Ranch Hands by S.L. Danielson
Ranch Hands is a novel with the taste of an homemade apple pie. Sid Rosen is the only owner, and worker, of a ruined ranch in an farm county. He has no money to hire an help and neither to pay the mortgage, but he doesn’t want to give up. The only one to answer his ad for a ranch hand is Roger: not much experience, but willing to help in exchange of only border, Roger is Sid’s only chance.
They start a cohabitation that is at the same time easy and awkward: it’s clear that both of them have secrets to hide, and it’s also clear that they are drawn to each other, but neither of them is willing, or able to do the first step. I had the feeling that both Sid and Rog are quiet men, plain and homely, not really the hard core type; together they are able to do something and go on, but alone they would probably give up. Due to their submissive character, they are also easy prey, for unscrupulous men; their past history is quite similar, and for this reason they have in common also a future development; I’m not sure to find believable that both of them had almost the same “accident” with a past lover, but then, that is also a point that bond them together, so maybe it was a necessary twist in the plot. For sure it gave me the idea that Sid and Roger have to be really careful in the future, since, as I said, together they can face adversity, but alone they are not much of an opposition against fate.
I wondered also on the place where they live; it was a throughout idyllic farm place, and for idyllic I’m not referring to the life condition, that were hard and dry, as most of the farm town nowadays, but on the acceptance that both men find with townsfolk and families: I’m not sure that is possible, at least not in US, not even in those countries where same sex marriage is legal, but at least it didn’t distract the reader from the relationship between Sid and Rog; acceptance was not one of their problem, building a common life in an difficult environment, when both of them were not exactly “macho men”, that were their obstacles.
Ranch Hands is a nice and sweet western romance, but two unexpected main heroes: those cowboys are not your usual imaginary of Marlboro man, but they are more, as the title says, ranch hands, simple, and average, men.
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