On the back of His bike - Motorcycle/Biker Romance Book Club discussion

Happy Easter everyone, thank you to my friends for joining and helping this community grow. Appreciate you all. Have a great weekend.

I can't wait for the Lord have Mercy Part 3 by L.Gilley to be published. She says she'll do it ASAP, assumes it will be in a week or so.
I always make the same mistake - no matter how much I love certain authors, they do have this difficult for me to take habit of publishing the same novel in parts. I love series of standalone novels set within the same universe, and I even don't mind when the same book is published in more parts, but if you must do that, do publish all the parts with a week or two in between at most. Don't leave me hanging for months in between parts that ended on cliffhangers. Not cool. Anyway, the mistake that I mentioned that I always make - I always tell myself - this time, you're not gonna read the book till all the parts are out. Then you're going to read all of them at once and feel good about it. But then this new book by my favorite author is just sitting there on my Kindle. Calling me... And I cave. And suffer the consequences :-). So now, here I am again, Lord have Mercy, part 3. Come on, I need it, like, yesterday :-).

Oh! I so know what you mean.
I hate cliffhangers!
And sometimes if the author waits to long I lose interest.
Or if they make their other 'Parts' expensive, I'll drop it completely.

Debra wrote: "Oh! I so know what you mean.
I hate cliffhangers!
And sometimes if the author waits to long I lose interest.
Or if they make their other 'Parts' expensive, I'll drop it completely."

I hate that empty feeling of unfinished story that happens when I realize there is a cliffhanger, I go to buy the next book and realize that not only it is not already out, it's probably not the last book before the story is finished. And the author is publishing like one book every 6 months or even worse, one book a year. And I am supposed to wait for 2 or 3 years to finish the book????

Eleven wrote: "Debra wrote: "Oh! I so know what you mean.
I hate cliffhangers!
And sometimes if the author waits to long I lose interest.
Or if they make their other 'Parts' expensive, I'll drop it completely."
..."

Or they are publishing one a month in the same series with the SAME couple and the books are ALL expensive.
5 or 6 books that should have been 1 or 2 at most.
This is why it takes me a long time to read certain authors.

Debra wrote: "Eleven wrote: "Debra wrote: "Oh! I so know what you mean.
I hate cliffhangers!
And sometimes if the author waits to long I lose interest.
Or if they make their other 'Parts' expensive, I'll drop i..."

Yes, that's another publishing strategy that's hard to take. It usually makes me give up on such series. It needs to be stellar and exceptional in order to tolerate that. And even then, it still leaves bitter taste if you can clearly see that they're stretching it on purpose.

Yep.
A lot of them end up in my Not For Me shelf

Have you ever noticed how sometimes it happens that you love the first several books of certain series; up to the point that you put the series on 'buy without question' shelf, and whenever the new book appears it brightens your day, until it suddenly doesn't. You are reading part 12 or 15 of your eagerly awaited favorite series and it's just... wrong. Boring. Lame. Not what you expected. Is this even the same author? You are perplexed, and you give it a second chance, but usually the next book is also the same and you stop with the series and are left wondering what happened?

Eleven wrote: "Have you ever noticed how sometimes it happens that you love the first several books of certain series; up to the point that you put the series on 'buy without question' shelf, and whenever the new..."

Oh my yes!
1st there are trilogies that has done that to me.
One of my favorite authors, Pam Godwin has a series I love. Then she did a trilogy spin off kind of thing. Book#1 was really good. #2 drove me nuts & not in a good way. #3 was decent but really it should have been a duet.
Same thing happening with one of the books I'm reading now.
A new author to me. Loved #1. #2 pissed me off with the filler and jumpy scenes. I'm almost done with #3 & while it's better than #2 it still have way to much filler and repetition.

Now lets get to series. I love a good series.
Nalini Singh has the Guild Hunters. LOVED that series. Then suddenly it went WHACKED. Her scenes sucked and they were filled with extensive repetition. I read the next in the series & it pissed me off so bad I haven't read another in that series.
Same happened to me with J.R. Ward's BDB series.

Debra wrote: "Eleven wrote: "Have you ever noticed how sometimes it happens that you love the first several books of certain series; up to the point that you put the series on 'buy without question' shelf, and w..."

I've encountered many series like that, and while in some it seemed just like the author ran out of steam and ideas, which was kinda understandable after the book 23 or some other similarly huge number, the one that perplexed me the most was Nicole James' The Evild Dead series. I absolutely adored first 9 books, thought they were great, and then book 10, which I had great expectations of since it was about the characters that were already introduced in previous books and had huge potential, fell absolutely flat. It was like reading completely different author or different series or something. I still tried and bought next two books, still no dice, and I gave up on the series completely.

