Rating: 4.25 stars
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Length: Novel


Sheriff Casey Barlow, ranch foreman Will Rice, and hockey player Scott Edison are a loving threesome, but they keep their relationship a secret. For any of them, coming out could be potentially disastrous for their career, and things are particularly precarious right now for both Casey and Scott. Casey is up for re-election and his chances aren’t looking good. While he’s a great sheriff and takes his job seriously, a flashy newcomer is looking likely to take the election happening in a couple of days. For Scott, he is on the verge of being called up to the NHL from his minor league team, and with no out gay players in the NHL, coming out is basically impossible. But even though the men don’t like living in the closet, they have a wonderful bond and a great life together.

Will is foreman on Graham and Annmarie Slater’s cattle ranch and the older couple are like family to him. When they are killed in a hit and run, Will is devastated. Not only did he lose the people who were surrogate parents to him, Will knows that he may be out of both a home and a job depending on what happens to the ranch. Even worse, it appears that the Slater’s death wasn’t an accident. The more Casey looks into the hit-and-run, the more it appears that someone may have intentionally run the couple off the road. The investigation is causing stress for both Will and Casey, made even worse by the fact that Scott’s travel makes it hard for him to be there for his men when they need him.

As Casey digs more into the car crash, things become even more complicated for the men. Will is still hurting, as well as trying to find his way forward on the ranch with the Slaters gone. Scott is dealing with his hockey career and what his professional choices mean for his relationship with Will and Casey. And Casey is trying to solve the case, while not letting his personal life interfere with bringing the culprits to justice. Life is stressful for all three men, but fortunately, the love they have for one another is enough to help them through even the toughest of times.

A sheriff, a hockey player, and a ranch foreman walk into a bar… It sounds like a set up for a joke, but amusingly enough, a bar is where all these men met. But despite a story featuring three very different characters, Kaje Harper makes Changes Coming Down work quite well. I just loved Will, Casey, and Scott, and was totally caught up in their story.

Harper makes an interesting choice here in starting this story with the men already in an established relationship. The book opens as the main conflicts are hitting them — uncertainly about whether Casey will be re-elected, Scott potentially moving up to the NHL, and the car accident that kills the Slaters and not only devastates Will, but has potential to upend things for all three men. I think starting the story here really gives an immediacy to all the issues the men are facing, putting us right in the middle of the action. At the same time, Harper does a great job getting us caught up on the backstory for the three men and how their relationship developed. I never had any doubt as to the commitment these men have for each other, and the strength of their connection only builds as the story develops.

I am only touching on the basics of the conflicts here, as there are a lot of things that come up the men must face that would be spoilers if I laid them all out in the review. But there are issues on a variety of fronts that develop for the men, both individually and as a group, and it is the strength of their bond that gets them through. Their lives are in a lot of upheaval as many changes are coming for all of them, and I appreciated how loving and supportive they are of one another. Whether the men should come out is a particularly big theme, especially for Scott, who has the most to lose career-wise. He is just on the cusp of his chance to see his dreams of pro-hockey coming true, but there are no out hockey players in the NHL — let alone a polyamorous one. I think this issue is really well explored and I could feel the pain all three men experience as they struggle with whether to come out and the potential fall out.

I think we do get a great sense of these guys as a triad, particularly given that we start the book with them already together. However, while we get a lot of detail on Casey’s backstory, we learn less about Scott and especially Will. We are told Will showed up at the ranch at 17 looking for a job and a place to live, and it is clear that something serious happened in his past to land him in that situation, but it is never explained. I kept waiting for it to be addressed and it felt like a strange omission. I also felt frustrated with one of the decisions the men make in the wake of a big crises they are facing (not going to spoil it by telling you all what). But their solution makes no sense to me given their stated goal. [spoiler] At one point, Casey and Will don’t want Scott to be outed by them coming out. They also don’t want to lie if asked if he is part of their relationship, because they don’t want it coming out later that they lied about it. So instead, they decide to stage a big “break up” to their friendship and separate themselves from Scott for a year so no one realizes they are a threesome. But I don’t understand how that makes sense. They are still having to face telling people that they lied and are really together after the year is up. So they are no better off. And on top of that, Scott looks like a homophobic jerk in the meantime for ending a friendship with the other men after finding out they are gay.  [/spoiler] So this felt to me like a contrived situation to up the emotion and drama in a way that didn’t make a lot of sense logically.

Those issues aside, I really loved this book so much and found myself completely captivated by the story. The relationship elements are wonderful, and I loved watching these three men navigate all the conflicts and changes together. The resolution to the hit-and-run case isn’t a huge surprise, but at the same time, there are some nice suspense and police-work elements here that build some excitement. This story is the first in the Changes series and a follow up is coming for Scott, Casey, and Will in the spring. Based on the first chapter that is included in this book, it looks to pick up directly after this story and I really can’t wait to read more about these men.

P.S. Changes Coming Down is a re-edit and expansion of the original story in the “Hunting Under Covers” anthology.