Reviewed by Stephen K
TITLE: His Fresh Start Cowboy
AUTHOR: A.M. Arthur
SERIES: Woods Ranch #1
PUBLISHER: Carina Press
LENGTH: 304 Pages
RELEASE DATE: January 25th 2022
BLURB:
Two cowboys will have to risk their hearts—again—to find a home on the ranch.
Hugo Turner’s boots haven’t touched Texas soil in almost a decade, and he’s not sure they should now. Being in the state is complicated, but Hugo can’t resist going back for a job working with his teenage crush. His best friend’s hot older brother is now the ranch’s foreman, so he’ll be Hugo’s boss. Inappropriate? Probably. Will it stop Hugo? Probably not.
Brand Woods isn’t ready for the return of Hugo Turner. He decided long ago to keep his bisexuality private and to focus his life on running the ranch. Working next to the most dangerously tempting man he’s ever known stirs up questions Brand thought he’d put to rest.
The sparks that send their hearts galloping lead to a deeper passion than either man expects. But by giving in to the chemistry without taking a risk and committing to each other—or, more importantly, to themselves and living the lives they’ve always wanted—Brand and Hugo might lose their second chance at true love.
REVIEW:
I’ve always been a sucker for cowboy tales. I’m a sucker for coming home tales. I’m a sucker for tales with lots of personable, wholesome, likable people. This one hits the trifecta. Here we have Hugo, Texas born and bred, who fled his rural Texas town to avoid an untenable living situation with an abusive step-brother and to get some distance from his best friends big brother who he’d made the mistake of kissing.
Brand, the big brother in question had been surprised by that kiss but unable to forget it. And though he’s since had sex with both men and women, somehow he still yearns for what he was too surprised and afraid of back in that barn years ago.
Coming back and helping his best friends ranch stay in business, means Hugo may get a chance to mend fences with his mom. If it means that he’ll be working for his former crush, well, maybe that’s to the good as well. He’s not the scared young kid he was when he left and maybe this time he’ll be better able to deal with it all.
This sweet, only slightly angsty tale has some great realistic depictions of what a gay man in rural Texas might feel, and the guys’ feelings for each other after years apart is fascinating. It also makes for some great fantasy fulfillment. Their prickly natures and careful renegotiation of their relationship is so much more interesting than all the insta-love prose so many of these types of stories are rife with.
This is the first in a new series but is actually a spin off of the earlier Clean Slate Ranch series by the same author. With six books in that series and another in this series already announced, it looks like I’ve got some reading to do.
RATING: 
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