My Review: Garron Park (From Nothing #1): by Nordika Night

Total Star Rating: 4 Stars

𝑴𝒚 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒖𝒓𝒕 𝒉𝒊𝒎. 𝑴𝒚 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒎. 𝑴𝒚 𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕-𝒖𝒑 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒎.“

– Nordika Night, “Garron Park”

What It’s About:

The official synopsis:

Garron Park, where hope dies and no one ever gets ahead. Until… __

When Devon Sawyer desperately searches for his brother in the middle of the night, beaten and broken, he finds Maddox Kane instead. With his dad on his trail, he has no choice but to stand on his enemy’s doorstep and let Maddox help. Maddox has never seen Devon this vulnerable. Living in Garron’s trailer park means families dole out discipline on the regular and violence is a part of life, but something about how far Jim Sawyer takes it this time has Maddox unnerved. Rivals in motocross, work, and life itself, they’re forced to work together for one night. Perspectives change and their friction morphs into something unexpected. Hatred turns to lust. Tensions switch from hostile to aroused. While their competitiveness remains, their dynamic shifts. Their acceptance is anything but graceful. Two guys who come from nothing, with very little to look forward to, find themselves craving each other in new and fiery ways.

GARRON PARK is book one (1) of two (2) in the From Nothing series. Potential to expand later, but for now remains a duology. They must be read in order as book 2 is a continuation of book 1 featuring the same main characters. It is an MM romance with explicit spicy times, foul language, and two main guys who are pretty down on their luck.

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This was another MM romance title that has been on my radar for quite some time, and thanks to the urging of some bookish ladies who dubbed it as “required reading” I finally ripped off the bandaid and started this book.

It was very enjoyable! I love a good rivals-to-lovers storyline, and we definitely get that here. Devon and Maddox supposedly can’t STAND each other and throw fists and ask questions next, and are constantly at each other’s throats all over that dirt track where they race on the back of their bikes.

Then one night things don’t necessarily change, but rather begins a shift between the two of them. Devon unexpectedly appears at Maddox’s front door, looking more worse for wear than usual…like he should’ve gone to a hospital instead in all honesty. But the rivals reluctantly work together and mend him back to health, well as best as two motocross racers in a small trailer in a trailer park can do? BUT, the main thing about this is after spending the night together taking care of Devon and nursing him, there’s definitely a shift that occurs between them, like a mutual “….why are you so hot all of a sudden?” going on in their heads.

They begin to come to terms with their obvious attraction to each other as best as two trailer park motocross racers who cuss and get into fights out of boredom can do. it’s both rough and kind of cute at the same time!

BUT when they begin to act on the temptation and the lust with all the growing sexual tension that builds, woahhhh boy, enjoy that ride like I know they do *wink*wink.*

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What I Liked:

1. How “Rough” Devon and Maddox Get With Each Other! Okay this one is weird because normally with how much these two get into fistfights with each other and how they show affection by bloodying each other up, you’d think it’s absolutely abusive and toxic….. however, you read this story and start to realize it actually works for them? It’s kind of hard to explain and it may not make sense unless you read the book yourself and experience it for yourself.
2. The Spice! There’s some bi/gay awakening spicy moments in here as Devon and Maddox explore their feelings–and each others bodies–and it gets HOT
3. The Brothers Pushing Them Together! I love how Xavi and Nate, the older brothers of the two MMC’s, are the BIGGEST shippers of them getting together and even make a forced proximity moment for them at one point too. In such a particular setting, it was cool to see this gay relationship get support instead of the opposite…honestly you’d expect a trailer park in the south to not be the most accepting place for this sort of thing.

What I Didn’t Like:

1. Some of the Angst/Arguing Felt Very Childish…Devon and Maddox are supposed to be in their mid 20’s, but with the arguments they get into and all the way they pout and don’t want to talk about their relationship/feelings and wimp out of that conversation as much as they can…it just made me feel like they were 14 still handling puberty instead full grown adults. Sure they were dealing with the fact that they were attracted to another man for the first time, but seriously some of this stuff was so eyeroll worthy.
2. I Wish There Was More Actual Motocross in the Story… I absolutely loved the Disney Channel movie “Motocrossed” and this book made me nostalgic for that movie IMMENSELY. What I loved about that movie is how heavily the sport itself had to do with the plot of the movie, and it makes an appearance or a few in this book, but I was disappointed how much it didn’t actually. Hopefully book two has way more actual Motocross sequences to make up for it!

Conclusion:

Overall, this was an insanely enjoyable MM romance title! It was unorthodox and rough around the edges, which is also perfectly how I’d also describe the relationship between Maddox and Devon. Two guys down on their luck who somehow find each other in what so many would consider a hopeless place…

The arguing and miscommunication might be a turnoff for some, but I was able to overlook it all for this book and still enjoy it either way! Hopefully any sports romance/MM romance fans who want to try this will do the same!

Thanks for reading!

— Nick Goodsell