Earning the Cut (Riding the Line, #1)

by Jayna Vixen

[Angie]

Motorcycle club romance is a genre that I'm just getting into and had some definite hits and misses with. Earning the Cut sounded like it would be an interesting read, since it shows how Dax got into the MC in the first place and probably what drove the love interests apart before they're reunited in the main series. Well, what I got was a story that was super awkward to read because the tone simply doesn't match what was happening on the page. It also read more like explicit Young Adult for the most part rather than New Adult, which is also a bit awkward.

The main problem with Earning the Cut was that the voice sounds super young. This may have to do with the first chapter being about Dax when he was just six years old, and then just continuing with a similar tone. Most of it takes place when he's seventeen, but it never sounded like it was New Adult or even Young Adult. It just felt young, almost like a Middle Grade book about teenagers (complete with an animal rescue that makes all of Dax's dreams come true!), with sex and swearing. Like I said, awkward. The dialogue also didn't feel authentic; more like what an adult thinks teenagers sound like.

Earning the Cut was just weird. It probably would have worked out better if it had been from Dax's first person POV rather than third person. Or maybe, it would have been worse, since his inner dialogues were off too. I like the idea of seeing how someone joins a MC, and I liked how Dax and Trish parted, but this introduction doesn't make me want to keep reading even though I have the next book.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.