Review: Delightful
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 9, 2014
Reviewed by Pat Henshawfor TheRomanceReviews.comFrom California to New York City, two scions of a powerful motorcycle gang realize they are outcasts because of their love for one another.This fourth book in the Guards of Folsom series begins in the small town of Chatom, California, where Gunner Cain, son of the leader of the Crimson 8 motorcycle gang, gets a TEK-9 as a birthday gift from his best friend Jamie Ryan for his eighteenth birthday and changes his name to Tek.Since they've been together nearly since birth, Tek and Jamie share gang experiences as other children share playground antics. Although the Crimson 8 don't traffic in drugs any longer, they still defend their territory and are hard, violent men backed up by strong, sassy women.But once Tek and Jamie kiss, they realize they are different from everyone in the gang because they are gay, and gays are definitely not tolerated in the group. As they ponder their options, they get more and more involved in gang activities, including murder.Unable to reconcile their love for each other and the disdain of the group members towards gays, they steal some of the Crimson 8 funds and head to New York and a new, free life. There Tek gets a job as bouncer at the Guards of Folsom, a BDSM club, and the two from gangland California get an education about some of the possibilities in an alternative lifestyle.Both Tek and Jamie are wonderfully charming characters whose rough gang lifestyle and soft hearts make them memorable and fun to read about. That they know a better life awaits them outside the gang and they pursue that better life make them all too human.What is odd, however, is how long it takes them to finally admit that they are gay. True, the gang's dissing of homosexuals and homosexuality and their allegiance to the gang make it difficult to admit the truth, but these guys are nothing if not blunt about everything else around them. So admitting that they are attracted to one another shouldn't be as hard as they make it.Also strange is how naive they are about gay sex. For all the wanton sex surrounding them, one would think that both Tek and Jamie would be a little curious about what happens between two men and use the Internet to satisfy their curiosity. Yet at every step they are surprised and seemingly blindsided.Still, SJD Peterson's signature style eases over these pesky considerations, and ROPED is a delightful addition to the Guards of Folsom series.