The hopeful readers group discussion

Starting today 😄

Andrea wrote: "Starting today 😄"

So am I! :)

So, do you want to set a limit of chapters to read? It has 36 chapters plus an epilogue.
Or do you just want to comment as we go along and keep everything plot relevant in spoiler tags? It's almost 10PM over here, so I might not get so much done tonight. But feel free to ignore the snow storm (seriously, btw, why do you guys have snow? I haven't seen snow in forever. I don't know if I miss it, but I'm guessing no…) and read as much as you can, I'm a fast reader :D

Andrea wrote: "So, do you want to set a limit of chapters to read? It has 36 chapters plus an epilogue.
Or do you just want to comment as we go along and keep everything plot relevant in spoiler tags? It's almos..."

Why don't we hook up tomorrow morning (my time, we are lagging 8 hours behind ) and see how far we got. It's NASTY outside, and I will probably spend hours reading while my horses freeze their asses off outside, but I am only a 30pages/hour reader.
So far I am enjoying it, no angsty brooding and the story moves along without being outrageously far-fetched.

I only finished the first two chapters so far, but I'll get some reading time in once I'm back from my walk with my dog. Probably in about 2 hours or so?

I finished chapter 7, and I really like it. (view spoiler)[It seems weird that they are hunting Robbie like this, but at least he and Trace are honest and just discuss the situation rationally. I wonder about the girls and the bruises. And what it is about the family that makes everyone avoid them... (hide spoiler)]

I pulled a half-nighter and finished chapter 28. I like the "feel-good" vibe from Robby's interactions with the family.
The "hunting-Robby-so-hard" (I was wondering the same thing) is solved later on (I don't think that is a big spoiler). But when you get to that point I'd still be questioning something about that as well - remind me.

Living in ranching country for the last 20 years the bruises of the girls did not come as a big surprise to me ... ;)

I do, too, appreciate the open communication!

Eventually I will be curious to ask a couple of questions about M/M in romance in general.

Technical question: Am I supposed to mark spoilers only for you to give you time to catch up, or always since this thread is public?

:D Ok, fine, I bow to your superior expertise :D Cows? Horses??? Don't tell me they'd be stupid enough for that.. I mean, I've been riding since I was four, and I've never had bruises. But "my" horses were all the kind to defend me against their own owner the few times I fell. *Sigh* I miss horses ("my" last baby got too old to ride a few years ago, and I haven't been able to get back to the stables because *snif*. But anyways, I'm rambling..).

I'll catch up to you soon, no worries :D

I usually put plot stuff in Buddy Reads in spoilers just so I don't ruin things for the person reading with me. Everyone else should be warned HERE BE SPOILERS :D

Ask away about m/m romances!

Rambling: the nice thing about living in Wyoming is that I can easily afford to keep several horses around, thus coping better with losses. Not that I love one more than the other, but the others help me over the loss of one. The Arabian I left back in Germany hit 30 now and is in the best care one can imagine.

The bruises .... (view spoiler)[you got close! Not cows or horses, but pigs. Pig wrestling is a major event here at county fairs, kids and adults competing alike. Now - with what goal the family wrestles the pig in the mud - that I don't know. I assume the author heard something about pig wrestling and that was what she made of it. Here the wrestlers are competing in teams of four, in a round arena of about 20 meters diameter filled with slippery mud. The goal is to grab the pig and stuff it into a barrel, best time wins. Kids get smaller pigs, of course. Admittedly, this borders on animal cruelty and will surely never be a sport in Germany. (hide spoiler)]

M/M romances. I usually stay away from them, even though I liked the ones I read due to very likeable characters. Call me homophobic (but I know I am not) but what does a straight person compel to read an LGBT romance?

