Good story

Nowhere near as dark and depraved as the rest of the series.
Good story about coming out/secret love.
step brothers who both secretly love the other.
MC is never the place for gays... ha!! except them and move on.
K A Merikan writes awesome dark and gritty stories.
Wyatt Barker does a great job narrating the dark and depraved. Love his voice.
Waiting Patiently for the last books in this series...
well worth the credit and your time to listen..

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Only wish the ride was longer!

Long story short:
Wow! Just wow! Definitely one of my favorites from K.A. Merikan.





Long story long:
***SPOILERS RUN AWAY***




Last chance... Spoilers.

Merikan does it again with their compelling characters, gritty backdrop, and diverse character perspectives. Forcing the reader to see the world in shades of gray.

Perhaps the best part of this book is the character Jed. Jed is a fascinating combination of violence and deep sensitivity. A duality forged through years of trying to alter oneself.
I loved the way Jed's perspective was presented from a lgbtq+ perspective.

As a member of the lgbtq+ community, it was nice to see a character who was gay, but who had been living as a straight person and had been having sex with people of the opposite gender.

In books and media, gay people are often portrayed as being physically unable to have sex with the opposite gender (like it's some kind of physical impossibility or something?). The reality is not every person in the lgbtq+ community knows their sexual orientation from birth, or is in a position to do something about it.
In the book when Jed comes out to someone they say:"What? But I've seen you having sex with a woman before?!"
It was nice to see this perspective in a book. Thank you for writing it!

I only wish it was longer, or that it had a sequel with these two characters. I feel that there was more to explore with their life and the story wrapped up just a bit too quickly. But overall a wonderful read.

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A little bit Taboo

Wyatt Baker narration of One Step Too Close was entertaining. His delivery was upbeat and passionate. He sounded like he was having fun .

One Step Too Close is book six in the twelve book series Sex & Mayhem ; of those twelve , eight have been released in audio , thus far. I have listened and enjoyed them all.

I am a KA Merikan audiobook junkie . I love their unique brand of stories and storytelling. That said, I didn't love One Step Too Close. I liked it but I was expecting to be deliriously happy as with all others.

Why? Few things , among were the plot and many storylines; they weren't as tight and cohesive as with their other books and some went nowhere. They were introduced - in my opinion- forgotten and others illogically resolved. It took me a bit to warm up to Jed and Ryder, the MC . Jed , a 25 years old , was so impulsive and immature that it was difficult to connect with him . Ryder , I liked better though found him to be a difficult character to understand. Disliked all the side characters .

What I liked was the hot and I mean HOT AF sexy times. It had me burning up , in the most delicious way. I also liked how protective and caring Ryder was with Jed.

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It's...okay

I have to say, I’ve mostly kept away from this book for so long because the taboo aspect of their relationship did not interest me at all. But having just listened to the audiobook for the Guns n’ Boys book, Swamp Blood, that introduces Jed and Ryder, I thought I’d give it a shot.

Content notes include relationship between stepbrothers although not related by blood, mentions of a MC trying to have sex with a teenager, depression, suicidal thoughts, a suicide attempt, homomisia, misogyny, blackmail, violence, and dismemberment.

If you were searching for an actual stepbrothers type romance after finding out the truth about Dom and Seth’s relationship in Guns n’ Boys, this is the book for you. Jed and Ryder are part of a motorcycle club known as the Coffin Nails. While a lot of the books in this series takes place in the Detroit or California chapters, this story takes place in Louisiana.

Ryder’s father had been in a brief relationship with Jed’s mother back in the day when Ryder and Jed were kids, but one day Jed’s mother left him with Ryder and his dad and that was that. Ryder’s father, Axe, took Jed in and raised them Ryder and Jed as brothers. So while there’s no actual blood shared between them, they are stepbrothers and still feels ever slightly still taboo. Not usually my thing, but the authors have a way of making me read out if of my comfort zone.

While this book is meant to be able to standalone, I think there are parts of this book that might make more sense if you’ve been following along with the Guns n’ Boys series up to book 4. It just makes more sense as to WHY the story starts out with Jed in a fake relationship with Dana, because she’s blackmailing Jed for something he did at the beginning of Swamp Blood and why she’s staying with the Coffin Nails for the year. This book certainly answered some of MY questions about what happens to Dana before we see her again in the other series.

