Title: Earth and Sky
Author: Zahra Owens
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Novel
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Heat Level: Hot
Heart Rating: ♥♥1 1/2 (but just for Hunter)
Reviewer: Pixie
Blurb: Hunter Krause knows better than anyone that running a ranch is hard work. Wranglers are hard to find, and even with Hunter’s foreman and entire extended family on hand, the busy ranch is constantly short-handed. So when horses go missing, Hunter’s brother-in-law hires a man Hunter would never have considered: Grant Jarreau, a man Hunter can’t forgive for leaving Hunter’s best friend Gable after an incapacitating accident.
Grant quickly fits in, befriending Hunter’s sister and making himself invaluable. Despite Hunter’s misgivings, he can’t quite control his body’s reactions to Grant, and he isn’t sure what to do about it. Then Grant saves Hunter’s young nephew from drowning and one thankful kiss opens doors Hunter never knew existed.
While Hunter and Grant tentatively move toward a relationship, the family’s in an uproar, the ranch is struggling, they can’t figure out what happened to the horses, and to top it all off, Grant is hiding something. Can Hunter learn to trust Grant, or will the turmoil already tearing up his family claim another victim?
Review: You know I read the first book Rain and Clouds and loved it, so I was looking forward to this one as well but My God what were you thinking casting Grant as Hunter’s love interest.
This book seems to run parallel to Rain And Clouds but there are mistakes during the times that the books coincide and that is really annoying, Grant is the big baddie in Rain And Clouds, he was Gable’s lover who ran out on him when Gable was injured, he also slept with anything that didn’t move fast enough and oh so helpfully slept with a married woman because she wanted a baby.
In this book he is a misunderstood generous man who made a few mistakes, never cheated on Gable, try’s to blame Gable for what happened between them and he’s just helping his friends out when he sleeps with them to get them pregnant behind their husbands backs. I can’t stand this character because he has no redeemable qualities no matter how I look at it.
Now Hunter on the other hand is a great character, he has hidden his ‘gay’ side from everyone even himself, he finds himself attracted to one of the hands, acts on it and then needs to come to terms with what they had done. He then explores his feelings and continues to act on it while still trying to deny that he is gay. He also has to deal with his family’s dramatics and a revelation from his ex-girlfriend.
I disliked Callie and the mother of Grant’s children just on principle, as both these women find it acceptable to sleep with another man behind their husbands backs just to get pregnant.
This book would have been a lot better if Grant was not in it and Hunter actually met a man he deserved and not the sleaze that is Grant.
My honest opinion is this… stick with Rain and Clouds because honestly any decent human being will be disgusted with some of the characters morals in this one.