Rating: 4.5š
Soft Place to Fall is a heartbreaker of a book. Full of a broken partnership , a past of broken dreams and broken promises, and a mother who is being shattered by that most Insidious of diseases, Alzheimerās, this story is one guaranteed to have you sobbing.
Often.
Itās so well written that the pain and sheer exhaustion pouring off Stetson Major as heās watching his mama rapidly decline tears at you. You feel every bit of his feelings and the fact that thereās very little left for Stetson to give, heās done in.
Thatās where the call goes out to his ex partner, the man his mama is calling for, to please come. And rodeo rider Curtis Traynor does.
What a story. One of reconciliations, of loss, grief, forgiveness, love, and the journey back to home and each other.
The men are strong characters and you absolutely feel the incredible loving pull they have for each other. Itās also easy to see how, in their youth, their stubbornness and goals drove them apart.
The woman dying of Alzheimerās is difficult element as sheās so realistically portrayed. Muddled one moment, clear headed another, and then wild, anger filled, and needing to be restrained the next. If you havenāt experienced this, count yourself lucky. Itās often a very hard read. As it should be.
Thatās balanced by the two men now , years later, still as deeply in love as they ever were, picking their way back to each other over obstacles still strewn across the path as it was years ago.
I was so emotionally connected to these men and their romance I didnāt even notice the pages flying by.
The only thing that kept this from an absolute 5 star rating was that I thought it wrapped up too quickly for everything that had gone on before.
I was still happy for them and us at the end.
If you love cowboys and want a heartwarming love story, look no further. Grab up Soft Place To Fall and a box or two of tissues and settle in for a marvelous read.
Itās one I highly recommend.
Synopsis:
Stetson Major and Curtis Traynor are about as opposite as two cowboys can get. Stetson is a rancher, tied to the land he loves in Taos, New Mexico, while Curtis is a rodeo cowboy whose wanderlust never could be tamed. But now Stetsonās momma is dying of Alzheimerās, and she can’t remember that Curtis hasn’t been Stetson’s boyfriend for a long time. Curtis’s absence makes her cry, so Stetson swallows his pride and calls his ex-lover. To Curtis, Stetson is the one who got away, the love of his life. And Momma is his friend, so heās happy to help out. Yet returning to the ranch stirs up all sorts of feelings that, while buried, never really went away. Still, the rodeo nationals are coming up, and Curtis canāt stayāeven if heās starting to want to, especially to support Stetson when he needs it most. Stetson and Curtis want to find a place where they both fit, to be there to catch each other when they fall. But family, money problems, and the call of the rodeo circuit might end their second-chance romance before it even gets started.
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 