Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Baker
SERIES: Bastian Brothers
AUTHOR: V.L. Locey
PUBLISHER: Perky Rooster Press
LENGTH: 221 pages
RELEASE DATE: July 30, 2025
BLURB:
While battling to save his family’s ranch, Baker finds himself falling for a man as unrestrained as the Oklahoma winds.
For as long as he can recall, Baker Bastian has been the backbone of Bastian Acres Ranch. He’s carried a heavy load, trying his best to keep his family legacy from being swallowed up by corporate farming while battling a fondness for the bottle, a messy divorce, and a grandmother who’s set on becoming the next Annie Oakley if she could just get a gun that shoots straight. It’s not been an easy road. Now, with his worthless philandering father’s death, the deed to the ranch is to be split four ways with three half-brothers he never wanted to get to know better.
As the ranch is tossed into chaos, Baker is driven to open the gates to strangers, and not just his brothers and their traveling companions. In order to turn a buck, the once proud owner of prime cattle is reduced to calling his farming legacy a guest ranch. The first client to show up is Hanley Welsh, a world-renowned wildlife photographer. Baker should be too busy to notice how rugged Hanley is, or how his eyes crinkle with his easy smile, or how well his jeans fit, but notice he does. Will Baker’s lonely existence end with the arrival of a man who carries the song of the indigo bunting in his heart?
Baker (Bastian Brothers #1) is a first in series grumpy/sunshine M/M contemporary western gay romance with a lonesome cowboy, a globetrotting wildlife photographer, unwanted family arrivals, a not-so-straight shooting octogenarian, and a picture-perfect happy ending.
Content This story has references to past substance abuse.
REVIEW:
This is a nice beginning for this series focusing on four half-brothers who haven’t met until their pretty worthless father dies and they gather to bury him and listen to the will. Baker, the resident brother of Bastian Acres ranch has lived a pretty solitary life – well except for the 5 years he was married. But at 42, divorced and sober, he is barely scraping by living with his grandmother in the 100+ year old ranch house. He’s sold off most of the land to pay bills and keep the cattle operation going, but now he’s sold off the cattle to hopefully guy out his half-brothers and try to make a go of it.
However, when the will is read, indeed his father – who had not only abandoned him but all his brothers as well – decides that they should all have a share of the ranch and work together. Baker is NOT interested in this. But the brothers are all in the mood for new starts. So Ford, from NYC, Lincoln from Chicago and Dodge from Sacramento decide they are going to stay and Baker is the odd man out. In the middle of all this mess and burying his father, Baker is introduced to a wildlife photographer who wants to use his acreage for his photos for a new book. He is a handsome guy and Baker has no reason to say no, so he says yes. Also his grandmother guilts him into allowing his half brothers to stay and throw in with him to try to keep the ranch out of a tax auction.
As the guys work together on getting the ranch back on it’s feet – buying new stock, getting goats, working on renovation cabins for rental and fixing up the old pumphouse for a dress shop – things begin to change. Also Baker and Hanley settle on a sort of hookup relationship as he’s taking photos and camping out on the land. The guys are dealing with their own baggage, but they seem to be getting along ok.
Of course this being Oklahoma, there is of course the threat of weather and various other and asundry difficulties. But turns out that sometimes you don’t always get what you want, but you get what you need 😉 And Hanley and his brothers are what Baker needs 😉
I really enjoyed this story. Hanley and Baker are good together. The story is told from Baker’s POV, so I didn’t have as much of Hanley’s character. He is the one guy can who call Baker out – he’s got less skin in the game at that point than Baker’s erstwhile family. I enjoyed them getting to know each other and they go from kind of hookup to friends to actual lovers. My only complaint – if you can call it that – is the sort of quick wrapup to this story. I hope we get to see Baker and Hanley grow as a couple in the next books. Baker’s brothers all have their own issues and I’m really looking forward to their stories. Recommended if you’re a fan of mature characters who find a safe place to land.
RATING: 
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