Ker Dukey has written several books that I really enjoy. She has given us Rage, which is actually her second entry into the RBMC world. The first one is Animal. You don’t have to have read Animal to understand this one, but I highly recommend it. This is the story of Gabe, AKA Rage, and Willa.
We first meet Willa as a 15 year old girl. Her brother, Milo, is trying to be a big deal, a drug dealer, underworld crime lord kind of thing. But he kinda isn’t smart, he’s definitely obsessive when it comes to Willa, and he’s definitely fucked up. He’s willing to do things or to make Willa do things that aren’t OK in any way, shape, or form. Including selling his little sister’s virginity for the money for a bar.
We skip ahead a few years, and Willa is now an adult, and her brother has gotten into serious money trouble and owes the Little Rock chapter of the RBMC a lot of money. When they come to collect, Willa offers to be collaterol for her brother. The guys who came didn’t agree with it, but one of them, Gabe, took her anyway.
Gabe and his best friend Jameson have left the Army and they are just waiting for their reserve time to run down. Once it does, they are going to prospect for the RBMC. For right now, they are running errands and providing muscle. When they walk into the bar and Gabe sees Willa, there’s just something about her that draws him to her. He wants to save her, but it goes beyond that.
You know, I know that life isn’t fair in any way, but damn, these two really get the shit end of the stick. I mean, damn. Their story really hurt my heart and I really wanted things to be so much better for them.
There are a lot of time jumps in between the chapters. Sometimes it’s a couple of weeks, sometimes it’s years. I think it works really well in this case. I wouldn’t like it in all books, but it needs it here. It lets you see the growth and evolution of the characters without having to slog through months and months and years.
It is a pretty quick read, and once I got into it, I didn’t get out of it. I would really like to see more of Willa and Gabe/Rage.
No spoilers today. Go check it out!
In Between the Pages 
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