Reviewed by Donna

TITLE: Rattlesnake

AUTHOR: Kim Fielding

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH: 240 Pages

BLURB:

A drifter since his teens, Jimmy Dorsett has no home and no hope. What he does have is a duffel bag, a lot of stories, and a junker car. Then one cold desert night he picks up a hitchhiker and ends up with something more: a letter from a dying man to the son he hasn’t seen in years.

On a quest to deliver the letter, Jimmy travels to Rattlesnake, a small town nestled in the foothills of the California Sierras. The centerpiece of the town is the Rattlesnake Inn, where the bartender is handsome former cowboy Shane Little. Sparks fly, and when Jimmy’s car gives up the ghost, Shane gets him a job as handyman at the inn.

Both within the community of Rattlesnake and in Shane’s arms, Jimmy finds an unaccustomed peace. But it can’t be a lasting thing. The open road continues to call, and surely Shane—a strong, proud man with a painful past and a difficult present—deserves better than a lying vagabond who can’t stay put for long.

REVIEW:

He’d never questioned the point of his life because he knew there was no point. He worked, he rested, he survived, he moved on.

Jimmy Dorsett is literally sitting at a crossroads when he spots an old man standing tiredly on the side of the road. The hitchhiker, Tom, is headed to the small town of Rattlesnake, intent on hand delivering a letter he’s written to the son that he abandoned so many years ago. Content to have a new destination to explore, Jimmy agrees to drive Tom all the way to Rattlesnake, but he never imagined that Tom would close his eyes for a nap and never wake up. Jimmy is left in possession of the letter and he feels compelled to see it delivered for Tom, an unwanted old man who had no one to claim his body. When he arrives in Rattlesnake he finds the intended recipient of the letter, Shane, tending the bar at the Rattlesnake Inn and for some reason, Jimmy just can’t bring himself to hand over the letter to the man who seems so happy in his life. Intending to drive on out of town that same night, Jimmy finds himself stranded when his car refuses to go on any further. A veritable whirlwind of purpose, Shane descends on Jimmy’s life and Jimmy finds himself employed by the Inn, working as a handyman. But still, Jimmy has no intention of staying past the following day. Or maybe the day after that. Or maybe just till the weekend…

Firstly, I love it when the main characters in a story meet and it’s just a totally ordinary moment. They might think the other guy is attractive but neither of them have any profound instant of realization that Yes, I must make this man mine! It’s like you have a delicious secret that no one else is aware of, and you just read along thinking – they have no idea what they are going to become together.

I enjoyed learning about both of these men, but I absolutely adored Shane. About ten years ago life broke Shane and he lost some important things. The love of his life, his ability to read and write and drive, and he was no longer able to be a cowboy. But Shane is surrounded by the love of his family and he continues to face each day and each challenge with a positive attitude, even though it may be a little forced at times.

Jimmy, on the other hand, doesn’t force his positivity he fakes it. He fakes and lies about a lot of things, although to be fair, he’s never malicious. Although most of the stories he tells are lies, they are always intended to make the person he is telling them to feel better about themselves or even just to make them laugh. Jimmy doesn’t believe that he’s good enough for a guy like Shane and he absolutely refuses to hope that he could ever have a relationship with any man. The idea that he doesn’t have to leave Rattlesnake never occurs to him because someone like him will never manage to have a home. It was excruciating watching Jimmy come up with a reason to stay just one more day in Rattlesnake. Pretty much every day he wakes up with the intention to walk out of town and I honestly felt tense, wondering if this was the day he’d actually leave Shane behind. I’ll admit that I kind of hated Jimmy sometimes because you just knew that he was going to break Shane’s heart, even if it would just be for a short time. Watching Jimmy being drawn into town life, whether he wanted to be or not, was rather satisfying.

You know, I’m kind of having trouble finding anything to say about this book because when I think back on it…nothing really happens. It definitely wasn’t boring, just uneventful. It’s simply two men living their lives, never knowing if it would be the last day they would be doing it together.

I guess that there are probably a ton of Kim Fielding fans out there who don’t need to be encouraged to buy this book, but for everybody else…I totally recommend picking this one up.

Oh yeah, and that cover – I’m loving all over it!

RATING: 

 BUY LINKS:

Dreamspinner Press

ARe

Amazon