Saturday, December 24, 2022

Review: Leather & Lace by Adell Ryan

Leather & Lace by Adell Ryan
Series: Hell for Leather MC #1
Publication date: May 26th, 2021
Pages: 451
Spice: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Synopsis:
Have you ever been so exhausted you feel it deep in your soul?

After twenty-four years living in this seedy town and six years in the business of serving seedy men, that's me.

So. Damn. Tired.

Every day, I dream of becoming a wanderer--me and my trusty home on wheels taking life on the road. Every night, I striptease to turn those daydreams into a reality.

Bikers from around the nation ride in for Gulf Coast Bike Week every spring and fall. Under the thumb of a local motorcycle gang, the dancers at Tit for Tat Saloon take good care of them.

"Dance for just one more motorcycle rally," I told myself.

That was three years ago, before I was claimed by a member of a rival club. Twice a year, he visits me along with the rest of his brigade.

While they are here, I tend to their needs.

This season, though, hackles are raised; local outlaws are whispering concerns that Hell for Leather is up to no good. A buzz of weariness in my bones warns that this hidden agenda will affect their favorite saloon girl.

Trouble is, I care. Too much. The men who make up their group will get me--all of me. Willingly. Regardless of how it chips away at my already-damaged soul.

"Dance for just one more motorcycle rally," I tell myself.


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Review:
Lace has been merely getting by for the last six years. She stepped into her mother's role as a stripper at Tit for Tat Saloon when she was legal and her mother started letting her heroin addiction get away from her. She has almost enough money saved up that she can use her car for more than just a place to sleep at night and see the world. If she can just get through one more Bike Week rally she is home free. But as with every rally the Hell for Leather boys are determined to have Lace all to themselves for the entire weekend. She is there to serve them and make them feel at home during the stay. But little do they know that this year things are going to be a little bit different. Lace will no longer just be around to help an initiate find their footing before returning to the arms of their most possessive brother, now she will be H4L property and all brothers are tied to her just as she is tied to them. Lace hopes that once the rally is over and H4L has to return to their home base that she will be able to make her dreams a reality and escape the hell hole she has become so jaded by, but that may not be in the cards for her once things start going wrong.

I know Coty and Lace were supposed to be the main couple with the others kinda just filling their time with Lace but I really, really did not like Coty overall as a character. Don't get me wrong. I love the possessive, alpha male vibes that he was throwing off but it felt more about him seeing her as property that he owned than because he genuinely felt anything for her other than lust. There were rare moments where you wondered if he actually did have deep feelings for her but they never really grew to the point of them being indisputable. There were others in the gang that treated her even better and seemed to truly care about her well-being. Coty wasn't it for me.

I will tell you, I was definitely not cool with the whole vibe between Kio and Jess either. I understand that Lace was kinda okay with the whole thing but it felt a little too close to him cheating with how much he seemed to be infatuated with Jess. Of course, Lace had more than her hands full with the rest of the boys but still... if the whole thing was she was supposed to belong to all them and they to her, a few of them, like Kio kinda toed that line a bit too closely.

The book was a little scattered and there was terminology thrown around that seemed to just be assumed to be understood by the reader. It got so bad that I had to look deeper into the series to try to figure out if it was a spin-off of something else which would explain why it seemed like the reader should know more than I did. It is, indeed, a spin-off so personally I'd recommend reading the first series first otherwise you'll be as lost as I was.

That is not saying the book was bad, it wasn't or I would have stopped reading it. It was decent but it did lose a few points for not making it more easily to pick up without reading the first series.