Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: The Taste of Ink
AUTHOR: Francis Gideon
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 200 pages
RELEASE DATE: March 11, 2016
BLURB:
Trevor Dunn has never gone to the Calgary Stampede, in spite of living in the city all his life. He would much rather listen to music and draw comics in his basement than hang out with a bunch of cowboys. When his sister drags him to the Stampede’s opening parade anyway, Trevor is drawn to a cowboy sporting a green hat.
Charlie opens Trevor’s mind to the world of country music and country boys. But then an old flame appears in the middle of the festival and Trevor is torn. He adores Charlie, but Mathieu—a punk singer turned acoustic crooner—was Trevor’s first love, and Trevor lost him by being too afraid to chase the dreams they shared.
When the Stampede ends, Charlie will go back to Toronto, Mathieu will go back on tour, and Trevor will go back to his basement. Realizing that’s not what he wants, Trevor enters a mechanical bull-riding contest in hopes of winning the heart of his true love—or maybe both of them. This time, fear won’t stop him from going after what he wants.
REVIEW:
Living in the Pacific Northwest my entire life, I have been to my share of rodeos but nothing that is close to the level of the Calgary Stampede. It is in a class all its own. I would love to have the opportunity to attend someday. In the meantime, I have to live vicariously through the characters in the books I read. That is why this book peaked my interest. Hot Cowboys, check. Musician, check. Threesome, double check!!! It seemed to have all my hot buttons covered. And it did, for the most part. I will be the first to admit that I don’t get the whole comic/super hero craze. This book did talk about that quite a bit. That, and music I was unfamiliar with. Because of those two parts, I had a bit of a time keeping up with the side plots and staying connected with the book. Again, I do believe that this was all on me. And to be clear, I think I would have classified these men more the Armchair/weekend cowboy, not actual real cowboys.
I haven’t ever read a “Sugar Daddy” story before so I was on unfamiliar territory with Charlie buying Trevor literally everything. I had gotten to the point where I believed that this was going to become more of a “rent boy” style almost. But I was pleasantly surprised with how it all came about. I do believe that I would have like more of Charlie’s story to have been told. The book does a really good job of telling Mathieu and Trevor’s back story but it really skimmed across Charlie’s.
I think I loved the epilogue the most. It made me want to know what happened next in their lives. I could see this becoming a series. One book alone could be dedicated to the six months from the end of the story to the epilogue. Another could pick up with the story hinted at on the last page. Who knows, but I wouldn’t rule them out. The one part of this book that bothered me was that even though this takes place in a little less than two weeks, the first nine days almost drug a bit and then, approximately 75% of the way through the story, it picked up speed almost too rapidly. I would have liked to have had more of the whole Charlie/Trevor/Mathieu ménage story.
RATING: 
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