Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Underdog
SERIES: In Vino Veritas, Book 4
AUTHOR: L.A. Witt
PUBLISHER: Heart Eyes Press
LENGTH: 402 pages
RELEASE DATE: September 13, 2022
BLURB:
Life in foster care wasn’t easy. Life after prison? Unforgiving. But I’m determined to stay out of trouble, and I’m gaining a foothold on the closest I’ve ever known to normal.
Then, thanks to a pair of escape artist dogs from the sanctuary where I’ve found work, I cross paths with my boss’s neighbor, Ty Adams. He’s a horse trainer, and winter is his quiet season. It’s also the season when he gets restless and lonely—two things I know all about. He’s not interested in love or romance. I’m just happy someone’s interested in me at all, even if emotions are strictly forbidden.
When we’re not together, I’m thinking about him. When we are together… Well, I’m definitely thinking about what he does to me and what I want to do with him.
As we keep each other warm through the Vermont winter, this feels a lot more than physical. Somehow he soothes my pain, and I wonder if I’m touching something deep inside him too. But Ty won’t let himself love anyone. I never had a chance. And now, with my past closing in, I could lose the one man I hoped I could count on. The one I thought might be different.
When his present and my history collide, is it too much to hope he’ll choose me?
CW: Sick horse and a minor accident involving a horse—no animal deaths or serious injuries/illnesses.
REVIEW:
L.A. Witt’s Underdog is the fourth book in the In Vino Veritas series, a spin-off series from the multi-author, shared universe series Vino & Veritas. Both series are set in Sarina Bowen’s True North world in Burlington, Vermont, and In Vino Veritas provides the romances and HEAs for some of the side characters we met in the V&V series. The eponymous Vino & Veritas is the fictional, inclusive bookstore/wine bar in Burlington that serves as an anchor point for both series; it’s a central locale where the characters work, meet, and frequent for drinks, music, book club meetings, and coffee. It doesn’t play much of a role beyond that in Underdog.
You’ve already been introduced to the main characters in Underdog, Landon and Ty, if you’ve read the earlier books in this series. Ty owns a horse farm and Landon, who is on parole, recently out of prison after spending almost a decade in jail, works for him. Landon is also the estranged BFF of Luke from book three, Leslie McAdams’ Unmanageable. Landon and Luke have begun to reestablish their friendship, and Landon finds that Luke is one of the few people who sees him as a person, not as an ex-con. They don’t have a lot of interactions in this book, but the ones they do have play an important role in this story.
Both Ty and Landon are likable characters, particularly Landon, who is the focal point of this story. We see him as the good guy he is, a man who’s made mistakes and has paid for them dearly, and now just wants a second chance in life. He and Ty have great chemistry. Witt is always terrific at conveying emotion, tugging on the heartstrings while steaming up the pages with her sex scenes, of which there are plenty here, but not too many.
Ty frustrated me at times with his hesitation about Landon. The hesitation and doubt are understandable, but Witt prolongs that throughout much of the narrative, with Ty’s constant vacillation and harping back on the same concerns repeatedly. In the latter parts of the book, Ty’s character begins to show some cracks and inconsistencies because Witt persists in his internal struggles about Landon versus his family’s horse farm business beyond the point where we thought he had, or should have, reconciled them.
This brings me to my overarching criticism of Underdog. I have read several of Witt’s stories. Every single one has examined and commented to some extent on prison reform, the human rights of prisoners, their prospects for social reintegration, and the challenges society presents to rehabilitation. Underdog takes this one step further by essentially centering the entire story around these issues, albeit wrapped up in a romance with Ty. If you disagree with Witt’s politics, you’ll DNF Underdog by the end of the first chapter, if not sooner. But even if you agree with them or are neutral about the issues, you may disappointingly find that Underdog isn’t really a romance so much as social commentary with romance on the side.
My viewpoint on Witt’s stories is complicated. Her writing strengths and rich character development are a draw. However, she seemingly cannot edit out redundancy which creates long books, typically over 400 pages, with stories that could easily be told in half that number. The excess is repetition of the same thoughts, long internal monologues ruminating about the same conflicts ad nauseam, or long stretches of the narrative discussing politics. Frankly, it creates a disjointed, frustrating, and polarizing reading experience.
Overall, the story in Underdog is a good one, but you have to slog through a lot of unnecessary, if not annoying, narrative. However, if you like Witt’s writing, can tolerate her politics, and have patience, then definitely give Underdog a read.
RATING: 
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