M.L. Nystrom

This is yet another book in the Dutchmen Motorcycle Club (MC) and is a very gritty and powerful one. For those looking for a nice, friendly story without its share of nastiness and wrongdoing, this is not the book for you. It is a story of Boots, formerly a member of another MC who had a sordid past of doing what needed to be done. Boots was the enforcer and did whatever it took to protect his former MC, the Dark Horses. Both clubs had done the dirty as far as illegal things but Railroad, the new head of the Dutchmen, worked on turning that around and going straight. Of course, the club had to vote and have consensus, which happened. Those not in agreement left. In time, the Dark Horses were no more. Boots did a couple of years in prison, and decided to not follow that path again. He applied for membership in the Dutchmen’s and was accepted but he would no longer be the enforcer. Although he wasn’t really sorry for what he did to those preying on innocents and others, he vowed to atone for that by leading his efforts in a nonviolent direction, as much as he could. Boots had had an attraction to Mama J or Janice as he prefers to call her for some time, even before her relationship with Nutter. Though never married to Nutter, Janice had several children by him and also took in others that he had with other women. He liked his fun but not his responsibility. Boots admired Janice for the responsibilities she carried and her very caring nature. Janice had kicked Nutter out of her personal life but would have appreciated him showing up to shoulder some of the responsibilities with the children. Railroad and his wife, Gretchen, whom I met in the second book, The Price of Forgiveness, were in this story as well as previously met club members. This is a story of twists and turns and a flip on who the bad guys are. I highly recommend it for those who want to see more of a realistic tale of that side of life we might not otherwise know.… (más)

Wow this book was a lot more intense than I was expecting, with the plot taking some dark and disturbing turns, but was handled by the author in a way that kept me enthralled the whole time. This is saying something because if this particular content was not treated carefully it could have been a quick noping out for me. There was also some really good twists that, while I would not say completely blindsided me, were really good additions to the plot.
Turning to the characters and their relationships, I absolutely loved Gretchen's character and how feisty and strong she was. I also really like that Nystrom made it clear she was not a stick-figure with model looks and included that she was deaf. Her characters really came to life for me and it felt to me like it was based on someone real. I also really enjoyed that Gretchen was an editor, and that the author took the time to even come up with some hilarious lines that Gretchen was editing--some of them were freaking hilarious and I could totally see being included in some badly written romances! While I would say that Gretchen was my favourite character, Rail was also really well done. His struggle with his past, trying to accept love, and turn the club to better and more legitimate means was great. There were parts where he was a definite asshole, but that was tempered by his sweet moments and was understandable based on his backstory. Ultimately you will end up loving him, and his ability to communicate with Gretchen through ASL and his love for his "Grams" will endear him to any reader. Ultimately, the content included in this book may be a trigger for some people and was disturbing, but overall still made for a really good read. Thank you to Hot Tree Publishing and M.L. Nystrom through Library Thing for providing me an ARC of this book and this honest review is provided voluntarily.
CW: sexual assault, female subordination, white supremacy, & cults… (más)