Eleven wrote: "Debra wrote: "Eleven wrote: "Have you ever noticed how sometimes it happens that you love the first several books of certain series; up to the point that you put the series on 'buy without question..."

That's exactly what happened with the Nalini Singh and J.R. Ward books. Like they were suddenly using a Ghost writer or something.
The style completely changed.
Honestly, I think that's what happens. They bring in other people to help them write & don't really check the writing before publishing.

Oh. Then there was Laurell K. Hamilton's books. I read her Anita Blake books like crazy.
Until she decided the suspense was a side and every freaking page had Anita having sex constantly with numerous people of both sexes on every freaking page. There was no story just fucking. And what little story we got had so many holes in it I finally got completely disgusted and dumped that series.

Debra wrote: "Eleven wrote: "Debra wrote: "Eleven wrote: "Have you ever noticed how sometimes it happens that you love the first several books of certain series; up to the point that you put the series on 'buy w..."

I was thinking that such sudden change could have something to do with ghost writers in some cases, but also perhaps the writers themselves changed somehow, had some drastic thing happen to them in life that could impact their writing, who knows.

Eleven wrote: "Debra wrote: "Eleven wrote: "Debra wrote: "Eleven wrote: "Have you ever noticed how sometimes it happens that you love the first several books of certain series; up to the point that you put the se..."

That's always a possibility but that type of thing usually keeps them from writing for a while. Like the case with Kresley Cole

Debra wrote: "Eleven wrote: "Debra wrote: "Eleven wrote: "Debra wrote: "Eleven wrote: "Have you ever noticed how sometimes it happens that you love the first several books of certain series; up to the point that..."

What happened to her?

Just wen to check, there was a bit longer period of time between last good Evil Dead book and the first strange one. Usually there was around nine months between the two, and between those two it was year and a half.

Just had a funny thought that could perhaps explain the thing - some people are only creative in a good way when lonely or unhappy or both. Then they fall in love or something and suddenly their art sucks. It could perhaps explain some things.

Eleven wrote: "Debra wrote: "Eleven wrote: "Debra wrote: "Eleven wrote: "Debra wrote: "Eleven wrote: "Have you ever noticed how sometimes it happens that you love the first several books of certain series; up to ..."

Her career was taking off like a meteorite!
She wrote the IAD series which is the one I was reading.
But it was her YA series that the networks wanted. The Arcane series.
So her life was getting super busy and she was working on a deal for the Arcane series to hit the networks.
She came out of an office (hers or theirs I don't know, could have even been a book signing) but as she was rushing down the sidewalk she tripped and fell.
Hit her head really badly.
BAM
She quit writing for years.
YEARS!
Everyone, including me, kept asking about her and searching any info we could get. There was NONE.
All her fans were afraid she had passed or something horrible.
There is still very little info about what happened with the accident and after.
But she finally started writing again last year.
She sent out newsletters to all her fans and she is back to writing again
BUT I don't think her Arcane series ever hit the networks.
And she doesn't write anywhere near as much as she did before her accident

Eleven wrote: "Just wen to check, there was a bit longer period of time between last good Evil Dead book and the first strange one. Usually there was around nine months between the two, and between those two it w..."

A year and a half is an extraordinarily long time!

Eleven wrote: "Just had a funny thought that could perhaps explain the thing - some people are only creative in a good way when lonely or unhappy or both. Then they fall in love or something and suddenly their ar..."

True

Debra wrote: "Eleven wrote: "Debra wrote: "Eleven wrote: "Debra wrote: "Eleven wrote: "Debra wrote: "Eleven wrote: "Have you ever noticed how sometimes it happens that you love the first several books of certain..."

That's tragic, I hate head injuries, they can be devastating.

There's one author I really like that writes biker books, Lina Andersson. She was publishing regularly and then just up and disappeared and I can't find any info on what happened. Her last book was published in 2015 and nothing since anywhere.

I hate when that happens.
And it happens more often than anyone realizes.
Since they are working with a pen name you can't find out anything about them. Cause you don't have their Real name & they haven't become big enough for their pen name to be famous.

Debra wrote: "I hate when that happens.
And it happens more often than anyone realizes.
Since they are working with a pen name you can't find out anything about them. Cause you don't have their Real name & they ..."

Exactly. I know it's stupid but it's been bugging me for years, what happened, why there's no more books from that pen name?

Eleven wrote: "Debra wrote: "I hate when that happens.
And it happens more often than anyone realizes.
Since they are working with a pen name you can't find out anything about them. Cause you don't have their Rea..."

Yep. It's one reason I actually hate Pen Names.
If you want to be a famous author then be proud of what your write.
Make the name real.

