Archives

Planting His Dream by Andrew Grey (4 Stars)

May29

They were each other’s first best friend and first love. Can they overcome life’s obstacles to find happiness together?

Foster has worked hard on the family farm his entire life, but he dreams of finding a different path. Those dreams come to an end after his father passes away suddenly. At first, he feels an obligation to take care of the farm for the benefit of his Mom and Grandmother. But as time goes by, he realizes how much he belongs there. Javi and his family travel from farm to farm working for barely enough to survive. His alcoholic father makes the entire situation worse, forcing Javi to stay with his family to protect his younger siblings. His only real joy comes from working with Foster on the farm, but that only lasts a few weeks before he has to move on to the next place.

Foster and Javi both felt locked into their situations due to family obligations. As time went by, they discovered that they actually enjoyed working on the farm, especially when they did it together. It was nice watching these two sweet people become friends, fall in love, and look for a way to find a future with each other.

The amount of time spent on the ins and outs of farming was a bit much for my tastes, but for the most part it was quite a learning experience. Although I really enjoyed the business side of the farm, it was hard to watch Javi struggle to make ends meet.

A sweet romance about first loves and finding joy in making a living on a farm.

cover

Originally reviewed for The Romance Reviews. Complimentary copy provided by author/publisher for an honest review.
Book Blurb

Winter Ball by Amy Lane (4 Stars)

Mar17

A lovely winter treat with two friends realizing they were truly meant for each other.

Skip (Christopher) Keith is a nice but very lonely guy who didn’t have a great childhood and now doesn’t have any family. Fortunately, he coaches his recreational soccer league and has a small group of friends because of it. He’s known his best friend, Richie Scoggins, since they went to tech school together. Skip is great at calming Richie down, and Richie makes sure Skip enjoys life. Richie works for his dad’s junkyard, but he doesn’t really have a great life either. His dad’s new wife and step-brothers make life challenging for Richie, but misplaced loyalty to his dad keeps him working there.

One night, Skip and Richie get carried away while in a car and the results completely change their relationship. Now they have to figure out whether this can be permanent or not. Neither had been with another guy before, and coming out to their family and friends could definitely have negative consequences. The majority of the story was built around Skip and Richie getting to know each other better even though they were already really good friends. This included plenty of sex, but also plenty of conversations. There was plenty of drama with Richie’s family and some fun with Skip’s job providing tech support.

It was a sweet story with relatively low angst for this author. I shed a few happy tears when these two recognized their love for each other with some heartfelt comments.

cover

Originally reviewed for The Romance Reviews. Complimentary copy provided by author/publisher for an honest review.
Book Blurb

Too Stupid to Live (Romancelandia #1) by Anne Tenino (4 Stars)

Mar3

An enjoyable story about a relationship between two people who seemed unlikely to get along.

Sam is a very sweet young man who is also a huge reader of romance stories. He tends to relate a lot of things in his personal life to how it would happen in a typical romance. Hence the title, “Too Stupid To Live”, is one of his common thoughts about activities taking place around him. He is also a fairly happy person with an enjoyable personality and a supportive group of friends and family. Ian, on the other hand, was a troubled young man. After an accident left him unable to continue as a fireman, and a family that clearly didn’t support the fact that he was gay, he decided to move to a new town. He realized that he lacked common emotional social skills and was actively trying to improve himself. He would have been an unlikable character except that we got to hear what was going on in his head. It was very apparent that he cared deeply for Sam and was just horrible at expressing himself. I enjoyed his therapy sessions where he exposed his deeper thoughts and fears.

The plot moved along nicely, the dialog was witty and enjoyable, and the sex scenes were very steamy and slightly kinky. It took quite a bit of time for them to move from just having sex to having a relationship. I think if that had happened sooner, and we could have enjoyed their relationship longer, it would have been an amazing book.

cover
Book Blurb

Whistle Blower by Dev Bentham (5 Stars)

Feb24

Two lonely men discover friendship and love even though they fight it all the way.

Ben lost his husband, the love of his life, after 25 wonderful years together. For the past two years, he’s been living his lonely life running an outdoor adventure resort with his sister-in-law, Miriam.

Jacob is finally a junior partner at his law firm. He worked so hard to get to this point, but it was to the detriment of all of his relationships. He’s never been in love, but he’s finally starting to think it was a mistake not to share his life with somebody else. When he discovers that one of the other partners might be engaging in shady activities, he decides to investigate. He ends up at Ben’s resort, and the instant attraction between the two of them is the beginning of a lovely relationship.

Ben brings a lot of history and memories of his husband into the new relationship with Jacob. Ben had been with his husband for 25 years, all of Ben’s reflections are positive without any regrets, and Jacob is never seen as a replacement. For these reasons, it never bothered me that Ben spent a lot of time thinking of the past. I really enjoyed watching the two of them enjoy being with each other over the months that the story takes place. They made a beautiful couple, and it came through in their thoughts and actions.

The investigation of the potentially corrupt partner gave Ben and Jacob reasons to see each other. Since both of them were fighting the idea of spending their lives together for understandable reasons, it was great for them to have an excuse for bonding time.

I really enjoyed this beautiful romance between two mature men who had to learn how to move forward with their lives.

cover

Originally reviewed for The Romance Reviews. Complimentary copy provided by author/publisher for an honest review.
Book Blurb