitely think this author is worth a second glance if only to see if they grow as a storyteller and novelist.
RATING: 
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