Review: Rough and Dirty
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 13, 2014
The one who got away.  Do we all have one of those?  From sometime in our lives?  That one person to whom your mind drifts when your current significant other has pissed you off or isn’t paying attention to you in the way you’d like.  Wondering where they are now.  Wondering if they ever think about you the way you think about them.  It’s an awfully romantic notion that rarely actually works out.  But when it does, it’s brilliant.Ford Illuminati is a born and bred MC member, patched in from the age of 17.  He’s been throwing down and doing business for his entire life, one way or another.  Whether it’s a rough neck kid fighting his way up the ladder or as a Navy SEAL - Ford is unbreakable, untouchable and built like a Roman God.Madison Shellmound is a hot mess.  She basically raised herself because he methed out mother was too busy slinging whatever she could get her hands on to trade for more drugs.  The only good thing she ever did was bringing Ford into Madison’s life.Ford and Madison discover each other as teenagers, becoming best friends with an unspoken love growing deeper by the day until one day Madison runs.  She leaves to build a better life and Ford goes into the Navy.  When they literally run into each other again, Madison is a cardiology nurse and Ford is home after being medically discharged from service.  In that moment it’s as if the past 12 years hadn’t passed at all.  They are back right where they left off except no one’s holding back anymore.This is a crazy, rip roaring rollercoaster of a book.  Madison is made to withstand more than any human being should ever have to endure and Ford wants nothing but to keep her safe.  The story moves full throttle from the very first chapter, never letting up in its pacing or relenting in the number of hurdles thrown into character’s way.Layla Wolfe has written an often hard to read, sometimes brutally endearing, always interesting book.  I felt like I had been put through a meat grinder after having read this story.  But the characters drew me in so close that I found myself thanking them for the opportunity to emerge the other side nothing but a loose tangle of my former self.Jump in and let yourself get swept away on this rough and dirty ride.  You won’t regret it and you’ll have the memory of the journey for a long time to come.