Review: Touching, sad, and heartfelt
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 15, 2010
At the request of his sister, Dylan is returning to the ranch he used to live at before the death of brother Simon the previous year. The ranch's owner, Wade, was Simon's partner, and has never been able to recover after Simon's Death. What ensues is a tale of both men burying their grief, and discovering the ability to love again.The story is well-written. The characters are nuanced enough to differentiate them from each other. The emotions feel real, and many scenes are touching and moving. Wade starts out as a shattered man. Simon was a huge part of his life, and Simon's absence is everywhere he looks. Being no stranger to the loss of a partner, I couldn't help but be moved to tears at points. Maybe the words struck home more easily to me because, upon experiencing loss, there will always be tender areas in your heart where pain is easily felt. Or maybe it was the writer was gifted at evoking those emotions. Regardless, there was bittersweet pain within the pages.Dylan's grief was deeply examined too. In Dylan's case, Simon was his cherished brother who died in his arms after they crashed their car. He moved from the Lazy G ranch because he not only could not face the absence of his brother in all the places he should be, but because he felt he should be the one to die, not Simon. He believed Wade would eventually tell him the same, and he could not bear that moment. To add into Dylan's grief is the guilt he felt because he always had a crush on Wade.The writing is pleasant and with good imagery. The characters do have a uniqueness to them which could have been fleshed out a little better, but they were still well-written. Interestingly, Simon is the most interesting character, and he's only examined briefly in a few memories. The only drawback I could find is that the heartfelt ending felt inevitable. The road it took to get there was interesting, but there were few and insignificant obstacles along the way. Still, there were very touching, romantic, sensual, erotic, funny, and heartfelt moments. Overall, a lovely diversion.