I Heart You, H.C. Brown
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Genre: Gay Romance
Tags: Australian Setting, Contemporary
Length: 66 Pages
Reviewer: Kazza K
Purchase At: Dreamspinner Press, amazon.com
Official Blurb:
After a six year absence, Kale Stone returns to Australia to inherit his father’s vineyard, Vine Mountain Winery, but finds a shocking requirement to the will. His homophobic father set an impossible condition: he must marry or reach age thirty-five before he can inherit the family business and fortune. Unable to run the winery without the money, he has no choice but to sell.
The only light in the darkness is his childhood friendship with the winery manager, Tyler Duram, which grows into a secret love affair. When an offer arrives for the vineyard, it includes a contract for Tyler. Unwilling to lose Tyler, Kale searches for another solution— until he catches Tyler kissing another man.
My Review:
Twenty four year old Kale Stone has been away from Australia, and his family winery, for six years. His father threw him out when it came to his attention that Kale is gay. Now he has returned to Queensland because his father recently died and he has a winery to oversee. However, there are stipulations along with the winery – Kale must marry and until he does he only receives $100,000. There is a larger estate at stake, over $27 million dollars, but not if he doesn’t do what his father has willed. His dad was homophobic and believed that if Kale married it would sort our his gay lifestyle choice. The $100K won’t pay wages or run the estate past six weeks so he wants to put the winery on the market and return to France. But part of the winery now is the manager, Tyler Duram. He came on board when Kale’s father bought his family’s property and he’s become a good manager and vintner. Tyler fancied Kale when they were younger but he was seventeen when Kale left and Kale was not going to go there with a seventeen year old. But now, now Tyler is all gown up.
Long story short, both men fancy one another, start a relationship, and time apart has not thawed out the attraction, it’s ramped it up. But how to get around that will? Aha! It seems there’s a loophole. Dad didn’t stipulate marriage to a woman in the will – which I found a tad convenient, but anyway…
Overall:
If you like a sweet, middle-of-the-road, quick MM romance, with an antagonist thrown in to cause a slight bit of drama before the happy ending, then this could be your book. It is easy to read, light, pretty sweet and the characters are mostly likeable.
Sadly, I rarely read books set in Australia because they tend to get Americanised. While this e-book is not bad overall, and isn’t really geographically specific, apart from Brisbane airport, we don’t use blacktop here and we call them prawns not shrimp. If you set a book in a particular country go the whole distance with the lingo.
ARC supplied by Dreamspinner Press in return for an honest review.
This looks like a nice short. I would, however, have been a bit bothered by the lingo. If it’s set in Australia with Australian characters, the American words would have bugged me.
Great review.
It certainly is a nice short that is easy to read. Thanks, Cindi.
The words used were only about three times but it just irritated me and pulled me out of the story. I pretty much point blank refuse to read stories set here now because of it. Of course, Hades, Candice Fox, was one that did not deviate once, it was Aussie through and through.
I understand well where you are coming from. You know me and southern speak in books.
Well, this book was, I see written by an Aussie. You may not understand that most USA publishers require words to be in USA English. I read this story and have read another by this author both set in Australia I enjoyed both of them. I didn’t mind ass for arse or the USA spelling throughout. This would have been a requirement by the publisher. You see the majority of readers are from the USA so they wouldn’t understand the terms we use. Its all about marketing. If you Cindi write in a southern speak for your readers well that’s… Read more »
Good for you if you enjoyed the book, Cheryl. Go write your own review. This is mine. If H C Brown quits after the comments on here, she better not go on to Goodreads. You are a tad sensitive for someone who did not write this book. Friend, are we? And there are US publishers who take into consideration the vernacular of the country that a book is set in. I edit books. I am well aware of who published Candice Fox’s book. Now that is a good book. Besides, ‘through and through’ implies from the author to the vernacular… Read more »
Well, wasn’t this insulting to American readers? You know, the ones who you assume are too unintelligent to understand the dialect from other parts of the world. Sorry to disappoint you, but when this AMERICAN reader reads books set in other parts of the world, I expect the words used to be from that area. This particular American does have a clue what a nappy is and knows that certain American words are not used in Australia or the UK or wherever. As far as the “southern speak” is concerned… and I should point out strongly that you totally took… Read more »
You talk to me all the time and I see no language barrier and, furthermore, I speak to others from America and they don’t get all glazed over at my words as opposed to theirs. Nor me at yours or theirs.
The world is a global village now and we are so much more exposed to different cultures and their language and wonderful differences.
Pfft. This is the kindest review of the book. I don’t get it, but whatever…
BTW Hades was published by Random House Australia…..hence the spelling and dialect.