Win Stealing West Author Jamie Craig Disseminated As Paper Copy
this was a huge straight out of no where surprise for me!! I expected this sexy little western with one of my favorite tropes lawman and bad guy hook up.
Personal catnip for me. It was that and a helluva lot more, Wow! Won't rehash the story as many others have done that but really hooked me was the deepening relationship between Thomas and Leon and how people find their connection and their sexual needs met on such a primal level.
The movement into BDSM territory was smooth but did throw me a bit, I think one of my quibbles with this book and why I rated itinstead ofis because when I read a historical, I want to be surrounded in that time period.
I want the language, I want the people, I want the clothing everything to be grounded in that time, I didn't feel that because the language used in the book, the descriptions, etc, sounded very contemporary. Leon says at one point "yes, I'll crash here" Oh yeah! They said that in the old west! Anyway, the whole BDSM thing was so well done but the I thought was a bit over the top.
But I did really enjoy this book, The connection between Leon and Thomas and how Thomas becomes what Leon needs and the subtle movements, the changes in how they make love, just wonderfully done.
This is bookbut can definitely be read as a standalone, I also think this is the last in the series I would liked to have had an epilogue to find out how they fared in the future.
But a dirty, filthy terrific read!!!
Great book, just read in one night, Always trust these writers, instantly became my favorite book by them,
Been three years since I read this time for another go It took me a few pages to get into this book but that might have just been my mood I'm not really into the historical books but I ended up really enjoying this one.
One of the MC's was a thief so he had to overcome that stigma too, which I was able to get past, Overall, hot sex, sexy characters and an entertaining story,
This is thend book in the series the first is a m/m/f which I am not into and I did not read it I actually did not even know it existed until after I read this one however, it is not necessary to read thest one at all.
The author does a great job explaining the situation right from the beginning of this book so there was no confusion, DNF. No rating.
This is my fault and I shouldn't have bothered picking it up, It clearly markets itself as erotica and it's not trying to be anything else but MM historical western romances are very rare and I love enemiestolovers so I wanted to give this a try.
Unfortunately, it's not my thing at all,
Even though it's tagged as MM romance, historical romance and erotica, I wouldn't classify this as anything except erotica, There's very little attempt at historical authenticity with both characters talking and acting like they're living inand the authors leaving gaping plot holes everywhere like how the two men spent days chasing each other across the desert but somehow they never had to stop for sleep, water or food and their horses didn't require any rest or food either.
You could have removed the horses and oldtimey clothes and stuck the two MCs into a contemporary setting and nothing would have changed, Actually things would have made way more sense in a contemporary setting,
I also wouldn't classify this as a romance because there is none, The characters meet and they start having sex right away, That's it. There's no build up, there's no character development and the characters getting it on together made zero sense and wasn't realistic at all, I felt nothing for either MC or their socalled romance, However, a lot of this is standard in erotica, which is partly why I didn't rate this,
Another nail in the coffin is that the smut wasn't even that great, It was pretty standard but what eventually turned me off completely is how unhygienic and unpleasant the sex is, The authors did know that condoms didn't exist in the lates and people generally didn't go around with bottles of lube in their pockets.
But the authors took the approach of not including condoms or lube but they kept everything else about the smut scene the same, which didn't work for me.
For example, using precum as lube, doing very little prep and having the guy on the bottom having his pants just below his waist doesn't equal a good time IMO.
Never mind doing bareback on Dayand then having that same dangly bit getting a blow job on Day, when there was absolutely no bathing/cleaning done in between.
Not my cup of tea, Hygiene is a big issue in historical romances, which is why I expect authors to do a bit of research and use some common sense when writing smut scenes.
Lastly, the captorcaptive situation really bothered me, I tend to avoid this trope because the resulting noncon/dubcon situations make me uncomfortable, Especially because inof the cases, the author wants readers to ignore any consent issues and think the scenes are sexy, The situation was the same here and that made me uncomfortable, Their first sex scene is flat out noncon IMO and the later scenes that I read were definitely dubcon but you could make the argument for them being noncon as well.
It didn't matter that Leon found the situation sexy, He had zero input on when and how sex happened and that's not my thing, I should have known before getting into it that I'd stumble across this scenario but I was too excited to have found a historical western enemiestolovers to think more about my choice.
Anyway it's not for me but I'm happy so many people liked it, Wow Hot cowboys who know how to use their ropes, . .
I was a little surprised, its a lot of story inpages, Leon is on the run with Thomas hot on his tail, . . then he catches Leon's tail, . . lol
Its hot without being too smutty but really could have skipped the fisting, . This is exactly how you want your old school westerns to be, just a million times better because of the absolutely off the charts heat between Leon and Thomas, the two MCs in Stealing West.
This book has it all, good guys doing bad things and bad guys doing good things, the morality line is a little more skewed by the need to survive in the old west while being on the run from the law.
