Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Stroker
SERIES: Big Bull Mechanics, Book 2
AUTHOR: K.M. Neuhold
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 262 pages
RELEASE DATE: September 2, 2022
BLURB:
Is there an easy way to tell your lifelong best friend that you secretly married his brother eight years ago? Asking for a friend…
When Gates shows up needing a place to crash, I offer him my spare room. Whatever happened between us nearly a decade ago is water under the bridge. I don’t lie awake at night wondering what could have been. Nope, definitely not.
But Gates seems determined to get a rise out of me. He’s tie-dyed all my clothes, removed my bedroom door, and replaced my hand soap with lube. I’m not sure if he’s hoping I’ll kick him out or kill him, but he won’t break me that easily.
When he tells me his Stroker Rod is broken… What kind of mechanic am I if I don’t get hands-on with his problem?
We put our feelings behind us a long time ago, and there’s no way I’ll let Gates break my heart again. No amount of fiddling under the hood will fix everything broken between us. From here on out, it’s purely physical. Right?
Yup, just a couple of guys and their stroker rods.
***Stroker is a best friend’s brother, secretly married, super steamy MM romance.
REVIEW:
Stroker is the second book in K.M. Neuhold’s Big Bull Mechanics series, a spin-off of her Four Bears Construction series. We get cameos from some of the Four Bears crew in these stories, which is an added bonus. The Big Bull Mechanics stories have the same vibe and irreverent humor as Four Bears, so if you liked that series, you are likely to enjoy Big Bull Mechanics too.
The books in this series are interconnected standalones, so you can read them in order or independently. If you read book one, Crankshaft, you’ll recall that Steele and Tallahassee were struggling with Steele’s vagabond brother Gates, who had unexpectedly blown into town and is acting strangely. We saw Steele’s protective instincts kick in as he mother-henned Gates while simultaneously expressing frustration about Gates’ inability to stay put in one place and general screw-up behavior. It’s clear he’s worried about Gates and so is Tal. Tal lets Gates stay with him, but Gates deliberately makes Tal’s life miserable with pranks and antics designed to piss him off. But inexplicably Tal never loses his cool.
We quickly learn in Stroker that Tal and Gates have a complicated history which includes a secret marriage from a quickie Vegas wedding nine years ago. Gates’ erratic behavior upon arrival back home is due to his devastation over having testicular cancer and losing “part” of himself through surgical treatment. At the beginning of Stroker, the surgery is over and Gates is healed, at least physically. But his immature, OTT pranks towards Tal continue. Tal seriously has the patience of a saint.
The story told in Stroker is a second-chance romance that has these estranged husbands tentatively find their way back to each other. Trust was the greatest casualty of Gates leaving Tal on their wedding night, so Tal doesn’t trust that Gates means what he says about wanting to make it work between them, nor that he really intends to stay. Tal tries to keep himself at a distance to prevent falling again for the man he never really fell out of love with.
The best part of this book is the found family dynamics between Steele, Gates, Tal, and the Big Bull Mechanics crew, as well as Steele’s new boyfriend, the town veterinarian Porter (who is a hoot and a half). The biggest issue with the book, though, is Gates. I didn’t dislike him, but I didn’t really like him either. Other than feeling irritated by the constant juvenile behavior towards Tal, who is a completely endearing, sweet man with a heart of gold, I just felt indifference towards Gates. I couldn’t rationalize his obnoxious behavior, which grated on my nerves. I also couldn’t understand how on earth he and Tal fit together as a couple. Maybe more time on their history and how they got together a decade ago would have helped establish that foundation, but as it was, I didn’t feel any chemistry between them. I’m sure I’m in the minority on this, so maybe it’s just a “me” thing.
The story itself bears Neuhold’s hallmark storytelling, including hot sexy times, playful banter, irreverent antics, and fundamentally good, endearing characters who mean well even when they act like idiots – which is often. There’s virtually no angst in this story either. So if you want a fun, funny, frisky love story and you like Neuhold’s writing style, Stroker will be a good choice for you.
RATING: 
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