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Naomi's Reviews > It Ain't Me, Babe

It Ain't Me, Babe by Tillie Cole
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it was amazing
bookshelves: badass-bikers, tattooed-and-pierced, alpha-males, mes-coups-de-coeur
Read 2 times. Last read February 1, 2019 to February 2, 2019.

I am blown away. It Ain’t Me, Babe was such a surprising and amazing book. It was my first book by Tillie Cole and I am not disappointed. I was not expecting this kind of read, intense, heartbreaking, devastating, fun, beautiful, sexy… It was so much more than just a simple biker book, so much more. I am speechless.

I’ve read that book in one sitting, I could not stop, I was hooked from page one and I wish it could have been longer. Mae and Styx were just perfect together, I absolutely loved their relationship. How deeply he cared for her, how she affected him and how he affected her. This is not a book for everyone, the subjects are quite hard and, oh my god, at times I wanted to yell at how unfair and terrible life can be for some people.

Salome or Mae was raised in a commune, under Prophet David’s rule. Extremists religious people, fucked up in the head. Really fucked up. Completely fucked up. She endured terrible terrible things that no one, especially not a little girl, should endure, ever. And knowing that those kinds of things exist in real life makes me wanna puke. At 8, she met a boy, across the fence that keeps her in the commune, she met River/Styx, a boy who couldn’t talk and who, in the minutes he stayed with her, cared for her like nobody else ever had. She never forgot him and he never forgot her, the chick with the wolf eyes. Now, fifteen years later, Styx is the President of the Hangmen, a motorcycle club, he does not talk, he just can’t. He only can with his best friend, Ky, and once upon a time, he briefly talked with the girl across the fence. After discovering something devastating, Mae finally decides to escape her commune. She cannot take it any longer, she wants to be free. She does escape but she’s badly injured and finds herself crumpling near a compound. Styx then finds her and this is when their story begins.

What an emotional story. I loved everything about this book. The author wrote a powerful story, she made it real, painfully real but it was worth it. Mae is such a strong heroine, sure she’s completely naïve at the beginning, she doesn’t even know what a motorbike is, but she has a strong will, especially with her past. She was confined in her commune, she thinks everyone on the outside is evil but I loved that she wasn’t too judgmental. She was scared shitless of the bikers at the beginning but then she looked deeper than the bad looks and I loved that about her, she didn’t judge them, she was thankful for them, and she was perfect with Styx. Styx is a complex character, he can’t really speak and he’s tough. He’s not afraid to hurt people and he doesn’t lie about what he does. But he was completely different with Mae, he remembers her, she stayed with him during all these years and finding her again is a sign for him. He will not let her go.

How adorably perfect were they?! They were different, but they understood each other, they were made for each other. Their relationship evolved like it should have, not too fast, not too slow. Mae has a past, she has issues, Styx has issues of his own but I loved how Tillie wrote their story. There is no cheating, not too much drama, not too much sex. For me, it was perfect. It was not easy at the beginning, obviously, but it was necessary for them to go through that, after, it was great, they were strong together, they made each other better.

The entire story was interesting, not just Mae and Styx. It was much deeper than that, the club is at war, there is a rat, we see how it was in the commune for Mae throughout flashbacks, Mae has two other “sisters” still there and she wants them free and the secondary characters were amazing. I absolutely loved Beauty and Letti, Ky, the psycho trio, especially Flame (okay, I admit, he is a fucked up crazy motherfucker but how can I not love him?! I want to read his story with Maddie! That should be interesting…) and the rest of the club members. I loathed, completely hated the Prophet, and the brothers, they disgusted me, I’m so glad they finished like they did, they just deserved worst.

Anyway, this book was interesting, powerful, beautiful, it will surprise you, it will shock you, it will make you cry, but it will also make you melt, it will make you laugh and smile and it will make you hot!!! Seriously, do not miss it. If you like bikers books, you will love this one. Like I already said, it’s so much more than a simple MC book and it’s impossible not to love the characters and the story. Tillie is a great writer, I truly enjoyed her writing style, it was all very well structured and written.
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Reading Progress

January 1, 2014 – Started Reading
January 1, 2014 – Finished Reading
November 6, 2014 – Shelved
November 6, 2014 – Shelved as: badass-bikers
November 6, 2014 – Shelved as: tattooed-and-pierced
November 7, 2014 – Shelved as: alpha-males
November 7, 2014 – Shelved as: mes-coups-de-coeur
February 1, 2019 – Started Reading
February 2, 2019 – Finished Reading

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