Reviewed by PizzyGirl
TITLE: Harvest Heat
AUTHOR: Carol Lynne
PUBLISHER: Pride Publishing
LENGTH: 99 pages
RELEASE DATE: March 14, 2017
BLURB:
Love blossoms in the heat and dust of the Outback.
Touring Australia before starting his life as a lawyer back in Kansas seemed like the perfect escape for James. A trip to the Mandarra Horticultural Show has him itching to work on an authentic Australian farm. What he doesn’t expect to find in the bush is a field of sunflowers and a man who makes him tremble with need.
Lachlan has resigned himself to living alone in the Australian bush. Since returning from Sydney to run the family property, he’s put his sexual desires on hold, knowing his mates would never understand. When he takes a chance and hires a good-looking young tourist to help him on the homestead, Lochie begins to wonder just how heated this year’s harvest will be. Will he be able to put his worries aside and take a chance on love?
Publisher’s Note: This book is a prequel to Sunshine, Sex & Sunflowers. This book has previously been released elsewhere. It has been revised and re-edited for re-release with Pride Publishing.
REVIEW:
Overall, I mostly enjoyed this book. I liked both Lochie and Jamie and I love the way the author set things up for the sequel. However, I felt that this book was missing some key developmental items that I personally needed to fully enjoyed my time spent reading.
As I said, Lochie and Jamie were great men. They fit together and as individuals, seemed like they had great personalities. But the character development was rather superficial and other than Lochie’s big reveal, there was very little history given for the men and there was very little forward development outside of the relationship.
And as for the relationship, it was highly sexual with the author choosing to focus mostly on lust and attraction on page and the rest being implied to have happened behind the scene. There were several time jumps used to progress the story and I was left to assume that a true friendship and then love developed during those times. I was easily able to make those assumptions and move forward with the story, but I would have preferred to see the love develop for myself. As it was, I was told about the love and didn’t feel it until much later.
This story was very low angst and very low plot. It was really all about the relationship and as such, when the bit of angst did try to appear, it felt very overly dramatic and I found myself wondering why these men were reacting so strongly to things that appeared easily overcome with a few conversations. I lump this in with the fact that most of the actual development happened off page so I was left at a disadvantage when it came to understanding personalities and motivations.
I will say that I could easily feel the lust and physical attraction in this story. It was very prevalent and actually used quite well to fill in the emotional gaps. Once I understood how this story was structured, I never second guessed Lochie and Jamie’s romance and I never felt like I didn’t want to keep reading to know more.
I do wish there was more on the page because it would have only enhanced what I was given and made this one better. I strongly suggest reading this one and then immediately picking up the next, because the ending left me with a strong sense that the two books together are actually one complete story. I am eager for the rest of this journey.
RATING: 
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