Debra wrote: "Eleven wrote: "Debra wrote: "I hate when that happens.
And it happens more often than anyone realizes.
Since they are working with a pen name you can't find out anything about them. Cause you don't..."

You got a point. Still, I can understand how it could be easier to hide behind presumed name in order to publish things. There could be many reasons - some people don't want to be famous. For some, it is easier to find courage to publish under a fake identity, it shields you from criticism in a way. Some are ashamed of publishing particularly in a romance genre. Some don't want their friends to potentially recognize themselves in the books, and some don't want their friends to be recognized in the books by others. Some want to be free(er) to discuss and publish things when it can't be connected to them and their circle.

All true.
And if their writing erotica I completely understand the pen name.
But the big writers always legally connect their pen names with their birth names
Like Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens.
The problem is mostly Indie writers who don't connect their names legally.
Oh, and make numerous pen names for different reasons.
So many authors have way to many pen names!

Debra wrote: "All true.
And if their writing erotica I completely understand the pen name.
But the big writers always legally connect their pen names with their birth names
Like Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens.
The p..."

Yes, I can understand having one pet name, perhaps maybe two (if you're for example writing erotica and children's books) but as I understand there are authors out there with 30 or more pen names, almost a new one for each unsuccessful book they have, which is just crazy. One good thing Amazon does is limits a number of pen names for a single author to I think 3, but I think that if you write to them and ask you can have up to 7. And there are authors who complain that's not enough. Then they end up deleting some pen names in order to create new ones.

Yup.
And that's just ridiculous.
If your books suck it doesn't matter how many names you create.
Their still going to suck and the reviews will say so.

Debra wrote: "Yup.
And that's just ridiculous.
If your books suck it doesn't matter how many names you create.
Their still going to suck and the reviews will say so."

I think they're just seduced by the idea of a clean slate and fresh start. You know, the old "this time I'm gonna do better" that a lot of us wish they could get in life. Unfortunately, most times we end up repeating the same old mistakes :-).

True!

Not biker, but this looks like a great giveaway
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Fantastic story.
Murder. Death. Ghost. Suspense.

Do you prefer the biker clubs in your favorite books to be outlaw, or more of a weekend warriors type who do all by the book except certain vigilante activities to spice things up?
That is, do you approve of somebody who's into some real shady things as your main character? Where do you draw the line?

Personally, I prefer reading about fictional outlaws. If I wanted good ol' boys, I'd be reading about small town heroes, firefighters and football players. That being said, if the books are well written, I'll read about all legal clubs too and enjoy it.

What I really like is a club that everyone thinks is 1%ers
BUT
They actually have an agenda.
One series I read, can't remember which.
The club was taking out bad guys. Rapist etc.
But they had a Rep for being suspected of being 1%ers.
They dealt behind the scenes with human traffickers etc.
That said, when they got hold of the Really bad guys, they tortured and killed them. Buried the bodies.
Some they took care of other ways all depending on who what where why etc.

Finally got Lord have Mercy part 3!
Now the only thing that's spoiling my joy is that I know the end will be in part 4 (again the agony of waiting).

Read it. Well. It was fun while it lasted but it was also kinda surprising and not entirely in a good way.
First, the author repeated one major plot twist from the previous parts, on the other character, only that this second event was completely without any logical sense (at least to me).
Second, found two (admittedly not major) logical errors in the book, which surprised me since it never happens to this author. Which, in fact, is a praise not a criticism, considering the sheer amount of her books I've read.
But, now it's over, and of course, on a major cliffhanger, and the wait continues for the final part. I can just hope it comes before i bite my fingernails to the quick :-).

Eleven wrote: "Read it. Well. It was fun while it lasted but it was also kinda surprising and not entirely in a good way.
First, the author repeated one major plot twist from the previous parts, on the other char..."

Glad you enjoyed it for the most part.
Sorry your back to the fingernail biting 🤣
Books that are done in 'Parts' drive me crazy and normally I don't like them.
Though on occasion I end up reading them
I'll start off liking it then end up being to frustrated to continue.
Or aggravated that it would have been a Hell of a lot better in LESS BOOKS

Debra wrote: "Eleven wrote: "Read it. Well. It was fun while it lasted but it was also kinda surprising and not entirely in a good way.
First, the author repeated one major plot twist from the previous parts, on..."

