Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: Raising the Bar
SERIES: States of Love: Virgina #42
AUTHOR: Leigh Dillon
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 91 pages
RELEASE DATE: September 7, 2018
BLURB:
Destin Bellingham has inherited a problem. Thanks to his late playboy father, Destin faces putting a For Sale sign on his family’s historic horse farm. Getting his talented stallion, Black Sambuca, into the Grand Prix show ring would put Bellmeade back on the map—if only someone could make “Sam” behave like a show horse.
Disgraced top rider Tonio Benedetto has his own problems, but he can work magic with difficult jumpers, so Destin hires him despite his bad-boy reputation. The street-smart, openly gay loudmouth from Miami and the closeted, buttoned-down son of Old Dominion Virginia make a rocky pairing, but time is running out to save Bellmeade from bankruptcy.
Opposites attract, sparks of tension grow into flames of passion. But if Tonio fails to tame Sam, will true love become a lost cause too?
States of Love: Stories of romance that span every corner of the United States.
REVIEW:
A new States of Love entry from Dreamspinner Press. This time is a horse farm in Virginia.
The historic Bellmeade Horse Farm had fallen on some rough times in the recent years however Destin Bellingham had no idea how much his late, drunk father had squandered and wasted until the farm fell into his lap. Now he is trying to pick up what’s left of the family estate but unfortunately there’s not much left to work with. They had been a very successful bred farm for many years and now, with just 3 bredmares, a few vials of very sought after semen from their most successful show horse, their current stallion is practically infertile and the young hopeful, “Black Sambuca”, seems to be a lost cause. So basically Destin is royally screwed! When his best friend suggesting bringing the legendary Tonio Benedetto to try to figure out what is up with the promising jumper Destin takes a chance and calls for help. Now all is up to Tonio to figure out why the champion jumper isn’t controllable in order to save the farm.
I don’t know if it’s because this novella was so short however it just didn’t click with me. There was plenty of rich, deep description of the surroundings but the lack of true development between the men was surprising. One minute they are hardly speaking and the next they are hot after each other. I know there was a bit of holding back by each man but the signals weren’t even coming across to me. Yes, Tonio gave Destin a quick peck on the mouth the first night but he was quite tipsy after being dry for quite a bit of time. And speaking of being tipsy, Tyler knew that Tonio had a history of trouble with alcohol so why would he order wine while out to eat or keep a fully stocked, unlocked bar at the house to tempt him. That made absolutely no sense. Tonio was his only hope of saving his horse farm and you leave the booze dangling like a bone in front of a dog? It just didn’t fit. And I am still confused as to how Tonio figured out Destin was gay. I went back and looked and I know that they talked about his father finding him in the apartment with his former boyfriend but that was after they were together but couldn’t find where he knew to proceed.
If you are into horses and training for competition then then you might like this better. There was quite a bit of the book spent on the fundamentals of the sport. Unfortunately it fell short for me on the men and their budding relationship. That part was finally starting to pick up and then the story was done. I have no idea if they were even out together as a couple. This story just didn’t raise to the bar for me.
RATING: 
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