So. I got to the secret. And 🤣 okay. Sure. Thanks for your info, I was going to ask if that is actually a thing. Not that I have a hard time picturing this in real life, but...
And no, we'd probably never have that over here. If not for the fact that it's undignified, a waste of time, and oh lord, someone could crack a smile in public 🤣 I'm trying to imagine telling my grandparents about this. They would not have approved based on "und was für n Sinn hat das???". Lols

As for your last question, I just got bored of everything else. It felt like reading the same romance over and over again. And me personally, I have found very few authors who can write females that I don't want to punch. I just started one day withThe Soldier's Scoundrel, devoured all those, moved on to Glitterland, and kept reading. I usually prefer the dynamic because for some strange reason the same (usually female) authors who write irrational women I just loath, can write decent guys and give them stories without ridiculous drama I can't stand.
That, and I honestly don't care who falls in love with whom. If the book is good, I'll enjoy it, and that's what's important for me.

Finished chapter 26. Yay me. Only took until midnight...
How's the storm, btw? I don't want to make it worse, but we've been having 20-23°C here all weekend. It was heaven. Blue skies and sunshine...
Anyways. Before drama catches up with the boys, I'll stop for now.
I really liked that they were just so open and honest, with no stupid angsting and analyzing every word and touch and all that. I hope Clovis gets his girl on the end, it was so cute when he started trying hard to be less... well. You know 😄
I like how Robby managed the whole family. It's so precious!
I honestly didn't think I'd enjoy this one. I've never read a mail order romance, or that many set in that time, but I kinda like this one.

The storm is over, it brought much less snow than forecasted, but a lot of wind. The only remarkable about it were the 20 minutes I spend 4 meters above the ground hanging onto a ladder trying to nail the siding down the wind tried to rip off my house. The perks of living alone in the middle of nowhere.

Did I say I read slow? I do, but it is 20-23° here too ... Fahrenheit. That's cold, so a good reason to read, and I really really enjoyed this book. Finished it early evening.

I was thankful for the author to give a reason why the bad guys were pursuing Robby so hard, but then I was wondering: how did the Marshalls know that he was an eye witness?
A while later I was also thanking the author for realistic reasoning why sex in cold water is a no-go, but then wondering how anybody can sprawl on a mattress that was rotting in an abandoned house for more than 20 years *ewwww*! And there I wished they would have stayed in the cold water instead ;)

The way how Robby/Rowena was handling the family was cute beyond words, the napkin scene was hilarious, and those were the feel-good parts that made me turning pages!

The big fight.
(view spoiler)[
The beginning of that chapter scared me. What is he gonna do? Reveal himself to the family? Idiot! Give himself up to the bad guys? Idiot! I was really expecting one of these two scenarios to happen while reading these 3 only angsty pages in the book. I could feel getting mad! But - yay - he didn't do any of that.
And he had good reasoning. I had one thought, though. The bad guys were known by now to kill innocent bystanders, what would have stopped them to attack the ranch even if Robby wasn't there anymore?
And, after stopping the stage coach, they should have killed Robby on sight with their history of killing people left and right, but I'll forgive them for only capturing him alive.
Pa-pa was a bit more accepting than I would have expected.
However. Off Robby goes to San Francisco and I was a bit annoyed that he expected Trace to come with him, but not considering himself to stay. On the other hand there really was not much of a future as a gay couple in the Wild West. Hell, there is still not much of a future in the current Wild West for gay couples. I was wondering through the whole book how that problem would be solved, and it was at the end in an overly sweet yet adorable way.
(hide spoiler)]

To sum it up: 5 star read for me, and I don't give high ratings out a lot. There were no annoy factors (except the mattress *ewww*), the story went forward, no doubtful thoughts that filled pages, the guys communicated their feelings to each other, and yet it was not boring by no means.

Editing could have been a touch more thorough, there was a lot of slang that masked editing errors a bit, but some still came through.

As for mail-order-romances - I found that most of them are written in an overly simple style (Groschen Romane), thus I do not pick them up very often. Add to that that many of them have a widower with kids as male protagonist I pass. Very few authors make kids an enhancing part of a romance story.
And the historic American setting does usually not work for me, personally, either. Where I live it is 100 years backwards, except readily available electricity and running water really not much changed out here, making me cringe at the romanticizing of the live here in American Historic Romances.

