Long, Hard Ride by Keta Diablo

Story 9.5
Presentation 9
Total: 18.5
Publisher: Decadent Publishing
m/m Civil War historical
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Blurb: Grayson Drake has been sent by a covert spy agency from the South to break Marx Wellbourne out of Elmira Prison at all costs.

Ordered to return Wellbourne to Richmond so the Confederate Army can pick his brain about the maps he's memorized, Gray soon discovers Marx is courting death from malaria and pneumonia. To complicate matters further, the decadent, gorgeous Wellbourne is none other than the same man he coveted from afar four years ago in a Charleston brothel.

Pursued by the villainous warden of the prison, Major Britton Darkmore, nothing is as it seems when intrigue, suspense and raw passion collide on the long, hard ride back to Richmond.

Review: In true Keta style, Long, Hard Ride delivers raw emotion between gritty characters.

The opening had me intrigued and then the tension began to build. This is one of those stories that twists your gut into knots. The angst, the passion, the betrayal. And when you want the easy solution because the characters have been through so much getting together, that is the moment when the story becomes special because an easy ending wouldn’t have left my heart open and bleeding for Grey and Marx. I felt the longing, the desperation, and the bitter acceptance that the world was changing and so had they. The historical flavor of the story was detailed and descriptive. A turbulent time and Keta painted a picture that had my heart breaking.

The sex was passionate and at times desperate. It all came together perfectly making this one of my favorite stories from Keta Diablo. A must read for lovers of gay historical romance with substance, high risk tension, suspense and heart pounding sex.