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Bareback
by Chris Owen
| List Price: |
$15.95 |
| Price: |
$10.85 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. |
| You Save: |
$5.10 (31%) |
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Paperback
Publisher: Torquere Press
Jake Taggart’s life was almost perfect--he’d worked hard to overcome his past, and he loved his job as foreman on a ranch in Arkansas. The only thorn in his side was a dark eyed cowboy named Tornado whose stubborn attitude brought frustration and confusion to Jake’s mostly happy existence. A late spring rainstorm brings out hidden passions and unleashes a chain of events neither of them expected--and eventually brings about events that threaten to destroy them and what they worked to create. Strong wills and forceful personalities make for intense encounters.... but is it enough to keep love alive?
| Customer Reviews: |
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| Gay Cowboys, WOW |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I read this book several years ago and I was immediately hooked on M/M romances with cowboys in the starring roles. Bareback is just as fresh today as the first time I read it in 2003, and Chris Owen has become one of my favourite authors since then.
The story is not very complicated. Jake Taggart is the foreman on a ranch in Arkansas and loves his job and its challenges except for one cowboy with an attitude, Tornado, who took every opportunity to torment him, until one day a thunderstorm and a mud fight made them realize that what was simmering underneath the surface was not anger, but a different type of raging emotion - lust. As they make out in the mud and rain (and this is only page 16) I could feel the emotion driving these two characters, neither one giving an inch in their game of oneupmanship. The sex was raw and unrestrained as they ripped their clothes off to get naked in the shortest possible time and I knew that this was going to be one helluva book and it was - it exceeded all of my expectations.
The teasing and the sex were so incredibly hot I thought that the book would go up in flames. These two characters were tough, uncompromising hell-raisers but soft where it counted, with each other. They were probably two of the most memorable characters that I ever fell in love with and they made each other work for every wonderful moment in their relationship. Tor's and Jake's relationship was rocky at best but clearly they loved each other. After hanging around they decided to try commitment and it worked ... for a while; they even considered themselves married and everything seemed to be going fine for our two guys but, of course, true love never runs smoothly and there is always a serpent in the Garden of Eden. Jake had a pretty horrific past and that helped to define the man he had become and how he dealt with issues like trust which was in short supply and hard to earn. His faith and belief in Tor was put to the severest test when Tor committed the ultimate act of betrayal of their love and marriage and Jake could not deal and totally fell apart.
What I like about this author is that she is real. In this book she did not create two perfect characters who were totally unrealistic. She made them imperfect like the rest of us with flaws that caused significant problems in their relationship. Some readers and reviewers have been very outspoken about the major plot point in the story - Tor's infidelity - and a few of them have crapped all over the book because they personally don't approve of cheating and all the sex in the book. I'm not giving away any secrets because this book has been around long enough and everything has been revealed, but most reviwers seem to forget that M/M romance is about gay men, some of whom don't play by society's rules for the most part where sex is concerned, and the characters do what many gay men and some het men and women do, they play around and sometimes they get caught.
Chris Owen handled this difficult situation in a way that was realistic and she demonstrated how difficult Jake found it to forgive Tor as well as the major personal toll Tor's infidelity took on both of them. It was not easy for either man to swallow his pride - one to ask for forgiveness and the other to grant it. This is such a powerful book about the human condition and how we as people always manage to screw up despite good intentions.
There were wonderful supporting characters as well to round out the story - Elias, a very complicated cowboy who never said much; the Big Boss, who was tough but had a very soft core; Missy, his daughter, who was a little brat and was always trying to get into Tor's pants and sought revenge when he wouldn't play; and a whole lot of other personalities who made this still the best cowboy book I have read to date.
This is one terrific story and I highly recommend it to any fan of the genre who is not turned off by a cheating spouse either in real life or in the fantasy world of books.
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| If you like cheating jerks, this is the book for you. |
| Customer Rating: 2 out of 5 |
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The first half of this book is wonderful. I loved the story of Tor and Jake, up until Tor cheats on Jake. That's where the book lost me.
4 years together and then wham. Jake wasn't "communicating" with Tor, so it turned him away. Uh uh, I'm not buying that story. He was horny and didn't think.
I'm sorry I wasted the money on this book. It would have been great.
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| ...Wow... |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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This was my first read by Chris Owen but it won't be my last. I wasn't so sure about this book at first because the first half was basically gay porn. Since I'm a woman I thought this just wasn't for me but I hate not to finish something I start so I forged on. Thank God I did! The relationship between Tor and Jake took me through so many emotions I was a wreck by the end of the book. Their connection was so intense, and Owen pulles you in so deep, that when they went through their heartbreak you felt it right along with them. I damn near cried twice and I'm not the teary kind. I finished this book over a week ago and I still can't get it out of my head. It's that intense. I didn't really like Broke Back Mountain because who wants to go through all that boredom (too much sheep hearding) just to have a sad ending. This is the book that should have been made into a movie. It was ten times better!
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| A well-done story arc carries the sex |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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This was recommended to me as a good way to write a story about a relationship breaking up and coming back together across a long time period. It does come across as cleverly constructed in that respect, despite some sloppy or non-existent editing.
I suspect the author set out to write a potboiler, found he liked his characters, and then started to actually wrap a story line around them. This made for some false starts and oddities in the book. At one point I got lost (WHO is this guy???)and had reread to find a minor character mentioned early and then passed by until he reappeared much later as a focus point. One straight character keeps playing as bi-curious but the author never initiates him. Some other characters are introduced but never developed to their potential.
The dialogue was solid, without the gay-queen descriptions of irrelevant clothing details, cock size, etc. that some books have in abundance. The sex was believeable although the tolerance of some of the straights was not. I've never encountered straight men who could tolerate being where they see and hear gay sex acts frequently.
Overall, an interesting, mostly believable story line with some nice structure to the writing. If poor editing bugs you, you'll be only slightly annoyed -- not enough to lay the book on the trash heap.
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| A Mixed bag |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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I love cowboys and hot gay sex. However, this is a novel torn between a love story with a plot and a porn novel. It never really reaches either point. The plot is pretty flat and gets lost between the sex and the sex isn't raunchy enough to be flat out porn. I would have wished for a more complex story with a few good hot love scenes than what is presented. I would love a story on par with Brokeback Mountain with its emotional range and feeling that has some good sex in it.
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