Tag: LGBTGIA western romance

Review: Long Winter (Wild One’s #1) by Rachel Ember

Rating: 3.25🌈

I heard about this book and thought it sounded interesting so I picked it up. Plus I’m always looking for new authors and I love a western romance.

What I found was a novel that held a lot of promise. The story was interesting and the author’s writing was well done. Her descriptions, especially when it came to certain character.dynamics, was realistic and relatable.

But I feel the author undermines her story and her characters relationship development by the consistent yet uneven flashbacks inserted into the current storyline. Just as a reader starts getting invested in Robbie and Lance’s reunion and developing relationship, we are pulled immediately away from them into a flashback. Could be anytime frame, from when they were in grade school to teenagers, the flashbacks themselves are all over the place.

While it serves to fill in gaps in their background and tumultuous childhoods, basically all it does is disconnect us from the present and everything that’s starting to evolve there.

A simple “ remember when….” would have sufficed and not broken the narrative flow half as much as the herky jerky format the author proceeds with throughout this book.

There’s some very charming moments here. Those with the calf are adorable and realistic. Also the character of Robbie’s ex wife is lovely. Well defined and compassionate.

Had this book stayed in the present most of the time, I believe we would feel better and more importantly more deeply connected to everyone involved.

The other “half “ of this series or two parter for this couple is Signs of Spring. Hopefully the flashbacks are over and we can stay in the present. Then the other stories focus on the other Chase brothers.

I’m curious to see how much the format continues so I’m onto the next.

I do like the story but found the format took me out of the narrative too often to stay connected. The author has still done a lovely job with her characters and descriptions.

Check it out for yourself!

https://www.goodreads.com › showLong Winter (Wild Ones #1) by Rachel Ember – Goodreads

Wild Ones Duet:

✓ Long Winter #1

◦ Signs of Spring #2

◦ Burning Season #3

◦ As the Tallgrass Grows #4

Synopsis:

A complicated history divides them, but when they find themselves in close quarters while the snow falls, the heat between them builds slowly, and burns hot.

It’s been a long, cold winter at Riverside Ranch, where Robbie has lived alone since his brothers moved away. Alone, that is, except for his three devious cats, four saddle horses, and the forty-eight mustangs that roam the ranch.

Robbie is preparing for yet another snowfall when he gets the last call he expected—a plea to pick up Lance Taylor from the county jail.

Lance wasn’t just his little brother’s best friend, he was a part of the family. Then, one night, after Lance asked Robbie for something Robbie couldn’t give, he ran away and never came back.

Lance was sixteen and heartbroken when he left his middle-of-nowhere hometown. Six years later, he’s at rock bottom with nowhere else to go, and no one to turn to but Robbie, the man Lance has been inconveniently in love with for most of his life.

When Robbie offers Lance a place to stay, Lance expects a guest bedroom and awkward silences. Instead, he finds himself sharing Robbie’s one-room hayloft apartment and its single bed, while realizing that the old flame he carries for Robbie might not be so hopeless, after all.

Long Winter is the first book in the Wild Ones series and has a happy-for-now ending. Robbie and Lance’s story continues in Signs of Spring, to be released March 12, 2021.

Review: Hell and Gone by Tal Bauer

Rating: 5 🌈

I’m thrilled to see Tal Bauer branching out into the western genre. Hell and Gone is the second western novel I’ve read of his. The first being the terrific Never Stay Gone, the beginning of his new Texas Rangers series.

Prior to these stories, it was Bauer’s excellent espionage or political thrillers I knew him by.

But extending his world of law enforcement characters to include those branches of western police such as Stock Detectives, Range Detectives, and Brand Inspectors is not only exciting but in an age where cattle rustling is close to a multi million dollar business, a section of criminal activity rarely covered outside of historic novels. As the author himself tells us these officers can be called upon to assist federal, state and local agencies investigations or arrests. No matter what they may be for.

And the American west covers a lot of territory.

Here it’s a section of Montana and a mountain range known as the Crazies. Bauer’s writing has never been finer or emotionally deep when describing the wildness of this land and the soul deep hold it has on the men here. The gritty harshness of ranch life high in the Crazies that runs along side the Incredible wild beauty of the mountains speaks to the reader on every page.

The men are tough, hard, filled with pain. Torn by life, damaged, filled with rage , and yet still capable of great sweetness.

Everett Dawson is one shut down man until he arrives at his new assignment, his first as a Stock Detective. His background, his damage, come through in trickles, pulled from him by his case and the one man demanding Everett look beyond the easy answers everyone else is giving him.

That’s the amazing character of Lawrence Jackson. All fire, rage, competence, and sheer belief in himself and his knowledge of the land, Law burns off the page, igniting the story and Everett’s case.

It’s a matter of conflagration!

The investigation is scary, tumultuous and one long white knuckle horse back ride. It’s so suspenseful that you literally find yourself holding your breath.

There’s violence, high action, murder , and a fantastic resolution.

Law and Everett make an outstanding, fascinating couple. One I’d love to see made into a series with Stock Detective as the focus agency.

Hope Bauer is listening.

In the meantime, what a marvelous exciting new tale, full of rarely explored sectors of law enforcement and amazing descriptions of a pristine area of Montana.

I’m highly recommending Hell and Gone by Tal Bauer. Don’t miss it or the author!

https://www.goodreads.com › showHell and Gone by Tal Bauer – Goodreads

Synopsis:

One hanged man.
Two vanished cowboys.
Three hundred missing cattle.
The Crazy Mountains are devouring everything they see.


Everett Dawson, Montana’s newest Stock Detective, has been sent from Helena down to the Crazy Mountains. Cattle are going missing in the Crazies and Everett is charged with finding these modern-day rustlers and bringing them in.

When he arrives, he finds a hanged cowboy and a heap of questions. Was it suicide or was it murder? Why are cowboys fleeing the Crazies? Far from a simple investigation, Everett’s case plunges deep into the mountains’ dark past.

Lawrence Jackson, the bad boy who runs the Lazy Twenty Two, was the last man to see the dead cowboy alive. There’s a whole forest fire of smoke swirling around Lawrence, and where there’s smoke, there’s flame… and maybe even murder.

But Everett is drawn to Lawrence, and if he takes the risk Lawrence offers, will Everett find what he craves, or will the Crazies claim their next victim?