“Those gifts are ever more precious which the giver has made precious.” – Ovid
Some things that make me smile:
1. A baby’s chubby cheeks, juicy lips, and gummy grins
2. Coffee
3. Carrot Cake
4. Coffee and Carrot Cake
5. Wine (After a few glasses, I get downright giggly, even)
6. Pretty shoes (That’s mostly a manic sort of glee)
7. Books (See: manic glee with a side of giddy)
8. Books about knitting and llamas (See: Wha…? …Then more manic glee and on with the giddy-making)
Yes, I said knitting and llamas. Go figure.
Rance is a man of few words, which is both a blessing and a curse at times, because some of the few words he manages to utter have a way of coming out really, really wrong, but in his defense, he hasn’t had a lot of practice when it comes to wooing and romancing, given the fact that he’s the only gay man in the tiny town of Granby, Colorado.
That all changed, though, when Gertie Humphries passed and left her home and the land it sits on to her great-nephew, Ben, and suddenly Rance had a whole lot he wanted to say but wasn’t quite sure how. All he knew was that he wanted to take care of Ben and make sure he had everything he needed to survive the harsh Rocky Mountain winter, so Rance set about knitting together the whole of his feelings in the careful and colorful composition of his craft, giving away a part of himself and warming up Ben’s parts, in the process, one gift at a time.
In The Winter Courtship Rituals of Fur-Bearing Critters, Amy Lane has offered a sweet and simple little love story in which a self-proclaimed grumpy bastard, played by real life grumpy bastard, Rance Crawford, arms himself with little more than a ball of yarn and a guiding light, and knits his way out of the labyrinth of loneliness and into his bright and beautiful new neighbor’s heart, played by real life lodestar, Ben McCutcheon, the man who becomes Craw’s reason for wanting so much more than what he has.
This is the sort of cozy and heartwarming story that wraps you up like a Snuggie and plops you in front of a warm hearth with a cup of hot cocoa and marshmallows. It left me feeling a little melty on the inside, a whole lot smiley on the outside, one hundred percent sigh-worthy, all around.
Amy Lane is a GayRomLit participating author. Visit Amy’s blog HERE. Enter her give-away HERE.
Buy The Winter Courtship Rituals of Fur-Bearing Critters HERE.
I really enjoyed this story and how taciturn and stoic Ben showed his care and wooing through his actions and his knitting. I learned a lot about yarn and alpacas, which was fascinating.
I love when Amy does sweet and uncomplicated as much as I love when she does angst and conflict! I thought the knitting instructions at the end of the book for Ben’s “special” gift was too cute. ;-)
I just saw on the Dreamspinner site that the SEQUEL is coming on October 24th. :-D