Back to the M/M question. Your point (annoying female protagonists versus reasonable M/M protagonists) is a very good one, it might be that this is the reason why I liked the few M/Ms I read.
I guess what bothers me are the intimate parts. I already skip a lot of heterosexual detailed scenes in other books, not prudish but bored, I want to read a story, not a guide book with 1001 variations on how to have sex. I guess I can do the same (skipping pages) when the guys get on it, but it is still a bit odd. The same oddness I would feel when picturing my parents having sex with the typical childish reaction: *gross*! Neither of those are, in fact, gross – I can not really pinpoint it.

This said - I will definitely look more around in this genre. If less drama is a big part of it, I am all in!

True, I also don't know how the Marshalls knew about him. Maybe the guy who hid him in New York told them? Or… Because it was convenient to the plot? :D

Yep, the mattress was a bit icky. So was the butter, if I'm being honest... Yuck. Just. Yuck.

The big fight. Sigh. I knew he'd go and do something stupid. I still think Trace's plan would've been safer. This way he endangered them all even more. I get it, he didn't want to endanger him, but he should've known Trace would just come after him if he ran. Oh well. Must have some stupid conflict, I guess?

And hey, stupid villains are a must. Otherwise every one would just be dead :D Imagine how often a James Bond would've just died already if the bad guys didn't feel the need to boast their plans to him…

And yes, the ending was. Meh. I know he wanted to be famous and wouldn't sacrifice his dreams, but he didn't have to demand Trace come with him like that. I also don't know how I feel about Trace being on stage in the end. It doesn't really seem like his thing? But it was a nice solution, so. Meh.

I agree, romanticizing the Wild West doesn't really work for me. I can barely suspend my belief and get into Regency romances, but still. But sometimes it's nice to just escape :D

Yeah. Sometimes the sex is excessive in either genre. I skip or skim those scenes mostly, too. It's very rare that someone manages to capture an intimacy I can buy or relate to enough.

I wouldn't say less drama, but less contrived drama? Take Regency m/m romances, for example. The biggest drama is usually that it was actually illegal for them to be together. That's an issue I can get behind, and I can understand if it makes them run away.

I'm glad we did this buddy read :) It's nicer than just reading alone and have someone you can talk to about the book instead of just annoying friends by raving (or ranting) about a book you just read :D

Also, I finished the book. Not sure how to rate it, though. I'm torn between three and four stars. The drama in the end was a bit too much for me, and I skimmed some of it before my eyes got stuck from all the eye rolls :D

Oh no, you need to forgive the drama! ;)

It was a clear 5 star read for me, and I will stick to it, but it probably won a star for being different from what I usually read. New experience, more exciting. While I, too, had problems to picture Trace on stage (AND actually be vain!) all the new of this genre was overpowering the eye roll.

I was curious and got Blame It on the Mistletoe last night and melted away or teared up laughing for three hours (100 pages novella) - I am in love with nerdy Fielding with his puppy mentality and health-nut Mike. Loved every single page, no-doubt-about-it 5 star read, which makes Robby look a bit pale compared to it.

Obviously I am hooked. I am not sure if I dare to read How to Howl at the Moon, though. Dog shifters? Scary ...

I am sure happy that you suggested this for a buddy read, loved it all the way through!

Now off to serious work, it was -20° Celsius last night, sun is out, blue sky and snow on the ground and I need to open the ice on the water tanks for my horses. Because even for Wyoming this was a cold night in April, I took my tank heaters out a few days ago when we had 25° Celsius sunshine!

Awww. Yes, Fielding is ADORABLE. That R2D2 snowman? Priceless :D
I'd say avoid Howl at the moon :D It's worse than dog shifters. If humans love dogs enough, they can start changing in this universe. And the guy rescues the sheriff in dog form while he's snooping and they bond, and it's just SO weird. So weird :D

Off you go to the real world, then. Have fun? :D