Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: Bear and Travis
SERIES: Storming Love: One Storm, Twelve Men #3
AUTHOR: Parker Williams
PUBLISHER: MLR Press
LENGTH: 58 Pages
BLURB:
Is it possible to fall in love from nothing more than a few phone calls and e-mails? Dr. David ‘Bear’ Berickza thinks so. Despite the distance and limited contact, Bear can only think about Travis Michaels, a fellow veterinarian in the small town of Timber Creek.
When he hears that Timber Creek is directly in the path of Hurricane Lauris, Bear makes a promise. He will be there to help Travis and his daughter, the smart-mouthed Tina, to save the abandoned animals.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and when Lauris hits, Bear and Travis find that despite their best efforts, it’s going to take more than that to save any lives, including their own.
REVIEW:
In this third book from the Storming Love series we are introduced to Bear and Travis, two dedicated vets who are going to do whatever they can to save the pets left behind in the town of Timber Creek.
Travis and his teenaged daughter, Tina, are the only residents remaining in the small town. Well, the only human residents, because in the rush to evacuate, hundreds of pets, not to mention livestock, have been abandoned and left to die. Desperate for help, Travis sends out an email to other vets that he communicates with but only one is willing to put himself in danger in the fight to save the deserted animals.
Although Bear is always ready to help an animal in need, it is the desire to help Travis and to keep him safe that sends him straight into the path of Hurricane Lauris. When Bear arrives in Timber Creek, he finally meets the man he’s begun developing feeling for he realizes that the task ahead of them will likely be impossible to accomplish. He also becomes aware of just how much danger they’re in.
I actually gave this a bit of thought but I’ve decided I don’t mind that the two men are basically in love from the moment they lay eyes on each other. They’ve spoken online and on the phone enough that they’ve developed a strong friendship and both are already attracted to the other despite never physically meeting. Actually I appreciated that they weren’t scared to let their attraction be immediately known. So even though this was their initial face to face meeting, I’d consider this a friends to lovers story.
While the relationship between the main characters is all hearts and flowers, the rest of the story is surprisingly grim. Harshly realistic, I think best describes it. Although to be honest, I’ve never experienced a hurricane so my idea of what’s realistic may be very different from somebody who actually knows what they’re talking about.
A month or so ago on Facebook one of the authors that I follow asked the question – What are the rules of writing m/m romance? (or something along those lines). Of course there was all the usual responses of no cheating, must have HEA, no vaginas please, and well, the list was a very long one. For every “rule” someone suggested there was arguments for and against, apparently not even a happy ending is required for some readers. But the one thing nobody on that conversation thread argued over, the only “rule” that everyone agreed on was – don’t kill the pets! Mr Williams, you killed the pets!!!
Like I said, harshly realistic. I guess after Travis went to such dramatic lengths to save the animals, allowed his daughter to risk her life to save the animals, I figured they’d ride out the crazy, mad hurricane all warm and dry in Travis’s home surrounded by hundreds of random, perfectly behaved rescue animals like some kind of modern Noah’s ark. But that is pretty much the exact opposite of what happens and I’m in no way trying to say the way it’s written is wrong. In fact, I think the author got it just right, but that bit did not make for happy reading.
However the ending happily sees a return of the hearts and flowers including what just might be the best proposal I’ve come across.
After reading this story I’m keen to check out the other five books but you can read as many or as few as you want and in any order that you prefer. I really like the idea behind this series.
RATING: 
(3.75 stars)
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