Book Reviews

Book Blurb

What happens when the man is as tempting as the money?

 

Remy Delacour’s family doesn’t believe in mainstream medicine, and when Remy’s boyfriend reveals that Remy is majoring in nursing, they cut him off. He has to find money to finish his education—fast. And he is so done with boyfriends.

 

Levi Aronson met the guy of his dreams and followed him to Australia. He knew the chances for a lasting romance were slim—and boy, was he right. Now he’s back in Canada, a year behind in his university program, and short of funds. He needs money, not another man.

 

Tree planting is a way to make a lot of money fast, but it’s one of the hardest jobs in the world. When Levi, an experienced planter, sees pretty, sloe-eyed Remy, Levi is certain he’ll never last.

 

They’ll have to pry Remy’s shovel from his cold, stiff fingers, because he won’t quit—or let anything take his eyes off the prize. When a storm brings Remy and Levi together, each finds the other a distraction from the big goal. But can anything develop between two men who have sworn off relationships?

 

 

World of Love: Stories of romance that span every corner of the globe.

Book Review

Eden Pax is a very small town in Canada that Remy hails from. It kind of gave me the impression of a hippie town from the 1960s with all of its homeopathic stores, acupuncturists, homemade food stores, and everything holistic in between. In fact, it began as a commune and everyone homeschools. No wonder Remy’s parents hit the roof when his a**hole of a boyfriend emailed their business account with details about Remy being in the nursing department at school. I could sure empathize with Remy’s attitude about making it through the tree planting season, no matter what. He really doesn’t have a choice. Neither does Levi, who made a stupid choice to follow a boyfriend far away from home, and now he’s stuck with not enough money to pay his tuition. I truly felt for both of these guys, right from the start, and I was rooting for them on the whole read.

“Unless that slender frame had some muscles underneath those clothes, he was going to crash and burn. Even if he did manage to stick around, if they had to spend any time in a logging camp, what were the odds he wouldn’t get jumped at least once? Look up “fey,” “nellie,” or “twink” in the dictionary—this guy’s picture would be there.”

Remy might be small and this might be his first season tree planting, but his parents own an outfitting business so being out in the wilderness, in a tent, is something he’s very familiar with. He also has a close friend who was a tree planter for years with this same company and gave Remy every piece of insider information he possibly could, right down to the lingo, and hands-on training. Not only that, he put in a word for Remy, so that’s just an additional reason not to fail and make Will look bad. You know the saying “it’s not what you know, but who you know.”

“It’s not the physical part of the job that will make you quit,” Will had told him. “It’s how your head frames the experience. It’s like anything hard. You have to game it out.”

It was really sweet to watch Levi and Remy sort of tiptoeing around one another as they became friends but both, obviously, wanted more. Even nicer was seeing Remy interacting with his planting crew and learning to socialize, while watching them grow to appreciate Remy for everything he brought to the table. I really enjoyed the author’s descriptions of this very tough job, along with the different terms and language used in Canada versus my native United States.

This was a great story and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment. The relationship drama was well done and didn’t overtake the general storyline. The characters, all of them, were strong, and a lot of fun to get to know. The ending was a wee bit sappy, in that everything worked out so perfectly for Remy and Levi not only in their relationship, but also with a few of their other struggles with life and family. I can easily recommend this read, I don’t think you’ll regret it.

 

 

 

 

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

Additional Information

Format	ebook
Length	Novella, 138 pages/45554 words
Heat Level
Publication Date	25-October-2017
Price	$5.99 ebook
Buy Link	https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/highballer-by-ava-hayden-8977-b