Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: The Grumpy Vet
SERIES: Vet Shop Boys Down Under (Book 3)
AUTHOR: Casey Cox
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 225 pages
RELEASE DATE: August 18, 2025
BLURB:
How to handle a grumpy vet?…
Ryde
I’ve been crushing on my boss, Linus, for years now. So when my best friend, Dario, starts working at the clinic for six months, I know he can help me. He’s way better with guys than I am. I’m excited. Things with Linus might finally progress.
Dario
I’m an idiot for thinking moving to Scuttlebutt would help me get over my feelings for my bestie. All it does is amplify them even more. As if things weren’t messy enough, I catch feelings for my new boss, Linus. Oh boy. If I’m not careful, I could lose my best friend and my job.
Linus
Ryde is my best mate’s son and my employee. Dario is his best friend and also my employee. They’re very different, yet I’m attracted to both of them. But I’m a closed-off grump, used to being alone. I’ve never been able to open up to one guy—how on earth am I supposed to make it work with two?
REVIEW:
I got to do something I rarely get to do with a series, read it from the very beginning straight through to the end. And I’m so thankful I got to do that. When I agreed to take over this series, it was explained that you needed to read all the books in published order to get the full experience of this wonderful group of men. Yes, every story concluded what was going to happen for that relationship to reach its hard earned HEA. But there was always a hint at something more that you just couldn’t wait for the next book. Like Fitz and Muir dropping the bomb of them being accidentally married at Wilby and Col’s wedding. You had to have that story STAT! I really loved that the author introduced us to the Vet Shop team and then kept them intricately woven in each of the men’s stories. And it was way more than glimpses. You felt like they were a team that took interest and cared for each other deeply.
Well, for me, I had to get to the bottom of the stoic (some may say grumpy) and very private Vet Shop owner Linus and his best mate’s son, who had heart eyes every time he laid eyes on his boss, Ryde’s story. I became invested in this small vet shop in this tiny fictitious town (yes, of course I checked) in the middle of nowhere in the Australian Outback. Those caring young men managed to steal my heart in between their laughter and antics.
I knew that this would be a sticky situation. Ryde’s Dad is, and has been for most of Linus’s adult life, his best mate. Linus actually had the same type crush on Oakey, who is completely straight, when he was in Vet School, that Ryde has on Linus. The two best mates can laugh about it now but Linus remembers how embarrassed he was misreading Oakey. So not fooling around with the beautiful young man is imperative. But Ryde doesn’t make it easy, especially when he gets drunk. I did find it comical that Ryde thought he hid his feelings and desires for Linus so well from everyone. Because everyone in that town could read him like a book! I was thrilled that Dario was the missing piece of the puzzle that made this coupling work and helped launch it. I was on pins and needles about Ryde’s dad finding out but still wanted, no needed, for this to work for all three men:
- Linus had been alone for far too long and needed the love and watchful eye of his younger lovers as he navigated this final phase of his dad’s life and their strained relationship.
- Dario had been secretly in love with Ryde since they first became friends and his heart would have been shattered if this went sideways and he lost Ryde!
- And, let’s face it…everyone in town knows what sweet Ryde wants. I have to say though, he’s the one that most surprised me when they became a coupling. Sweet is definitely NOT a word I would call Ryde when he’s sexually motivated for sure 😳
I am a huge fan of poly. But I didn’t expect to find it in this series. I am new to this author and didn’t see where they had written poly before but did an amazing job with it. Writing poly isn’t just having more than two people fooling around or falling in love. It’s creating a space where you know where each person is in a sexual encounter along with what each of them, in this case throuple, is feeling and thinking. The author did a fantastic job with having me understand where everyone was and did an outstanding job teaching these men to communicate. Communication in a relationship is crucial. Communication in poly is critical to a successful and long term relationship. Poly is hard work!
I am so thankful that I took a chance on this book and can’t wait for more from this gifted author! I’m going to miss these wonderful and sometimes crazy men.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
