Reviewed by Valerie
TITLE: Spring Strings
AUTHOR: Lily Morton
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 97 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2020
BLURB:
Malachi Booth is a supermodel. The last place he expects to find himself is on a run-down farm in Cornwall, but a bad bout of bronchitis means that he’s stuck there.
Cadan Landry’s farm has been in his family for hundreds of years but that doesn’t make it any easier to make ends meet. As a consequence, Cadan could be called grumpy. Most men would consider a supermodel collapsing at their feet while dressed in a skimpy pair of briefs to be a sign of good fortune. Cadan just resents the fact that the young man is taking up space in his cow field.
These two men are from different worlds, but can they ever meet in the middle?
REVIEW:
Let the snark fly because the High Priestess of Snark is back with this irresistible new novella. Cadan and Malachi are laugh-out-loud funny together. Malachi’s a supermodel known for his gorgeous long hair, poor attitude, and cutting riposte, and he delivers all three when he steps onto Cadan’s farm for a photo shoot. Problem is, Malachi is sick with bronchitis, too sick to work, in fact, so sick he passes out in the cow field nearly at Cadan’s feet. And, of course, he’s too sick to travel back home and must stay with Cadan indefinitely while he heals.
“Goodness, I do hope you don’t die where you’re standing,” comes a cool voice behind me. “It would be terribly inconvenient.”
I turn to find the angry man from earlier who Bobby said was the farmer. I lean against the fence and eye him, glad that the coughing has stopped. “Why?” I say hoarsely. “Would it disturb you to have an extreme example of manly beauty dead on your property?”
“No, it’s just that you’re blocking the entrance to the cow field.”
The snappy dialogue – one of Lily Morton’s specialties – is on point again. It begins with fierce snark between Malachi and the photographer he’s working for, and then between Malachi and Cadan, although the latter pair often delivers it with poorly concealed smiles knowing they’ve found worthy adversaries in each other. The snark gives way to quick witted banter then to a more genteel tone as Malachi and Cadan’s relationship mellows and matures. Not to say it gets old and boring. It’s always clever and humorous, just more loving. And the two men have fantastic chemistry, in and out of bed.
Sometimes novellas fall short because there’s simply too little space to sufficiently develop a plot and characters, build a world, resolve the conflict, and whatever else authors need to do. The result is a book with too little depth. Well, not so with Spring Strings, which reads like a book twice its length. It doesn’t appear that any aspects of a good book have been sacrificed. Morton delivers a fresh take on the opposites attract and forced proximity tropes with an engrossing storyline. Both of the main characters have been fully fleshed out with thorough backstories. There’s a lovely sense of place on High Top farm, from the very first moment Malachi steps out of the taxi – coughing up a lung – onto the badly rutted driveway and to the cow fields beyond. No need to use your imagination, as Morton describes every room of the old farmhouse (even though most are empty), and every corner of the farm beautifully.
This lovely book is one I can easily recommend. I got a great deal of enjoyment from it including lots of good feels, lots of good laughs and an ear to ear smile at the perfect epilogue three years down the road.
RATING: 
BUY LINK: