Author: Renae Kaye
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Pages/Word Count: 214 Pages
Rating: 4 Stars
Blurb: At twenty-five, Hank owns a small parcel of land in Australia’s rural southwest where he supplements his income from the property with seasonal shearing. Hank is a “shearing gun”—an ace shearer able to shear large numbers of sheep in a single day. His own father kicked him out when his sexuality was revealed, and since no one would ever hire a gay shearer, Hank has remained firmly closeted ever since.
Elliot is the newbie doctor in town—city-born and somewhat shell-shocked from his transplant to the country. When a football injury brings Hank to Elliot’s attention, an inappropriate sexual glance and the stuttered apology afterward kickstarts their friendship. Romance and love soon blossom, but it’s hard for either of them to hope for anything permanent. As if the constant threat of being caught isn’t enough, Elliot’s contract runs out after only a year.
Review: Not very long ago I read a book titled Loving Jay by this new author, Renae Kaye. Funny thing is I loved it. Then she put out another book and man, it just blew me away! So when I saw she had a new book on the coming soon list at Dreamspinner Press, I snatched it up for review and certainly wasn’t disappointed.
In this book we travel out to the rural southwest area of Australia. Here we meet Hank, who is a very simple man. He lives and works on his farm. He raises sheep and also farms the land to supplement his income. He is a country boy through and through, with just a little bend. When his father found out about his bend, he kicked him out. Hank believes that if his friends and neighbors find out he’s gay they won’t want him shearing with them and shearing is a huge part of his annual income. He is content in the closet, he gets away a few times a year and hits the clubs in the city to scratch whatever may be itching, and that works for him. Right up until it doesn’t anymore.
You see, living out in these small farming communities there aren’t any actual hospitals close by, so they have a pair of doctors that serve their community as well as the surrounding area. When Hank gets hurt in a football match, he meets Elliot, the new doctor in town. Hank finds himself slightly smitten with the citified doctor, especially when he catches the doctor checking him out. Unfortunately Hank doesn’t date men from town, so he doesn’t make a move on the doc.
A day or so later Elliot shows up at Hank’s farm to apologize for his misstep, and the two men start a friendship of sorts. Hank is very attracted to the doc, but since his own rules make the doc off limits, he heads to the city to let off some steam. Unfortunately for Hank, he runs into the doc in a gay club in the city, and now the doc knows his secret. The two men clash at first, but their mutual attraction overrides any hard feelings, and they continue their friendship. Over time this friendship leads to more, and they start seeing one another.
Hank has never been happier. He never thought he could have a partner, but what he is building with Elliot is everything he never thought he wanted. Eventually the two men fall in love, and they spend all their time together; things couldn’t be better. Right up until a tragedy puts their love to the test and brings their relationship out in the open.
When their tenuous relationship is put to the test, Hank has to decide if he is willing to give up the man he loves to keep his life the same as it’s always been, or will he have faith in his community to accept him?
Renae Kaye seems to just keep getting better and better with every book she puts out. I loved Hank and Elliot, as well as all of the supporting characters in this story. There was a depth to Hank and Elliot that made them seem so real I would expect to run into them if I found myself in this little town. I loved the fact that once these two made up their minds, that was it. There was no back and forth, they were who they were, and everyone else better just accept it.
With this being Renae Kaye’s third book, I am extremely excited to see what’s next from this author. I am sure it will be amazing, and I hope y’all will be with me for the ride.
You can buy The Shearing Gun here:
