The Real Thing

This is the second edition of this book and very short, just a mere 60 pages or so, quick read. I enjoyed it, though I would have liked a bit more. The plot was good as I haven't read many cowboy books and I wanted to give it a try. The writing is good and I was just really starting to enjoy them and get attached to them, then it was over before I knew it. I do love me a good May/December romance that is M/M, my favorite genre.

Curtis is everything Bryan wants. A real life cowboy. He has loved cowboys and wanted to be one since he was a young child. Curtis is the real deal. Bryan has always had a thing for them. He dresses in his best-dressed clothes and snakeskin boots and heads to the Watering Hole. When he gets there he sees two distinguished men. Cowboys, however, he overhears a conversation and quickly changes his attire.

When they see each other a second time, there is no holding either one back from a great time. With that encouragement, they are supposed to see each other again. Much to Bryan’s happiness, he gets invited to Curtis ranch. Then a bit of drama and some miscommunication or lack of communication.

Like I said I liked it I just wanted to spend a little more time with them, though I did really like it. I would have rated this a 4-star book if it was just a little bit longer.

This is the second edition of this book and very short, just a mere 60 pages or so, quick read. I enjoyed it, though I would have liked a bit more. The plot was good as I haven't read many cowboy books and I wanted to give it a try. The writing is good and I was just really starting to enjoy them and get attached to them, then it was over before I knew it. I do love me a good May/December romance that is M/M, my favorite genre.

Curtis is everything Bryan wants. A real life cowboy. He has loved cowboys and wanted to be one since he was a young child. Curtis is the real deal. Bryan has always had a thing for them. He dresses in his best-dressed clothes and snakeskin boots and heads to the Watering Hole. When he gets there he sees two distinguished men. Cowboys, however, he overhears a conversation and quickly changes his attire.

When they see each other a second time, there is no holding either one back from a great time. With that encouragement, they are supposed to see each other again. Much to Bryan’s happiness, he gets invited to Curtis ranch. Then a bit of drama and some miscommunication or lack of communication.

Like I said I liked it I just wanted to spend a little more time with them, though I did really like it. I would have rated this a 4-star book if it was just a little bit longer.

Reviewed by Morningstar for Diverse Reader

As much as I wanted to have another cowboy story to add to the list of ones that I loved, this one did not hit the spot for me. Overall the writing was really good and the characters developed as much as expected for a short story. Curtis was sweet and Bryan, young and a bit naive.

But there were things about it that bothered me. Although, we know going in that Bryan Mills has a thing for cowboys the way the author writes about it turns it into more of a fetish then a love of the look. Things like Bryan mentioning jobs that are “masculine” or the other “real” cowboys Bryan overheard talking said the group of young guys that were in the bar dressed as cowboys they “...look like a bunch of ballerinas, prancing around like that,” or when Bryan heard this he looked at those guys dancing and thought “...the way they were moving wasn’t the most masculine thing…” And this all because those guys were dressed in nice jeans and shiny boots. The author scripted this as though only real cowboys wear work rough jeans and scuffed boots and of course don’t own nice clothes.

The fetishizing and stereotyping was throughout the whole story and gave me this ick feeling no matter how much I tried to shake it off. And because there was so much of that feeling coming from Bryan any feelings he may have developed for Curtis, seemed false. It’s all told from Bryan’s POV so we don’t get to see any of Curtis’s motivations or how he feels when he found out he was deceived. I had hoped that those things were being used to show an evolution of thought for Bryan; but unfortunately that was not the case.

This is a new to me author so maybe this wasn’t typical, which I hope is the case, since the writing as a whole was actually very good just the story fell flat for me and made me feel insulted on behalf of cowboys and the more effeminate gay men.

Bryan likes older men and loves cowboys. He decides to dress the part to get one. He succeeds only to find that his cowboy wants the real thing too. Will his deceit cost him the perfect man for him?
I am a huge BG Thomas fan and I love cowboys. This story didn't let me down. It was short but also fun as in all B G books and also sweet and sexy.
To be so short I felt we really got into both characters and the plot is obvious. Both men looking for that perfect partner. I adored the use of the title in the book as well.

If you like short stories, cowboys, and some hot man-sex you will love this book.