Reviewed by Jen
TITLE: Coyote
SERIES: Wayward Outlaws
AUTHOR: L. Eveland
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 261 pages
RELEASE DATE: August 13, 2026
BLURB:
I’ve never wanted anything I couldn’t take.
Then I found Big John chained in a fighting pit.
The Javelinas had him facing a boar with his bare hands. Six foot eight, bleeding, and gentle enough to apologize to the animal after he killed it.
I should have cut his chains and walked away.
Instead, I killed four men, stole Zaroff’s motorcycle, and brought him home.
Now John sleeps in a bunk too short for him. Eats at my family’s table. Lets me wash the blood from his skin and put my teeth over his heart when words won’t come. Calls me little one like he has no idea what it does to me.
He’s fifty-two. A widowed doctor. A conscientious objector who survived five months in that pit and still refuses to hurt anyone on purpose.
I’m half his size, half his age, and dangerous enough for both of us.
The Javelinas want him back.
They can send every man wearing their colors. I’ll fill the desert with bodies before I let anyone put Big John in chains again.
Zaroff hunts men for sport.
If he comes for us, I’ll show him what it feels like to be prey.
COYOTE is a dark, high-heat MM vigilante romance featuring obsessive insta-love, a significant age gap, extreme size difference, a feral possessive tracker and the gentle-giant doctor he claims, bite marks that mean forever, touch-him-and-die devotion, found family, a judgmental emotional-support snake, graphic violence, and a hard-earned HEA. Can be read as a standalone. From the author of Dressed to Kill. No third-act breakup. The snake and the dog are fine.
REVIEW:
From the start, it looks like this series got a makeover. The name changed from Dirt Devils to Wayward Outlaws, and the somewhat off-putting cover from book one has also been changed. With that out of the way, this story picks up pretty much where the last one left off. We are back on the ranch and characters from book one are all present and accounted for. One of the more colorful characters we met in that story was Coyote. He was the somewhat feral little man with the “pet” snake around his neck that the cook, Sierra, caught stealing and ended up taking in. He also happens to be one of the best trackers around.
When Coyote happens upon the Javelinas fights in the desert with one man fighting wild boars, he is instantly obsessed. He ends up breaking him out and deciding to keep him. In the process of this “rescue”, Coyote has stolen from the leader of the gang who apparently had much bigger plans for “Big John” than simply pit fighting. They run a bigger desert hunt which the fighters get “promoted” to if they survive the pits.
But, back to Coyote and John. Coyote is such an interesting character. He is what he is, and there really isn’t any sugarcoating it, nor does he try. He is brutally honest about what he wants and how he aims to achieve and keep it. John, on the other hand, is a giant man who has basically taken a vow not to kill another man from back in his army days and his oath as a medical doctor. But, he doesn’t seem to have an issue with Coyote’s violence and he is unable to resist the pull and attraction to Coyote.
This is a pretty high action story throughout. It won’t be for everyone and it is a bit over the top, but it is a story that is actually believably based on reality. I know I ended up enjoying it quite a bit from the beginning for various reasons. Regardless of the why’s, it had me turning pages and kept me engaged. I was saddened to see this would be the end of this series, as I was really hoping to see more for a few more of the characters involved in this ranch of second chances for wayward souls. Either way, this author remains on my auto-read list for the foreseeable future.
RATING: 
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