Book Reviews

Book Blurb

As a professional rider on the NRHA circuit, Gage Chapman has known success. He’s also known discrimination. Many people didn’t want an openly gay rider competing in the sport, much less winning again and again on his champion Paint stallion, The Shaman. Wanting to get away from it all, Gage had left Utah to set up a breeding farm in North Carolina and there, he found what he’d always hoped for, a man he could love.

Collin Maddox is the town deputy with his sights set on becoming sheriff someday. He knows local attitudes wouldn’t be real pro on voting a gay sheriff into office, so he’s kept his sexuality a secret for years. For all the care he has for Gage, his secret tore them apart, leaving them both with regrets and broken hearts.

Now Hurricane Lauris is coming in fast and strong. Gage has refused to evacuate and leave his horses behind. Knowing Gage is alone, Collin goes to Gage’s farm to help him, only to find himself trapped there. Hurt, anger, and passion erupts between them. As the storm rages around them, both men wonder if this is a new beginning, or the final ending.

 

Book Review

The concept of six books, by six different authors, revolving around one storm of mammoth proportions intrigued the heck out of me. 'Storming Love: One Storm, Twelve Men' is the name of the series, and this first installment by SJ Frost is Gage and Collin's story. I was captivated, even before I started reading, by the thought of an ex-pro rodeo rider and a sheriff's deputy. Two strong men fighting their desires while simultaneously fighting for their lives against Mother Nature? Delicious.

I grew up in North Carolina and I'm pretty familiar with the coastline. In fact, I've weathered a hurricane there. Once. That was enough. But I completely and totally understood Gage's reasons for wanting to stay with his horses instead of evacuating. They're his life, and, more importantly, in some ways his family. Shaman is Gage's Paint stallion, a Medicine Hat, a very rare breed, revered by Native Americans, and all the years they spent together, battling hatred, bigotry, and homophobia, while consistently winning in competitive reining, made it seem, some days, as if Shaman was Gage's only friend. There's no way he's abandoning Shaman, or his other twenty horses.

Collin is a sheriff's deputy in the South, for crying out loud. Hell's bell's, people. The boys in blue are not known for their tolerant acceptance, no matter where you are, so I understood why Collin stayed in the closet. I understood it, but I didn't like it any more than Gage did. So, when Collin came to the farm to insist Gage go to the evacuation shelter, well, seeing as how they broke up two months ago, that conversation didn't go well. In fact, it ended the same way most of them have, with yelling and someone leaving. But Collin won't just leave Gage there to fend for himself. Collin goes back to help Gage weather the storm.

A wonderful beginning to the series. I really enjoyed these two very stubborn men realizing that what they had together was so worth the risks, and that compromising, and talking things through, would see them to the end. An enjoyable read which I easily recommend.

 

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been provided by MLR Press for the purpose of a review.

Additional Information

Format	ebook
Length	Novella, 67 pages/21000 words
Heat Level
Publication Date	05-September-2014
Price	$4.99 ebook
Buy Link	http://www.mlrbooks.com/ShowBook.php?book=SLS1SJF1