Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: Crossroads
SERIES: Kensley Universe
AUTHOR: Nicole Dykes
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 256 pages
RELEASE DATE: October 20, 2025
BLURB:
Emerson
My mom thinks I’m spoiled. So what does she do? She ships me out to a farm in the middle of nowhere.
It’s supposed to teach me some sort of lesson.
It won’t.
The only thing that’ll come from this will be the small town of Kensley meeting its match.
And not just Kensley.
Him.
Jasper thinks he can best me? Well, he has another thing coming. I may look like a spoiled city boy on the outside, but I’ll be the fiercest competition this country boy has ever seen.
Jasper
He’s a spoiled brat. Who does this guy think he is, showing up in my hometown and challenging me in every possible way?
He has no idea who he’s messing with.
None.
I may be a little turned around right now, having lost my girlfriend, but I’ll get her back. And everything in my world will be right again.
Including him.
I’ll send him packing before he knows what’s happened. This city boy doesn’t stand a chance.
We’re at a crossroads now, him and me.
And only one of us will come out as the winner.
REVIEW:
I have grown very fond of the small town of Kensley. I have watched their football teams grow up and graduate. I have loved watching the players meet their “one true love” and live happily ever after. I even got to see their coach find true love with their new assistant coach. I’ve enjoyed seeing this small town in Western Kansas grow and become open to same sex couplings. We even get a few glimpses of previous couples and their families in this wonderful new book in this fabulous universe Author Nicole Dykes has created.
Emerson has really done it this time and his mother isn’t amused. So, in order to get his parents to pay for his upcoming college, he is being shipped off to a small town in Western Kansas to work on his aunt and uncle’s ranch for the summer. His parents have taken away his credit cards and sold off his car. The Ford that they bought to replace it was definitely nothing special. He was stuck and it was his own darn fault. So out he went, in his designer clothes and high end tennis shoes, to an Aunt’s house he has never even met before.
Jasper can’t believe he’s being stuck babysitting Kelly’s nephew when he has work that needs to be done. The spoiled brat obviously has never set his designer shoes on farm land before. Who the heck wears shoes worth more than his truck to a working ranch? But Jasper is so thankful to Kelly and John, his best friend Millie’s parents, for providing a roof over his head, food in his body and wages to give to his parents. Since his Dad’s tragic accident and debilitating pain, he has helped to subsidize his Mom’s wages and Dad’s disability check. But this city kid is just annoying as hell and bugs him at every bend. On top of that, Lucy (his long time girlfriend) just dumped him. His girlfriend that he thought was his one and only. The one that he planned to marry and settle down with in Kensley. So life isn’t going so red hot.
When John sends them both out of town to pick up a bull at auction they are forced to share a bed in a motel. But can two complete opposites learn to work together? And what is it with their sudden attraction to each other’s bodies?
I love Kensley and getting to come back and spend time here is a treat. Emerson was the perfect spoiled rich, late-in-life only child, ultimate brat that needed to be reined in. But what he really and truly needed was love and someone to actually care enough to pay attention. I’m sure it was a shock to Kelly that her sister was so cold to her only child. A child she had yearned for over many years. But she was too busy and Emerson knew how to take advantage of it. But Kelly taught him that family can and do care. She was so wise and saw through all the bluster to the fact that these two straight and hurt men were made for each other.
This book contains some serious issues both men faced in their young lives. Jasper had the world thrust on his shoulders when his dad’s accident changed their family forever. He was a true hero. He placed his Mother, Father and sweet baby brother needs above what his were. I know that he thought that he was abandoning them because seeing his father suffer was too much. But he was ALWAYS there for them. And poor Emerson. His mother may have dreamed of finally having a baby. And she may have been overjoyed…at first. However, she was not a mother. She just went through the motions. A true mother is there for you. They listen to you. They engage with you. They discipline you when you mess up. But they love you unconditionally and make you a major part of their life. You are not a trophy to be brought out but a child to love. Thankfully Kelly and John recognized this and became the family that he needed.
A wonderful and thought provoking book.
RATING: 
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