MY ALWAYS, MY FOREVER
MEN OF CROOKED BEND SERIES, BOOK 1
TAYLOR RYLAN
M/M ROMANCE
RELEASE DATE: 06.15.17
COVER DESIGN: Jay Aheer/Simply Defined Art
BLURB
Growing up on a ranch in the middle of nowhere Wyoming did not provide Simon Redfeather with a whole lot of opportunities to explore his sexuality. From a young age he’d known he was interested in men but wondered if he’d ever find someone to settle down with. Though he wanted to stretch his wings, he knew the ranch was his life and he’d inevitably follow his heart back home. Would he be able to find love with someone that could give as good as they get and love the land as much as he did?
Sean Welsh considered himself lucky that he’d grown up with two dads because coming out had been a breeze. Never wanting to trade in on the privilege of their last name, Sean and his identical twin wanted to forge their own path and open their own architectural firm in Jackson, Wyoming. He never expected Simon Redfeather, one of his new clients, to be a gorgeous, sexy, honest to god cowboy. With Simon pushing all his hot buttons, he finds himself wishing he wasn’t the shy twin and yearns to be daring, like his older brother.
The attraction is instant but are Simon and Sean willing to risk everything in order to find their other half?
My Forever, My Always is the first book in the Men of Crooked Bend series. Each book in the series will focus on a different couple but will be better enjoyed as a series as the couples all make appearances in each book. Each book contains sexually explicit material between two men and are intended for adults over 18.
AMAZON US: https://goo.gl/W6k8db
AMAZON UK: https://goo.gl/r4S2T8
EXCERPT
“Okay so here goes. I once jerked off to thoughts of Jasper.”
“What the fuck, Simon!” Sean shouted while getting out of bed.
“That came out absolutely wrong. Please, Sean, get back in bed and let me explain. I promise you it was before I knew either of you and I honestly have absolutely no feelings for Jasper what-so-ever. Please, baby. You’re it for me and only you. Seriously that came out so very wrong.”
I must have said something right because Sean crawled back in bed with me and rolled towards me so we were lying face to face. “Okay speak. And this had better be good.”
“Okay as I was saying I once jerked off to thoughts of Jasper. Only at the time I didn’t know it was Jasper. I didn’t know either of you yet. But what I did know was that I had seen Jasper at a club one night and I was instantly attracted to him. Don’t give me that look, Sean. You two are identical. But anyway I saw him at the club and was attracted to him. And I even was going to go over and offer to buy him a drink. But as I started toward him a little blond twink sidled up to him and he just reached down and grabbed his ass. When that happened I left the club. But when I got home I was still incredibly worked up and when I got into the shower and went to take care of business it was Jasper’s face I saw and it was Jasper that I imagined sucking my cock. Like I said I didn’t know either of you at the time. And this was all the night before I actually met either of you. I didn’t meet either of you until the next day when you both came out to the ranch. But I felt that you should probably know that at one point before I even met you or your brother I rubbed one out to the image of Jasper on his knees in front of me.”
At that point I was just hoping that he would forgive me. When I felt the bed shaking I was worried that I had blown any chance of a permanent relationship with Sean. Especially if he was lying there crying because of the story I just told him. But what I didn’t expect was to find out that Sean wasn’t crying, he was actually laughing! Laughing! Like a loon! And he had clearly been holding back for a while because his face was red and there were tears running down his cheeks.
“Do you want to share with me what exactly it is that you find so funny about that story?” I asked.
“You do realize that I already know about that night right?”
“No I didn’t know. How did you know? I never said anything and as far as I know Jasper didn’t see me at the club and I left right after I saw him.”
“See that is where you are wrong. Jasper actually did see you that night and he told me about seeing you. I was so attracted to you that first day and I wondered if you were gay or not because apparently your family seems to have broken my gaydar and he let me know that he had seen you the night before at the club. So he saw you and he let me know that you were at the club and so we came to the conclusion that you were gay.”
*Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie for my reading pleasure in hopes of an unbiased opinion, a review was not a requirement.*
My Forever, My Always is the first book from new author Taylor Rylan and the start of her Men of Crooked Bend series. Simon comes from a large, loving family that all works together on the family ranch. Simon is ready to find love, settle down and have a family but unfortunately, Wyoming doesn't have many options for a gay man and he can't leave his home and family behind. Sean and his brother moved to Wyoming and opened their architectural business. Sean was raised by two fathers and his twin and younger brother are all gay. Sean has reached a point in his life that he's ready to find love, create a home and family. When Sean and Simon meet, it doesn't take long before the men's attraction grows to more and they've both found what they're looking for.
I think this is a really great start for a new author. I found the families to be a big part of why I loved this story. This first book introduces A LOT of people who are very involved throughout. And this book starts from before Simon and Sean met, through to their honeymoon. It was a lot, but I find this fairly typical in many first books in a series.
There were some areas that I think will improve and grow as the author continues writing. But, in this book, I found the lack of contractions made the conversations seemed stilted. It becomes a joke later in the book about Sean not using contractions, but it wasn't just his dialog that lacked them, it was the majority of them. There was a lot of repetition throughout the book. Sometimes it would be a three-sentence paragraph repeating the same thing in three different ways. Some examples to explain:
*We were told Simon parked his truck in the garage and about how lonely he is. And in the next chapter, we were told Simon went to get into his truck in the garage where he parked it last night and how lonely he is.
*"I normally was not nervous when meeting with potential or new clients, but for some reason, I was. I could not quite explain it, but for some reason I was nervous and anxious."
*"I just thought that the guys might not necessarily want to live in the same building as the horses. I understand that they work with them all day long but thought that that does not necessarily mean that they want to sleep with them, does it?" Sean replied with a grin.
*"I hated to do it but I was basically given no choice but to pretty much corner Rhett in order to get him to talk to me. In the end I was glad that I went ahead and cornered him and got him to talk to me because he ended up spending hours talking to me."
If this type of issue was cleaned up, it would shorten the book but also keep the story from dragging. In a lot of series, the first book becomes the info dump and it definitely happened this time. There were a lot of characters that we met, but the story wasn't just about the relationship between Sean and Simon. It also had Ty and Graham; Jasper and a twink; Jasper and Liam; Rhett and Logan; Rhett and Travis. I know it was to just set up future books, but it really was just too much.
For Sean and Simon, the love, moving in together and HEA may have happened a little fast, especially in a book this long, but both men stated many, many, many times that they were ready for love and HEA so I found it believable that it all happened in such a short time frame. I liked that the author gave Simon piercings, which is not very common in MM books!
Overall, I enjoyed this story and am looking forward to what's upcoming for this family. I'm sure that's hard to believe after reading this review, but I do think it's a good start for a new author. This is a book and author that I think you should give a chance to!
Rating: 4 stars
After several years of daydreaming about sexy men in her head, Taylor decided to finally start writing about them! That's where the Men of Crooked Bend came from, although at the time, she had no idea as to what she would name the town, nor what state it would be even be in. She quickly learned that even though she had ideas in her head, it was her characters that ultimately decided what would happen in each story. She goes into each adventure with a set plan but already knows that in the end, things will change and that her characters are going to get their way.
When she’s not writing about sexy men, she loves to read about them. Even if, her reading time has become less frequent since she started writing, she still tries to find time to read at least once a week.
She is a busy mom of three and one kitten named Lucky. If she’s not writing or reading about sexy men, she’s either running to some band function or another or is busy cheering from the stands at basketball games or marital arts functions.
Her Men of Crooked Bend Series is her first series but she already has two spin-off series planned!
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