TEST
Before starting this Megan Crane’s Make You Burn, I suspected that I didn’t like motorcycle club romances. Now that I’ve finished it, I know for sure that I don’t, because if I did, this is a book I would love.
Sophie Lombard’s father – ‘Priest’ – led New Orleans’s Deacons of Bourbon Street motorcycle club, but despite not being allowed any role in the club, Sophie’s been running the businesses that let the club go legit. Now, Priest is dead, and four men he sent away under questionable circumstances are coming back to the city to take over the club. First is Ajax, the former vice-president, who is surprised to discover that the off-limits daughter of his club president is the woman in nipple pasties and gold booty shorts that he lusted after on his bike ride back into town.
Ajax appeals to Sophie, too, in a wildly chemical way that is a problem for a woman who wants out of club life – or at least is telling herself she does. Her love of a good bike, her comfort with club rules and rituals, and her own dedication to the club’s Bourbon Street territory make her exit not as natural as she’d like it to be, even before her lust for Ajax comes into play. Their chemistry is terrific, and Crane amps up the tension by incorporating Sophie and Ajax’s power struggle into their bedroom lives as well. Ajax is a very aggressive, take-charge, confident alpha hero and Sophie a woman refusing to be his doormat. These intimate, raw sex scenes are definitely the strongest part of the book.
For a book that was written to be sexually explicit and deal with motorcycle tropes, Make You Burn has an unexpectedly touching exploration of grief, as Sophie and Ajax work through the sudden loss of a father or father figure. Knowing what a motorcycle accident can do to a body, Sophie freezes at going to the morgue to make the identification, and Ajax performs that task for her. It’s moments like these which highlight how a ‘protector’ alpha male can be more than just a chest-thumping caveman.
But yeah, there’s a lot of chest-thumping. This book taught me that for me, at least, the motorcycle club ‘thing’ doesn’t sit well. Club culture misogyny is a huge reason for that. Despite running the businesses, Sophie isn’t even allowed in the bar office, and Priest’s will is predictably devastating (and Ajax’s reaction is disappointing). Ajax criticizes Sophie for having the nerve to speak an opinion about club business in front of other men. There are throwaway groupies giving pathetic blowjobs to bikers watching TV while Sophie minds her manners sitting at another club’s bar. Sophie will always come second to the club for Ajax, and while that seems to be okay with her, it wasn’t what I wanted in a romantic ending.
Even if you want hypermasculine alpha heroes, the motorcycle club manifestation of it is kind of… juvenile? Spies, SEALs, knights, etc. have missions beyond starting fights and making a lot of noise in residential areas. The Deacons have a clubhouse, and hazing rituals, and drinking, and turf, and honestly I liked Ajax less every time the author reminded me that the pinnacle of his purpose in life was loyalty to an overgrown frat. I couldn’t help thinking he’d seem rather pathetic next to, say, a doctor or a teacher. That being said, I acknowledge that it’s not the book’s fault that I ended up in a setting that doesn’t work for me.
I do think it’s legitimate to complain that the novel leaves tons of loose ends for the other books in the series. We don’t learn what happened to Priest, or what’s going to happen with the rival club. I don’t mind a book where the core arc is the characters’ relationship, but starting and then not concluding these other threads was frustrating.
Although she’s been writing for years, Megan Crane is a new-to-me author. I’m delighted that she has a backlist I can get into, and even more delighted that the rest of her books aren’t all about motorcycles!
Buy it at: Amazon
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Grade: B
Book Type: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality: Hot
Review Date: 17/03/20
Publication Date: 08/2015
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
I'm a history geek and educator, and I've lived in five different countries in North America, Asia, and Europe. In addition to the usual subgenres, I'm partial to YA, Sci-fi/Fantasy, and graphic novels. I love to cook.
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I’ve tried one MC book once and never picked another.
I just can’t accept that grown up people have “hobbies” or “lifestyles” that enable them to mistreat others in such an obvious way for, in my opinion, really silly reasons. Like Caroline said “I couldn’t help thinking he’d seem rather pathetic next to, say, a doctor or a teacher. “, the characters in these types of books don’t seem to be people I’d like to be friends with and I keep thinking they could still have the club and the meetings, the love for bikes but the so-called rituals or laws (usually so unfair and illegal) are unnecessary.
I can’t do MC books either. The misogyny, the frequent violence, and for me personally the loss of my brother in a motorcycle accident just leave zero appeal in these stories. I’m glad others enjoy the books, but in real life bikes are loud and dangerous machines that put people’s lives (and brains) at serious risk.
