Review: Dust and Desire by Demelza Hart

When your best friend already gives you the pleasure you crave, can anyone better it? But tough lives call for tough decisions. 

Chase Truman is a man under pressure. He’s got a five thousand acre ranch to manage, he’s lost Blue Ridge mountain, and he can’t find himself a woman. But when he stumbles upon Riff Felton, the man who stole Blue Ridge from him, and finds himself held with a gun against his head, he doesn’t resist. His relationship with Riff goes way back, and soon Chase and Riff are making up for lost time, soothing each other’s pain in the way they love. But something’s missing. Chase wants more and thinks he’ll find it in the right lady. Luckily for him, a breakdown on the railroad is about to deliver Miss Adeline Monroe into his hands, a headstrong, wealthy young woman from Boston with a very modern attitude. But is there room for two in Chase’s life?

Series: 
Release Date: June 27th 2014
Publisher: Total E-Bound
Source: Manic Readers
Reviewer: Iris
Rating:

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Reviewer’s Thoughts

Much in the same vein of Brokeback Mountain, we have two cowboys who fall in love but because of the era and whom they are, they are unable to express their feelings openly. They must settle for clandestine meetings and promises that somehow things will work out between them.

Dust and Desire has the makings for a great story. Chase and Riff have a secret love affair that can make the coldest heart melt. They are best friends who have fallen in love at a time when society said men weren’t supposed to love other men. Chase is expected to marry a good woman and have children. His feelings for Riff are beside the point. In comes Adeline. Here was the first speed bump I encountered on an otherwise perfect beginning to this story. The romance between Adeline and Chase is too rushed. They meet and before they go 2 miles his hands are up her knickers. Before long (technically in the span of a day), Chase is already in love with her. Without giving too much away, which is hard to do when the story is this short, the dynamic changes from M/M in the beginning of the story to M/F then finally to MMF. This would be all well and good and would of course make for one hell of a spicy read except that, there was an emotional disconnect when it came to Riff and Adeline and zero chemistry is allowed to be built in the span of this very short read. If that’s not enough of a turn off, we’re left to assume that somehow these three individuals will make a ménage relationship work in 1906.

It was an enjoyable read but I would have preferred a little more length and character development to give them some depth.