Reviewed by Dan
TITLE: Spurred On
SERIES: Beyond Fairytales
AUTHOR: Jon Keys
PUBLISHER: Decadent Publishing
LENGTH: 101 Pages
BLURB:
His wicked stepfather is trying to drive Kegan off his family’s ranch…
He promised his dying father to always be there to protect his mother. But when she leaves on a cattle buying trip, his stepbrothers join in to bully and overwork him. Can he hang on until her return? And even if he does, how can he tell her that her new husband is evil incarnate? The only bright spot is Cole, a handsome neighbor he’s admired from a distance.
He’s new in town, and his parents are holding a rodeo…
It’s not easy to meet new people in an established ranching community, but a rodeo will draw everyone in and give Cole an opportunity to make friends and show his skills in an arena they all understand. Maybe even get to know someone special.
A mystical medicine hat stallion walks into Kegan’s life….
It’s not long before they are the talk, and mystery, of the rodeo. The only thing more daunting than keeping his identity secret is how Kegan is going to balance all this with his draw to the man of his dreams. Will Cole end up being his magical prince, or is Kegan going to find himself left in the dust?
REVIEW:
What gay boy didn’t secretly want to be Cinderella? Whisked off to the castle and the waiting handsome prince for their HEA? Jon Keys brings us a modern uptake on the story. This time we are in Colorado, on a ranch, and Cinderella is actually named Kegan.
Kegan’s dad is dead, and his mother is ready to move with her life. Unfortunately, that moving on means Kegan’s mother has jumped into a new marriage with a man she doesn’t know that well, but one who has already warned Kegan to keep his mouth shut if he knows what is good for him and his mother. He has come right out and told Kegan that accidents happen all the time on ranches to fragile women.
So here they are, married. Even worse, the evil stepfather has two nasty, lazy, conniving sons about the same age as Kegan. When Kegan’s mother leaves on an already planned buy trip/vacation and leaves Kegan alone with the stepfather and stepbrothers all gloves are off. Kegan is treated almost like a slave doing almost all the work around the place.
Then Kegan finds out from his best friend that there is a rodeo planned on the spread next door, and it is starting in just hours! That is the same spread where Kegan’s crush, Cole, lives. Cole is the son of a well to do banker, so Kegan is sure the feelings wouldn’t be returned, even if Cole were gay, which Kegan isn’t so sure of.
But Kegan’s horse is injured and all his clothes have been sabotaged, torn up and covered with manure by his evil stepbrothers. There is no way Kegan can go….that is until the magical medicine hat stallion shows up, along with a custom made outfit, boots and hat…all in exactly Kegan’s size. As a personal note, my hands down favorite character in the story was the horse, Ace! I think he should have been on the cover of the book!
What will happen at the rodeo? Is there any way around the evil “steps”? Who is that girl that keeps kissing Cole? And what will happen to Kegan’s poor mom when she comes back?
I enjoyed this story, but with a few exceptions. Yes, I knew how it would probably come out….it IS Cinderella after all. But the journey along the way was entertaining. To keep it real, I do have to say that some of the sex seemed a little drawn out. I kind of got bored during the sex scenes and tended to skim. I’m not sure if I just felt they were overdone for a Cinderella off-take, but whatever the reason, they didn’t pull me in. Also, the blurb doesn’t match the book when it says Colt is new in town. Colt’s family has lived next door for quite some time, and I didn’t get how in twenty-first century Colorado the ranchers wouldn’t have met the people on the next ranch. Kegan knew and had seen Colt, it is a small town, how had Colt not seen him? Finally, the cover models don’t look a thing like the character descriptions. I’m a “cover” buyer. If I see a cover that knocks my socks off, I buy the book. This cover looked like a hundred other m/m cowboy books and I probably would have skipped it.
Overall though, it was a good read. If you’re a fan of fairytales and particularly of Cinderella, you’ll enjoy this 21st century Cinderfella retell. I’m a fan of the author and just finishedreading another of his books which I’m currently reviewing. Based on how much I enjoyed that other book, I’m not sure how this one fell a little flat for me. But reviews are just opinions, and you might have a totally different read than I did!
RATING: 
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