Eight Seconds by Barrie Abalard

Story: 7.5
Presentation: 9
Total: 16.5
Publisher: eXcessica
Contemporary Erotica, Gay, Romantic Suspense, Cowboy
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Blurb: Ex-bareback rider and part-time songwriter Cam “The Professor” Chester rides pick-up for Philadelphia area rodeos—and rides the men he picks up in Philly’s gay bars. Hated by other rodeo folks, he’s alone in the showers one night when someone knocks him out.

Barebacker, bisexual Wyatt Knott has never met anyone like Cam and is instantly drawn to him. After Wyatt finds Cam unconscious on the shower floor, he goes home with the man to tend to his wound. Before you can say, “Ride ‘em, cowboy,” the two have sweaty, grasping sex in Cam’s recliner.

When Cam reports his attack in the showers to the rodeo’s owner, Shep Walton, Walton tells him nothing can be done because Cam doesn’t have any idea who hit him, and there were no witnesses. But by reporting the assault to Walton, Cam sets in motion a chain of events that will leave him drugged and bound in a chair, Wyatt standing next to him, with someone holding a revolver on them both.

EIGHT SECONDS, the length of time a barebacker must stay on his bronco, weaves the story of two men who’ve never been in love, yet find themselves unable to dismiss their passionate sex as a casual thing.

Review: Many aspects of this story were the perfect elements for a hot, m/m cowboy ride. I totally get into romances where one of the characters falls hard and is finally willing to take major risks for love. The sex was hot, the characters developed, and the story unfolded at a pretty good clip. The romantic suspense aspects of the story were a bit predictable, but that didn’t detract from the relationship building and for me a romance, (even a raunchy highly sexed tumble into love) is why I read. Was the drama a bit over the top, yeah, for me it was. Sometimes less is more (not with sex, so no worries there. The story has plenty of heat) but the angst and hate pushed a little too far for me. (Not that I don’t believe hatred exists in the world.) When all the elements are measured against each other, this is definitely a book worth picking up. An entertained story with plenty of toe curling heat.  Good, worth reading. A book you don’t want to put down.