The Highwayman Came Riding

I have somewhat mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, Elias and Augustus are usually sweet together. I like the fact that they are both inexperienced and they learn together. I didn't like the fact that one of the sex scenes turned into some strange, undiscussed BDSM thing. One of the men told the other to stay quiet and if he spoke, he'd stop. Then he proceeded to spank the other. Yeah... I don't know where that came from but it sure was uncomfortable.

Which is kind of a running theme: uncomfortable. There is something of a love triangle in here and one of the guys - thankfully not the real love interest - is a rapist. Okay, so he doesn't TECHNICALLY rape anyone, (if, that is, you're one of those people that only thinks rape is penetration - which I'm not) but he at least sexually assaults the main guy and doesn't stop when he's told to stop. (It's only through outside intervention that he doesn't rape the other.) And that's something else: A big deal is made of Elias wanting to be independent, but he's set up as a victim often. First he is robbed of, literally, the clothes off his back and walks naked through town. Three times. He goes to a man that, he admits, frightens him, to have sex with him so the man will quit holding his sister under house arrest/as bait.

His father beats him and ‘he can't see it coming' because HE'S BLIND. Yeah. Seriously, that little detail is not mentioned anywhere in the synopsis - which is very misleading in and of itself. I do like the banter, but it's a lot cruder than I was expecting. In fact, the entire book is cruder than I was expecting. There's little plot and what's there only crops up in the last twenty percent. It feels like plotlines were just dropped. At times the writing feels jumpy in a way I can't really describe. (I think it's a side effect of skipping so much time.)

Huh. Maybe I don't have as mixed feelings about this book as I thought I did. It don't earn a one star because when Elias and Augustus are cute, they are CUTE and because the first half made me laugh like crazy more than once.