Country StrongRating: 3.5 stars
Buy Link:
Amazon | All Romance
Length: Novella

Wyatt has always wanted to own a horse. With just three months left on a lease-to-own agreement on a special quarter horse named General, a clap of thunder spooks the horse, throwing Wyatt. Kellen, a friend of the stable owner, calls for medical attention and Wyatt is treated for a concussion and a broken wrist.

Wyatt returns to the stable to find that, Allen, the stable owner has sold General to Kellen for retraining. Kellen tells Wyatt he can visit General whenever he wants, but Kellen’s stable is an hour away from Wyatt’s apartment in the city. Since Wyatt thinks Kellen is easy on the eyes, and he wants to see General, he makes the drive. As Wyatt falls for Kellen, he feels betrayed when he overhears that Kellen has no intention of returning General to Allen once he has been trained.

This story is told from Wyatt’s POV and we only get to see what he sees or what he shares with us. He’s a pretty lonely guy, works from home in an IT job, and spends whatever time he can at the stables per his lease agreement for General. He is really invested and emotionally attached to General and is counting down the days until he owns him.

When Wyatt first sees Kellen, he has an instant attraction and wants to take him to bed. But what it is about Kellen that is so attractive to Wyatt, and, likewise, what attracts Kellen to Wyatt in return, we don’t really get to see. There is not a lot of character development and we don’t really get to know the MCs.

When Wyatt first goes to visit Kellen, we learn there is a 21-year age difference between them. This age difference is not a developed aspect of the story line, however. When Kellen first kisses Wyatt, Wyatt is immediately looking for Kellen’s bedroom. Kellen tells him he likes to get to know people before he shares his bed with them. When Kellen sees Wyatt at Allen’s stable a few days later, Kellen pulls him into the restroom for a private kiss and Wyatt immediately drops his pants. Kellen again tells him he wants to wait. This all just lacked heat and emotion and illustrated Wyatt’s neediness. All Kellen needed, however, was for Wyatt to come over for one proper date and apparently then he knew him well enough.

Kellen is fairly set in his ways. There is an issue with his pet snake that he keeps in his bedroom. Kellen makes no concessions to make Wyatt feel comfortable. Their first night together, all the right words were said, and the right actions were taken, but there is no emotional attachment to the characters and it all read in a clinical manner. Wyatt is extremely uncomfortable and awkward after the fact.

Wyatt’s lease agreement and then the purchase of General by Kellen were not well played. After several years of Wyatt leasing General, he has only a verbal agreement with Allen. Kellen buys General outright with the agreement to train him. There was some talk about him then selling the horse back to Allen, and then General would once again be closer to Wyatt. It was never clear why Allen didn’t just pay Kellen to retrain the horse. When Allen demands that Kellen sell General back, Kellen refuses. Wyatt overhears the conversation, jumps to all kinds of conclusions, feels betrayed again, and refuses to speak to Kellen.

If you ask me if you should read this book, I would say that there are many other books out there with a true western cowboy feel that have heat, well developed characters, and better developed storylines. When I was finished with this book, that’s it, I was finished with it. Unfortunately, there was nothing drawing me back to want more of these characters and nothing that made enough of an impact to be memorable.

A review copy of this book was provided by Dreamspinner Press.

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