So, for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' 2017 Reading Challenge (more info here) one of the categories was a motorcycle or MC (motorcycle club) romance. This is definitely not my category. I pulled up one of Kristen Ashley's other books and started it, but that didn't work for me. However, Motorcycle Man and its predecessors in the "Dream Man" series were on the list of top romance novels (voted by readers) that NPR compiled, so I figured it was probably a good bet for this category. And then it turned out that this actually precedes the other Ashley book I had tried to read, so that worked out as well.So, here's the thing. This is a book that I liked and hated in equal parts. This is entirely because of the genre of book: the motorcycle romance itself. There's this weird thing with these in that they absolutely worship abuse relationships and misogyny in a way that few other genres seem to do. The hero here, who goes by the nickname of Tack, blatantly tells heroine Tyra that her opinion doesn't matter, that if she wants to leave he's just going to force her to come back, that if he sexually harasses her no one will believe her, so she'd better just put up with it. I mean...what? Whatwhatwhat?
But Ashley must be a good writer, because despite her hero being a downright scary guy (backing your "woman" up against the wall by her throat against her express wishes is not okay and I don't care what your motivation for it is) she also manages to make him incredibly sweet, and those sweet moments made me really want to like Tack. I couldn't bring myself to fully commit, because there are just so many issues with the relationship dynamic here, but I wanted to like him. And this expression of his sweet side made me hopeful that, maybe in some of Ashley's other books where bikers aren't the center of the story, the romance can be a little more, oh, I dunno, wholesome. Not that I mean it can't be hot; there's a lot of sex in this one (again, half good and half scary) and I anticipate a lot of sex in the other ones, too.
As for the plot of this book, it's mostly romance with a Russian mob subplot thrown in, which seemed a bit odd and was clearly meant to tie up things that were established in the first three books of the series (which I haven't read; you didn't need to, I feel, but it might have helped) and to bring in already-established couples. While I didn't feel that the subplot was too crazy, it did mean there was a very weird dynamic shift about 80% of the way through the book. With the first 80% being from Tyra's first person perspective, the remainder of the book spends its time jumping between various other people in third person perspectives. It's very strange and felt very different from the rest of the book, and I didn't feel like it really fit.
Overall, I'm not sure what to feel about this book. I liked it, but the thing is, I really can't feel like I can endorse the toxic relationship portrayed within; it felt like Tyra really gave up a lot of herself in order to fit in to Tack's world, and I hate it when that happens, particularly in contemporary romances--it's more understandable in historicals, I think. With all that in mind...
2 stars out of 5, but with high hopes for some of Ashley's other books.
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