So, I don’t know. There’s definitely overlap where one story helps fill in gaps with the other. While there’s some overlaps throughout this entire Sex and Mayhem series with the Guns n’ Boys one, this book in particular has a more significant story and character crossover.

I people who just see Dana appear in this series don’t like her because her motivations are unclear or muddy at best, but I like her! It’s just that Jed had the unfortunate luck to meet Seth and Dom while trying to record himself having sex with a teenager and then got stuck with Dana. Jed, for his part, highly HIGHLY regrets trying to have get a blowjob from a teenager.

I thing I wasn’t expecting was for how DARK this book is. Like, exceptionally darker when it comes to the homophobia. Jed is intensely depressed because of the situation he finds himself in with Dana and the fact that he’s gay and in love with someone he considers his brother. He is seconds away from killing himself and the whole thing is just…a lot. This book is very intense and everything works out FINE and everyone is OKAY, but if you need to step away, do that and take care of yourself. Because this book doesn’t shy away from the intensity of that build up and that moment is maybe too much.

I thought the whole relationship between Jed and Ryder was just okay. Obviously, they can’t let people know about them. So, it’s kind of bittersweet. The story doesn’t really have any other characters from the Coffin Nails showing up since Louisiana isn’t one of the usual Coffin Nails chapters. I kind of wished they crossed paths with Grim at some point? Since Grim really the most likely character they would come across based on the ending.

The audiobook for this was fine, but a little jarring. Having listened to the first 4 audiobooks for the Guns n’ Boys series first and narrated also by Wyatt Baker, I didn’t realize this was narrated before those? So Dana definitely sticks out as sounding the most different between the series if you’re listening to them back-to-back.

The book is…fine. We meet Toro. We figure out what happens to Dana. We get closure on the whole Jed and Ryder tension. I think this is best read as a spin-off for those reading the Guns n’ Boys series, and not necessarily for those who are trying to only read just the Sex and Mayhem books.

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Great Audio

Jed and Ryder are step brothers and brothers in arms at the Coffin Nails Motorcycle Club.

Jed finds himself in trouble,  blackmailed and vastly unhappy with the situation he's found himself in.

This is an intense, dramatic, semi taboo story that was sweet at times but also tough and harsh at other times. A story about family, strength and trust.

The narrator did a great job. The inflections in his voice allowed me to get a really good feel for the characters.

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Steamy 🔥

This was a steamy and sexy step brother's romance

Wyatt Baker's voice had just the right amount of roughness that gave the characters more personality

The characters were complex and scorched the sheets!

This is definitely my favorite book in the series

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I Liked It

I enjoyed listening to this installment in the Sex & Mayhem series. I am a huge fan of the authors and like their storytelling style with dark twists and the edge. One Step Too Close is a bit more realistic than usual for romance stories. The relationship between Ryder and Jed was hot and intense, reactions by their MC brothers to Jed's sexuality was very real life like. I enjoyed following romance grow between Jed and Ryder and how it helped Jed heal from the pain and inspired Ryder's character development. Narrator did a good job with character's voices and the story, his voice was a perfect fit with the mood of the book and personalities of main characters. Overall this was a good listening experience.

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Ryder and Jed

This was so good. If you enoy a good MC book with lots of twists and interesting characters then this is a most listen. The storyline was amazing with lots of adventure and interesting plot twists. The characters are soo intriguing and I couldn’t stop listening. The narration was great. Love this author.

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Love this book!

One Step Too Close - Coffin Nails MC Louisiana is Book 6 in the Sex & Mayhem series. I love this series and this book might be my favorite with one of my favorite tropes... stepbrothers. Jed loves being in the MC, especially with his stepbrother Ryder. But Jed is having a major problem being himself around so much homophobia. He can't come out, he's being blackmailed by his so called girlfriend, and he just wants all the pain to go away. Thankfully Ryder was following Jed on the night he wanted to end it all. I love how Ryder took control and was open with Jed. They really do work well together and them being together might not go over very well with the others in the club, but they are much happier living their true selves and making the club a place everyone can be proud of. I love these authors and I know when I read/listen to one of their books an adventure is waiting.
Narrator Wyatt Baker does another marvelous job in this series. 

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Expect the Unexpected

I feel like I say the same thing when KA Merikan and Wyatt Baker collaborate on a audio book, which is that the performance and story are excellent. This book was deals with some things that could be very triggering for some but they’re real life issues that should be talked about. Great from start to finish.

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