Totally support what you say, KesterGayle. My very first job was working in a large orthopaedic practice in LA in the 1970s. I saw dreadful injuries from MC accidents that still make me shudder. Those were the pre-helmet law days so some injuties included terrible head injuries including a death by decapitation when a bike went under the rear of a semi . You can imagine how traumatised his pillion passenger was along with his 2 comminuted compound fractured femurs. And when I was in high school a classmate was on his bike with his GF riding pillion when they were in a crash and both lost their right legs above the knee. This is a sub-genre I will never touch. Afraid I just don’t “get it”. :-(
It seems like we all, as readers, have books/genres that we can ignore “reality” and those we can’t. I don’t give a rat’s bum if there are too many Dukes or if the inheritance rules are misconstrued, but I don’t like MC romances for the reasons youall have cited. Husband is a craniofacial surgeon. They’re deadly. #differentstrokes
I read this book when it first came out and I started checking out Megan Crane after it as well. I thought this was by far the best in the series with the other participating author’s contributions of various quality. Ajax (clearly inspired by Jax of Sons of Anarchy fame) was a very attractive “alpha hole” but some of the club related stuff was pretty infuriating.
If you are interested in reading well written yet gritty books about MC’s that are well researched I would recommend Joanna Wylde. I prefer some of her books to others but she does handle women’s agency in relation to the clubs very well and she gets her information directly from women associated with the MCs as I have read. As a general guide, the younger the guy is in her books the less of a jerk I have found him to be. Which makes a certain sort of sense as they would be from a different generation than the 30 something to 40- something guys.
If you want to read more escapist MC books then definitely try the one that started the whole MC romance craze- Kristen Ashley’s Motorcycle Man. I still stand by it for sheer entertainment factor. There’s definitely some laughs to be had and the initial situation she sets up in the first chapter kept me flipping pages to see how it will all work out. It’s crazysauce, but it’s fun crazysauce IMHO.
What works for me in HP – uber alfa men, innocent naive women, massive angst, over the top drama, lost babies and big misunderstandings galore (and billionaires) – only works in HP for me.
I regularly enjoy Caitlin Crews HP, but have tried Megan Crane a few times, and cannot get into them. The men are just too much, and the heroines seem to enjoy something that to me is already abuse.
(MC only works in erotica for me, where my suspension of belief is kind of a given, in most cases)
“MC only works in erotica for me, where my suspension of belief is kind of a given, in most cases.” I haven’t read any MC, but I totally get what you’re saying. There are definitely situations and character archetypes I am far more comfortable with in erotica than romance. For me, I can definitely put up with gangsters in gangster stories and/or erotica, but not in romance.
I just can’t get into motorcycle stories. Every since I found out–duh–that those engines don’t have to be THAT loud, that loudness is a choice, I’m resentful of the bikes and thus books about those who love them!
For some reason I find this so funny, I have seen a lot of people list reasons why they absolutely cannot do MC romances but yours is by far the most original! You do you! Lol
I’ve never read a motorcycle story in any genre, and I’m not particularly eager to do so. But I have a funny anecdote your comment brought to mind for some reason. I walked by one of those manicure/pedicure places, and it was FILLED with nothing but bikers- men and women totally decked out in leather- getting their fingernails and toenails done. I suppose everyone has to clip their nails at some point, but I can’t get the image out of my head of these tough looking real life characters sitting so prim and proper while getting their manis and pedis. :)
On the subject of bikes, you might be more interested in this fascinating ongoing SF anthology series all about the other kinds of bikes (i.e. bicycles). Bikes in Space is a burgeoning genre (or at least it’s trying to be) of feminist bicycle science fiction. Here’s the link for anyone who’s interested: http://takingthelane.com/bikes-in-space/. I’ve read a couple of their books, and they’re actually pretty good. I remember at least one of the stories containing elements of SF romance, although it’s been so long I can’t remember which volume it was in.
Just in case you don’t know this, Megan Crane is also Caitlin Crews, who has a similarly large back-catalog and continues to publish prolifically through the Harlequin Presents and Dare lines. She excels at the angsty drama beloved of HP fans (like me). She’s very good with the opposites-attract trope and showing how two characters who appear to have nothing in common really have connections they didn’t suspect.
As for motorcycle club/gang romances, I too am not a fan, with the exception of Kati Wilde’s Hellfire Riders series (which includes a totally bad-ass, patched-in female club officer). They’re not angels, but they don’t treat women like dirt. One day, Kati will finally publish LOSING IT ALL, the next in the series and the story I’ve been waiting for for four years.
Jill Sorenson wrote two very good (but, take warning, very gritty and rough) MC romances, RIDING DIRTY and SHOOTING DIRTY. It seemed as if a couple of secondary characters were being set up for their own future stories, but then Sorenson (alas!) stopped publishing.
Thanks for the tip! I didn’t know this. I am glad to have another name to try in my library ebook apps, since this was the only Megan Crane they had.