Reviewed by Stephen K.
TITLE: Down and Dirty
SERIES: (Down Home #2)
AUTHOR: Parker St. John
PUBLISHER: Self published
LENGTH: 154 pages
RELEASE DATE: August 5th 2021
BLURB:
One kiss ended in tragedy. Now they have a second chance to do it right.
Lane: Bull fighter. Heart throb. Wild card.
Rodeo pro Lane Bell knows a thing or two about taking damage.
He’s made a career out of punishing himself, but he can’t outrun his troubled past. Not when it shows up in an irresistible package to spring him from county lock-up and demand he come home.
Denver Reed is rugged and ripped, with a voice like smoke and eyes that watch every move he makes.
Lane fell hard for him once, but never again.
Because Denver is straight.
Denver: Bull rider. Mystery. Legend.
Denver Reed has never known anything but denial.
He once set the world on fire on the back of a bull, but his chance at fame is long gone. Because when Lane took off, it was Denver who sacrificed everything to clean up the shattered mess he left behind.
Denial has kept Denver alive all this time.
Denying what he feels for the sinful bull fighter with the lightning eyes and quick grin. Denying the fact that he craves Lane more than air to breathe. Denying his very nature.
Because Lane already broke his heart once.
He can’t survive it a second time.
REVIEW:
Lane seemed like an amazing guy and even in the earlier book I was curious about him and wanted to spend more time with him. Problem is that the strong silent types, especially cowboys, often make the worst narrators. And this book is from Lane’s POV.
Lane Bell is a surviving twin. He and Skylar, his twin, along with a sort of adopted brother, Denver, were aspiring bull-riders. Denver was something of an orphan/stray that the Bell’s had sort of adopted into their family. Denver was the most gifted of the three. He and Skylar had dreams of becoming rodeo superstars, while Lane, not entirely invested in the dream, was content just to be in the other’s company. Skylar was gregarious and straight, Lane was always a bit more of a loner and gay. Of course Lane developed feelings for Denver and one day, he took a risk and made those feelings known to him. It’s never made clear exactly what happened that day, but Skylar, for once unaccompanied by the other two, is killed by the ranch’s prize bull.
While Denver remained on the ranch, Lane decamped to the rodeo as a bull fighter/rodeo clown. Rodeo clowns attempt to rescue thrown riders from the enraged bulls… often by making themselves the target. Lane’s self destructive nature is beginning to take a toll and he’s relying more and more on “cowboy candy,” pain-killers and booze, a combination which has him acting out. After he’s suspended for decking one of the rodeo organizers and jailed for his involvement in a bar fight, he’s bailed out by apparently straight Denver who’s given up on his own rodeo dreams, and stayed behind with Lane’s grieving parents to run the family ranch.
Can these two hard headed men overcome their differences, and their misunderstandings and reach a happy ending?
I liked this book but I yearned for the second POV. When one reads a novel with a single POV it can feel constricting. Sometimes it allows you to wallow in someone’s guilt, or experience a greater epiphany when their viewpoint changes, but I’m not sure it was the best format for this book. While I liked both men and was rooting for them from the get-go, these are hard men. They say cowboys are special with their own brand of misery, and these two have plenty of that. Cowboys aren’t easy to love, they seldom talk about how they feel. And these guys are cowboy thru and thru. That said, if you’re in the mood for an m/m romance where both MCs are admirable, but stoic, taciturn men, then this may be your book.
RATING: 
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