Reviewed by Vicki

TITLE: Red Dirt Heart 4

SERIES: Red Dirt #4

AUTHOR: N.R. Walker

PUBLISHER: Self Published

LENGTH: 266 pages

BLURB:

Moving from a Texas ranch to an Australian Outback station was a life changing decision for Travis Craig. Though it wasn’t really a decision at all. Something in his bones told him to go, though he had no clue as to why.

Until he met Sutton Station’s owner, Charlie.

Loving Charlie shouldn’t have been easy. The man was stubborn, and riddled with crippling self-doubt. No, it shouldn’t have been easy at all. Yet somehow, falling in love with Charlie was the easiest thing in the world.

Loving him was easy. Living with him, teaching him how to love in return and, more importantly, how to love himself, was not.

But Travis knew all along it’d be worth it. He knew the man with the red dirt heart was destined to be his. Just like he knew the red dirt that surrounded him was where he was supposed to be.

In the final instalment of the Red Dirt Series, we see Charlie through Travis’ eyes. We see how much he’s grown and how much he loves. We go back to Texas with them, and we see Charlie get everything he truly thought he never deserved.

Red Dirt Heart 4 is Travis’ story.

And this is the story of not just one red dirt heart, but two.

REVIEW:

I don’t usually say this, but….. OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD!!!!!

This book was every damn thing I wanted and then some. But I am so freaking sad! It’s the LAST BOOK IN THE SERIES!!! How can this be? Why would N.R. Walker do this to us? Why? Because this is how you end a series. You don’t beat it to death and drag it out, you wrap it up in a fucking perfect package and gift it to your readers. Then you go write something equally as fantastic.

So yah, I loved this whole series from day one. And this one is just the perfect ending. Let me tell you a little about it.

If you have read the other books, you know that Travis and Charlie live on a big ass spread in Australia, Sutton Station. Charlie inherited the station from his asshole father, and has run it so much better. He has built up a fantastic crew/family, who we have watched grow over the last three books. Along came an American student, in book one, and Charlie was in luuuuuv…. The three books have provided a little drama and angst, tears of joy and sadness, and a life for these two men in particular, but the whole crew at the station. Including the furry ones.

This book picks up a nearly two years after the last one ended. As these books tend to be, they are all about living on the station, and they just meander and wander, telling us what always turns out to be an incredible story. So that’s what the start was like. Charlie and Travis, living their life like they do, with the addition of Bacon and Trudy’s daughter, but just going about their business. There is a fantastic scene at the beginning in a gay bar that had me chuckling, poor Charlie got drunk off his ass! The happy tears came at 14%, when they further discuss their desire to marry (no that’s not a spoiler, we knew that from the last book!). That was just the beginning of the happy tears for me! The sad tears came at 20% when the bad drama happened…. Oh how I cried! But we went back to happy quickly. We follow along as they take on teenagers for a week, go to meetings, go through a winter muster, chat about kids, deal with Nugget, have a visit from Sam (Charlie’s brother) and Laura (Charlie’s mother), a bout of food poisoning for Travis, and eventually a trip to Texas for Thanksgiving.

There are lots of sweet moments and very little drama (except for one REALLY BAD THING, hence the tears at the 20% mark…), there is sex but it’s not very graphic (not a problem at all, it’s so damn good!), and the introduction of a new jackaroo that I really liked. The trip to Texas was fantastic, I loved seeing Charlie and Travis’ family interact. Then…. BAM! It’s over in the best way ever! I can’t say how though! But OH MY GOD!!! I loved it. Oh how the tears of joy fell. But, it’s not over. I thought at 90% it was done, the story had the perfect ending, and I thought that was it. Click to the next page, and we have an epic epilogue. Then I REALLY started to cry. We jump ahead by increments, and see what happens with Charlie and Travis, over the next nearly 20 years. Damn….I’m getting teared up this morning, just writing it. It was fucking perfect. Not heartbreaking in a sad way at all, but I just kept thinking about their lives and how perfect they were. And what we missed. Oh, how I loved it.

Wow. It was so good. Not as dramatic as some of the other books, Charlie and Travis are well established, there was nothing icky between them at this point. It was all about settling in, growing, and loving. Big things happen, but in a small and gentle way. It flowed so smoothly, all from the perspective of Travis, showing us what he thinks of his new life, how much he loves Charlie and Sutton Station. Everything about it was… well, perfect. How many times can I say that word? Several apparently! It’s the perfect ending to a perfect series. I loved every book, every chapter, every word, every tear, both good and bad. I’m sad it’s over, but it ended in such a great way and place, there is no other way it could have been done. N.R. Walker is a fantastic author, I love her characters and stories. I’ve read just about all of her books, and can’t wait to see where she takes us in the future!

If you have read the other Red Dirt Heart books, you’ll love this one. If you haven’t, well, you need to. NOW!

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Amazon

Amazon UK

ARe