Review: Outback Romance - Harlequin, eat you heart out!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 24, 2014
Classic MM romance with all the good ingredients & the right pace:Setting:Australian Outback, at a large Cattle station (ranch). Hence the "red dirt" in the title.Main Characters:Two young men in their twenties. The Australian guy, Charlie, is the heir of the cattle station, a very hard worker and lives in isolation (no social life and self-inflicted dry spell of … TWO YEARS!). The American student, Tyler, is visiting the Cattle station for one month, and is full of life & uncomplicated.Secondary characters:George and wife Ma, the couple helping Charlie run the station: George is the foreman and Ma is the cook. They've been there before Charlie was born and they love him like the son they don't have. Bobby, the aborigine and great ranch hand & Fish the ranch hand who can drink his weight.Plot:I like the hurdles in the romance: First, they don't know if the other is gay. Second, Charlie is not happy to be gay (blame the late Charlie Sr). Third Tyler is only in Australia for one month.Most emotional moment:An accident happens to one of the MCs and the other goes through HELL, but he can only suffer in silence, because their romance is a secret. That makes it twice harder to bear.Could have been better:The handling of the climax, the last series of confrontation between the two MCs. The writing didn't convince me of the depth of their pain or hope. It was a bit of a let down because until then, the book had been near perfect, the emotions, reactions, characterisation, everything had been spot on.In spite of this flaw, it was a very good read. The characters are likeable & well matched. The romance is well paced, with many cute intimate moments to make you sigh. Oh, and the Ust is good, and topped by really hot sex. I just learned that there is a sequel planned and I say YES! There is so much potential for a GREAT series because the setting is really FANTASTIC, and the personality & situation of the two men lets you predicts one or two big conflicts in the future.