Reluctant Renegade by Garrett Leigh
July 12, 2023- Fox Love Press
LGBTQ+ Contemporary Romance

Review by Kate H.

When I saw that the 5th book in the Rebel King’s series was coming out so soon after the 4th, I was a little bit nervous.  But I guess some people are just that talented.  Reluctant Renegade is the love story of Decoy and Folk, both former British military, but very different men.  Unbeknownst to the rest of the Rebel Kings MC, they had met briefly during their service in the Middle East – for an ill-fated hookup that never made it past a very memorable kiss.  Years later, Folk became a Rebel King brother after the dismantling of his previous motorcycle club, the Crows, and the death of its leader, his best friend.  Both an insider now and an outsider, he becomes a vital partner to the Russian born Alexei, doing the dirty work necessary to keep the club safe.  

Alexei is such a great character in this series and it is “fun” to have him in this book so frequently. Decoy found his family in the MC, having grown up institutionalized and bunking off to the military at the young age of 16.  The Rebel Kings MC gave him both purpose and found family. But he also has a lovely daughter and an ex-wife. After finally having won partial custody, his wife has been fighting dirty. Decoy is always careful to be involved only in the club’s legitimate business, but his ex-wife doesn’t focus on that, instead undermining him in other ways. Rubi, the Rebel Kings’ Road Captain, suggests that Decoy should have a fake boyfriend, Folk.  Decoy’s lawyer had suggested that being in a relationship, gay or straight, would look good to a judge.

It is at this point that the needle scratched for me for a second.  Now, I understand that some readers get tired of the evil ex-girlfriend/ex-wife trope, and I get it.  I especially don’t like it when it is unmotivated – just convenient for making us side with the guy and his choices.  I didn’t feel that here for several reasons, but your mileage may vary.  No, the reason I paused and leapt out of the fictional universe for a second was because the idea that a family court judge would smile upon a relationship between two men in a motorcycle club seemed positively utopian.  As Scully always said on The X-Files, “I want to believe.”  As a justification for a fake relationship, it seemed a little flimsy.  Happily, I found that that trope – which is becoming my least favorite – faded into the background of the novel fairly quickly. And who doesn’t like a little bit of utopia in their fiction?

As a couple, Decoy and Folk are quite yummy and there is a lot of cute daughter time too.  I thought the tension between what Folk could tell Decoy and what he couldn’t because he wanted to protect him and his daughter was a moving part of their relationship.  Like the other novels in this series, there is some action and violence.  Enough to remind us that, as much as it is their goal, these guys aren’t shipping building materials and singing kumbaya quite yet.

CW: misogynistic language, killing, war hostage situation in the past, verbal abuse, addiction, mental health

Grade: A-