Reviewed by Sid

TITLE: Dumped in Oz

SERIES: Tales from Kansas #1

AUTHOR: Andrew Grey

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH: 164 Pages

BLURB: Because of an opportunity he’d be a fool to turn down, Lyle Powers transfers to his company’s warehouse in central Kansas. The last thing he expects is to meet another gay man in the small town, let alone one who captures his interest.

Roger Kypers is a recovering alcoholic with a twelve-year-old daughter he only gets to see for part of the summer. Neither Lyle nor Roger is looking for a relationship, and they fumble at the start, yet emotions build as Roger shows Lyle the landmarks of Oz.

But when Roger’s wicked witch of an ex-wife threatens to take his daughter away for good if he doesn’t act “normally,” he’s faced with the challenge of letting her get away with it, or fighting to accept himself and standing up for what he knows is right.

REVIEW:

That “D’oh!” moment when you are quite deep into the book, in the middle of a scene and you realize what it’s title meant … Until then I was expecting fairies and witches dropping from the dark blue sky. I had quite a good laugh at myself.

So even though this was not what I really expected – it still turned out to be exactly what I expected … Makes sense? No? Read on… 😉

Lyle Powers is offered a golden opportunity to work at his company’s warehouse in Kansas and even though he should be grabbing at it without a second thought, he finds himself considering to turn it down. However, with a little push from his close friends and colleagues, he goes ahead with the plan.

What he thinks initially as someplace in the middle of nowhere begins to actually feel like heaven to him. Beautiful scenery, great crowd to hang out with and most of all, a very handsome man who could cook! Lyle is able to feel the electricity between them since the first time they meet and he knows for sure that it isn’t one-sided at all but there is a creeping suspicion that all may not be so easy to get after all.

Roger has his own issues to sort out. The divorce case and getting the custody of his daughter seems very important. In such a case, being seen with another man could work against him in the court, he believes. It doesn’t help that his God-awful thankfully-ex-wife is always up for threatening him to out him to the world! With all that, how can two men, who are obviously overpowered by desires of having a future together, find their happy ending?

One thing that was admirable was that the book seemed to sense me at every point of time. Everything happened for a reason and at the right time! For example, Roger keeps talking about his wife and the things she has done on every occassion they meet, even on their first date. It was fine at first – I mean, he has spent so many years in her companionship and talking about her is understadable but then it got annoying and guess what? Lyle calls him out on it -gently of course- and Roger decides he indeed needs to stop living in the past.

The book also captures the emotional content in a scene thoroughly. With only few words, when an author can make you picture and imagine the whole scene happening in front of your eyes while making you feel overwhelmed with emotions, that should speak volumes about the talent they possess. I have to say, the scene where Lyle tells Roger about the housefire they had when he was just a child was hauntingly well-written. Especially, the part with the dog – it killed me inside.

Lyle, according to me, comes out to be a real, smart one. I liked how mature he behaves in the relationship and supports Roger through and through. Roger was the fragile one here, but he also has moments that would surprise you. They both work well, you could say. The other gives them power to be better in the relationship, I believe.

It’s amazing how well Roger’s daughter reacts to his coming out and accepts Lyle into the family. She is sweet, funny, protective of her father and even though is just thirteen, she can make decisions and give advice like a grown up woman!

Lyle’s best friends – Don and Chase arrive to meet the man in his life and I was really looking forward to that part. It was building up well and since they mean so much to Lyle, I was hoping for some fun moments. That was the only disappointment I had that it didn’t turn out that good.

Nevertheless, this story grows on you. It definitely did on me and I may even pick it up for re-reading once in a while. Yes, it was that good. And what’s better is there’s gonna be more in the series!! Bring on the Tales from Kansas, please …

RATING:

BUY LINK: Dreamspinner Press