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TinaNoir

Tina's Reading Books

Genre fiction lover:  Romance, Sci Fi, Fantasy, Mystery, Urban Fantasy

You Belong to Me

Hells Vipers: You Belong to Me - Ices Sheer, Jordan Abbott, Blushing Press

I thought I was pretty much over MC romance novels. They tend to click too many of my 'hell-to-the-no' womanist buttons what with their 'ownership' and 'property' attitude toward women for me to be able to easily enjoy them as just fiction. Additionally this is a BDSM novel so the D/s aspect adds a whole other dimension. And there were parts of the sex scenes that made me just ...um, no.  By all rights I should not be fine with this book at all.

But I enjoyed the ever loving hell out of it. I think the intensity of the main relationship, the interesting plot and the strength of the storytelling worked to offset some of my mental triggers.

The story actually follows two separate relationships: One that is just beginning and flourishes throughout the book and the other that is at the end and we witness the destructive aftermath and consequences of its ending.

Jasmine and Nuke are the main A-plot couple. Nuke is an interesting character. Intense as all hell, Alpha as all hell and crazy. He actually has psych eval to back that character trait up. But he is smart as a whip, deep as an ocean, well read, and falls in love with Jasmine in a way that the reader is never in doubt about his feelings. I should hate Nuke. But I didn't. I liked him. He puts all out there. He isn't some closed off broody hero. He says what he expects from Jasmine. He communicates.  In the pantheon of all the Alpha heroes I have read, he is actually a pretty decent person.

I also liked Jasmine but thought she wasn't as interesting as Nuke. Actually I thought she came to grips with what it meant being the 'Old Lady' of an MC way too easily for a person who was essentially a civilian with no exposure to the life outside of Sons of Anarchy. Sure she had doubts. In fact the depiction of how her early fascination/fetishization of the bad-boy biker morphed to dawning horror as the reality set in when Nuke explained what he really was during their first date was well done. She liked him, she wanted him but she throttled back realistically when he told her some truths. But that all went by the wayside after he kissed her and they got to boning.

But the author gave them an interesting, involved and intense relationship that I enjoyed reading about (hard-core BDSM sex scenes aside). You come to realize they are a great fit for each other. They seemed like a more extreme version of Kevin and Vee from the (US version) tv show Shameless.

The other couple of note in the book was Kevin and Cindy. As the book begins they are broken up because Kevin cheated on Cindy with one the hordes of females that are seen as available pussy to the bikers. Cindy is mad and bitter. A lot of the external conflict that affects Jasmine/Nuke is because of the Cindy/Kevin fallout. Jasmine is Cindy's friend and Cindy repeatedly tries to warn Jasmine that Nuke is bad news.

I loved how complex the author made Cindy. On the one hand she was eaten alive with envy as she watched her friend have the sort of relationship with Nuke that she never had with Kevin. On the other hand she actually dropped some real words of wisdom the Jasmine. The problem is that her words were always filtered through her own bitterness so it was difficult to know if she was being sincere or if she was just letting her envy talk. I think it was a bit of both.

I also got the impression that Kevin had authentic feelings for Cindy, it just wasn't in him to be faithful. And Cindy exacerbated it by criticizing the biker lifestyle.

It almost felt like a theme for the two couples was 'understand the person you are with and don't try to change them into someone else.' Jasmine and Nuke largely succeed because Jasmine embraces this concept and lets Nuke just be Nuke. Cindy and Kevin, otoh, fail because Cindy  is constantly trying to remake Kevin into something else disregarding what the club means to him and how much it is a part of his identity.

There is a larger plot about a feud between the Hells Vipers and a rival MC that acts as both a backdrop to the two relationship plots and as an element of conflict for both. The state of both relationships and the feud come to a head at the end of the book.

I thought the last scene of the book, between Kevin and Cindy, was very well constructed and ended the book just right