Hello everyone!
As far as things go, my plans often don't stick, this is the truth of it.
I just read too much!
And this particular book went and managed to break my heart, which was just as well after the disappointment that the book previous to that one managed to dredge up.
Sometimes, I swear, I manage to pick up the most ridiculous books to read, but thankfully tonight's topic isn't one of them.
No, tonight's one is just so beautiful and heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time, I can't even begin. I'm going to have to though, as the intro is getting long and I bet you'd all just want to jump straight into the post from here on out.
So without further ado, I present to you: Long Winter!
Seeing as this is a stand-alone, I don't really have anything that might connect to it in any way, shape or form, because I've never read anything from this author before either.
So I won't waste any more time and jump right in!
Rachel Ember wrote a duology for the couple in this particular book, though I haven't read the second one yet, and she also has a few others set in this same universe which I'm hopefully going to be picking up as well, but suffice to say ... Long Winter just nails you in all the feels.
The book is set in mustang country, which is important for the story in the sense that one of the protagonists owns a ranch with them, but what I'd like to point out is that it's written in a really interesting way.
Each chapter, for the most part, starts with a glimpse into the past and a timestamp as to when exactly this is happening, before jumping to present day with whatever's going on.
With that out of the way, I'll explain the past segments first, then move to the current ones.
Lance is a boy being raised by a single, alcoholic father, who tends to care more for himself than his son, when he befriends one of the neighbour's kids, Danny, and thus begins his life-long friendship with the other ranch. We see through the flashbacks that he considers the other place his safe haven and sanctuary for when things just get unbearable at home, and that while the Chases know his situation isn't ideal, there isn't really anything they can do about it legally.
The Chases themselves are far from an ideal situation, either, because the mother is out of the picture (I think she passed away after the birth of the youngest son) and the father raised them alone until an accident that took his life, leaving the oldest son, Robbie, then just eighteen, in charge of the ranch and his two younger brothers.
Inevitably through circumstances, he also takes Lance under his wing acting as both surrogate father and older brother figure at the same time, while being warned by his then-girlfriend that people might think he's a predator if he isn't careful.
This doesn't stop Lance from falling in love with the guy though, and he has enough of his own vices already, namely the fact that he's a bit of a kleptomaniac, just kind of taking things, small, shiny things, to keep for himself. This gets particularly bad when he hits 16 and his father figures out he's queer, which prompts Lance to run off to Robbie first, pouring his heart out, but as Robbie can't reciprocate, he then flees into the night and goes to his aunt's.
Five years or so later, Lance and Robbie meet again in present time, when the Chase family has sort of fractured after they stopped training horses together (the reason for this was that stupid people were just stupid and ruined a perfectly good horse because they didn't know what to do with her, and that sent one of the brothers into acting and the other went to school, though said other also realized fairly quickly he just wants to go back home, so there might be a reunion on the horizon). Robbie now works for the government in housing wild mustangs on his property, and he gets a call that Lance is in jail and needs bail.
As he has nowhere else to go, he returns to the ranch with Robbie, who has by this time acknowledged that he's bisexual and not hetero as everyone around him always thought (minus his ex and his brothers), and also acknowledges that he's attracted to Lance now.
Given that both of them are consenting adults at this point, well, you can probably see where this is going when there's a heavy snowfall in the area.
Not to mention that Robbie has a couple of his neighbour's cows on the premises, and one delivers a calf that he and Lance then proceed to rescue after it's born onto snowy and icy ground.
But more importantly, the two of them don't deny their attraction to one another, eventually giving in beautifully and just ... existing in a bubble until it's time to figure out what it was that got Lance into prison in the first place.
See Lance is a model at this point, and in an unhealthy relationship with a guy named Niall, and one of their arguments sent Lance across country in a car that Niall reports stolen, which then of course makes Lance a thief. But he's here because his dad's dying in the care home, and in the process discovers he has a half-sister and a niece, now living in his old home across the creek from the Chase ranch.
He also plays the usual, submissive fiddle to Niall so the man drops the charges (the asshole), but he then breaks up with him after and the guy is indignant that whom he considers his personal pet is being ungrateful and disobedient.
And oh, he'll ruin him, that too.
This is a loose plotline left to be resolved in the second book, probably, because for the moment, Lance just returns to Robbie and admits that, while Robbie thinks he lost a silken scarf his dad used to wear, he was the one who took it, which makes the other man laugh in happiness to have it back where he can see it - aka on Lance.
The book then ends on a hopeful note of the two of them together at the ranch for the time being, though there's still clouds gathering on the horizon, which means the second one will ALSO have to be read eventually.
But man, if the flashbacks in this book don't make you tear up, I don't know what will.
The author manages to capture the helplessness of a young boy caught in an abusive relationship with his father perfectly, which then translates so well into an adult Lance who operates under the same principles. Add in Robbie who's a natural caregiver and the picture is complete, though he also acknowledges, in a human moment, that he enjoys being cared for in return.
The book is chock full of dynamics, between siblings, between friends, between lovers, between family, and it stands strongly on those foundations while the snow swirls around them and thickens.
You can see raw emotion coming right off the pages whenever Robbie and Lance interact, and it was gratifying to me to read a book where one of the heroes doesn't necessarily feel guilty or uncomfortable with his own sexuality but admits fairly early on that things are just different to what he always thought, and why not pursue them?
I also cried like a baby at one of the past scenes where the family truck is defaced and one of the brothers gets into a fight, but the witnesses around them definitely take the brother's side instead of the bully's, which just ... warmed my heart. It's a different trope to how small towns would normally treat topics like these in books, AND I LOVE IT.
All in all, I fell in love with broken Lance and warm Robbie, and while I'm terrified to read the second book, I'm holding on to hope that this will be a surprise and the author will continue building the strong relationship you can already see between the pair of them, and not yank them back and forth too much.
I need a break in between though!
But in the meantime, if you need something to tug at your heartstrings and make you think, this is the book for you.
Also ... horses!
10/10 recommend.
xx
*image not mine
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