This is actually a sequel to Stealing Northe, the story of Leon and his partner Kenneth and how Leon came to be on his own.
Stealing West can be read as a standalone, There is enough background given, you wont be lost for not having read the first installment of the Stealing series,
Stealing West starts out with Leon, Kenneth, Kenneths new wife Amy and her son Woody on a train bound for Salinas, There is a bounty on Leon and Kenneth and Kenneths only goals are to keep Amy and Woody safe and to start on a new life living the straight and narrow.
Leon and Kenneth had been partners for years, in many ways and Kenneth looked to Leon for direction and comfort throughout all their adventures.
Now that Kenneth has a family of his own, Leon cant help but feel like an outsider and its heartbreaking to see the brave face that Leon puts on in front of his friend.
Leon decides to go for a walk through the train to clear his head and stretch his wounded ankle when he locks eyes with Thomas Grady, a bounty hunter who always gets his man.
Leon can only hope Thomas didnt see him, but knows that is probably wishful thinking, Leon makes his way back to Kenneth to warn him, and its time for them to separate, hopefully not for good, but there are no guarantees and the two say goodbye.
The plan is for Leon to create a diversion, drawing Thomas off the train at the next stop and off Kenneths trail,
Leon creates quite the distraction when the train arrives and it rivals the great escape stunts you see in the best of westerns.
Thomas isnt easy to shake though and Leon is ill prepared for the ride and the weather, Hes also still nursing a broken ankle, so the chips are stacked against him, After a few days chase through the mountains Thomas does finally catch his man and this is where the real fun begins, Leon is absolutely full of snark and I liked him a lot, Thomas is the perfect stoic straight man to Leon and their banter ratchets up the tension between them that is so fun to read.
For instance when Leon says to Thomas after Thomas accuses him of being too stubborn:
“Stubborn Me Im the picture of good manners.
I didnt knock your hat off your head when I shot at you now did I”
And, of course, there is an undeniable something between them that starts to show itself when Thomas ties Leon up for the first time.
The banter increases, the tension increases and damn if pants dont come off, One thing that Leon has never admitted, not even to Kenneth, was that his preference was undoubtedly for men, Leon and Kenneth had always stuck with the “were doing this just to relieve some tension” dance, but the encounters always meant way more to Leon and what happens between Leon and Thomas is the ultimate release for Leon.
If you dont think you are into reading BDSM books dont let that keep you from reading this one, While the story does have some of the elements, the relationship and balance that develops between Leon and Thomas really makes sense and is easy to understand.
I think what makes it so believable is that the development is a real revelation for both of them and takes them both by surprise.
Neither of them really understands what is happening between them, and its a completely fun and filthy journey reading about how they figure it all out.
Its the balance that they strike that is so appealing and you never mistake Leon for being a stereotypical sub, Reading from his point of view gives you the sense of power and release he feels, even when hes on his knees,
As the two make their way to town so that Thomas can turn Leon in to the authorities and collect his bounty, both find they arent really ready to let go.
When they reach town they hear word that there is an even bigger bounty to be had for catching Phoenix, the outlaw to end all outlaws.
Add the fact that Leon has some information on Phoenix that he may be able to use as a bargaining chip to win his release, we have hope for Leon and quite possibly and even more importantly, for Leon and Thomas.
So, on to San Francisco where more western adventures are to be had by our two MCs, Ill leave all those adventures for you to read, because this is where these two really start to get their kink on, Give these boys a hotel room, a hot bath and a little rope and dammit if that isnt the hottest bath scene I have ever read.
The. Hottest. I. Have. Ever. Read. And I may have read it repeatedly,
For all the wonderfully deliciously filthy bits in this book, what may end up surprising you is how incredibly romantic it can be too.
How the authors managed to fit that in is really well done and is completely believable for these two characters, This story has everything in it that you dont normally put together with true romance, BDSM, ridiculous amounts of rope and a distinct lack of lube, yet, with all of that, it is one of the more truly romantic books I have read.
Leon Stroud is wanted for robbery and a murder he didnt commit, On the run to California with his partnerincrime, Kenneth, he spots the relentless bounty hunter, Thomas Grady, on the train, The only way to protect Kenneth is to create a distraction, and thats what Leon does when he flees the train at the top of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
He forces Thomas to chase him, but nothing can prepare him for what it means to
be caught,
Thomas Grady always gets his man, and Leon Stroud is no exception to that rule, But almost from the moment Thomas touches Leon, he wants the outlaw for something besides his bounty, Driven by desire he doesnt understand, Thomas repeatedly claims Leons body on the long journey from Soda Springs to San Franciscoand Leon only begs for more.
An even bigger threat, with a larger bounty, could be the very thing they need to drive them together, . . or tear them apart. .stars
Barely there plot and a relationship development that was just sex with feelings coming out of nowhere, And yet, against all expectations, I really enjoyed reading this, so much so that Im tempted to round up tostars, It was probably just the right book at the right time, but sometimes that's all I need, .