Exactly. That's why I don't do parts as a rule either. But, the situation with this author is a bit specific - she has this habit of publishing some of her books (not all of them) in three or four parts and then later on publishing the whole book put together. When I discovered the author, she already had all those "parts books" published as a whole, and I've read them like that, no issues. Then I got hooked and bought several of her books she published next (thankfully, they were not in parts). So this is in fact the first one for me like this. And since I'm already hooked, and since I haven't expected it when I bought part one that it will be in parts (or I'd wait till she publishes all the parts before starting to read in the first place), I am where I am now. Nail biting competition :-). In fact, I don't mind that much if authors split their books in parts - tho it often decreases the value of the story if they drag it out on purpose - but what I'd love is if they put it in a blurb straight away, something like, this is book one and there will be 2 or 3 more parts. Then when the last part comes out, they should put that it is the last part and I could go on and read. I had the most annoying thing happen to me with Autumn Jones Lake - another author with the similar story - she publishes in parts but I've read most of her books when all the parts were already out and now that I'm buying her new books, I'm trying to collect all the parts before starting to read. Anyway, she usually has two parts. So I waited with one book after buying the first part. Second one came out (and it was a long wait since she usually has 6 months between the books) and I was all happy, congratulated myself on being patient and waiting so I can read the book in peace, went to read part one, then part two, all the while expecting the conclusion of the story, and then it turns out that there's a part three. It was like nooooo, now I have to wait six months again till I finish it anyway. I. Was. Pissed.

Btw, I don't actually bite my nails, never did, just a figure of speech :-).
I used to be a nervous hair twirler instead :-D. Trained myself out of it tho, when I noticed my hair falling out.

Eleven wrote: "Debra wrote: "Eleven wrote: "Read it. Well. It was fun while it lasted but it was also kinda surprising and not entirely in a good way.
First, the author repeated one major plot twist from the prev..."

Omg! That totally SUCKS!

Eleven wrote: "Btw, I don't actually bite my nails, never did, just a figure of speech :-).
I used to be a nervous hair twirler instead :-D. Trained myself out of it tho, when I noticed my hair falling out."

🤣🤣🤣

Had this random thought - that all the books that aren't romance or erotica are a lie. You have them describing how a guy falls for a woman, his thoughts when he for example meets her, he thinks how beautiful she is and how attracted he is to her, and never once the poor guy pops a boner. They don't have to describe what they do behind closed doors (although I personally find that a great fault) but come on, don't lie to us. There's no way all those men in all the books never had one single hard-on that intruded on their thought process. What do you guys think?

(Wanted to make poll out of it, but turns out you can't post polls in 'We're here for the polls' if you're not a mod... Let's hope Misty posts it for me :-)).

Either way, I think reading all the biker romance and dark romance and similar books spoiled me. I used to be able to read almost anything, and now if there's no sex and murder or at least some torture in it, it's boring...

Eleven wrote: "Had this random thought - that all the books that aren't romance or erotica are a lie. You have them describing how a guy falls for a woman, his thoughts when he for example meets her, he thinks ho..."

Did you mention it to Misty?

Debra wrote: "Eleven wrote: "Had this random thought - that all the books that aren't romance or erotica are a lie. You have them describing how a guy falls for a woman, his thoughts when he for example meets he..."

Yup. She's considering how to form the question, perhaps we'll see the poll, who knows. I completely understand why she forbade others from posting polls, since it's kind of the topic of her group and she had problems with some persistent spammers.

Eleven wrote: "Debra wrote: "Eleven wrote: "Had this random thought - that all the books that aren't romance or erotica are a lie. You have them describing how a guy falls for a woman, his thoughts when he for ex..."

I love her polls.
They often make me laugh my ass off.
I wouldn't enjoy it as much if I was bombarded by numerous polls from others.

Debra wrote: "Eleven wrote: "Debra wrote: "Eleven wrote: "Had this random thought - that all the books that aren't romance or erotica are a lie. You have them describing how a guy falls for a woman, his thoughts..."

Exactly. That's why she's right to not allow them.
She gets the best poll ideas. Love her group.

Well, the members have chosen - if there's any authors in the group, take notice - if we check the results of our last two polls, most of us would like to read a forced proximity situation between a tattoo artist biker and a good girl (lawyer, teacher or a doctor). Sounds like an excellent book to me, must admit. Any takers?

Or do you already know of a book featuring this particular combination?

Heya folks. Thought this to be the best place to connect. It's been a bit of a slow start to may with some issues going on at home ( possible gas leak) & I'm catching up on reading posts & starting our reads now.

I started reading pen pal knowing the ending & have still enjoyed it despite putting it down for months. It's an intense book. I loved the Primal/Prey scene in it.

Nola wrote: "Heya folks. Thought this to be the best place to connect. It's been a bit of a slow start to may with some issues going on at home ( possible gas leak) & I'm catching up on reading posts & starting..."

Gas leak? That sounds dangerous. Good thing you caught it on time. How did you detect it?