Book Review: Sweetwater by Lisa Henry

Reviewed by Heather C

Title:  Sweetwater
Author: Lisa Henry
Heroes: Elijah Carter/Grady Mullins
Genre: MM Historical
Length: 240 Pages
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Release Date: September 29, 2014
Available at: Riptide Publishing and Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads

Blurb: Wyoming Territory, 1870.

Elijah Carter is afflicted. Most of the townsfolk of South Pass City treat him as a simpleton because he’s deaf, but that’s not his only problem. Something in Elijah runs contrary to nature and to God. Something that Elijah desperately tries to keep hidden.

Harlan Crane, owner of the Empire saloon, knows Elijah for what he is—and for all the ungodly things he wants. But Crane isn’t the only one. Grady Mullins desires Elijah too, but unlike Crane, he refuses to push the kid.

When violence shatters Elijah’s world, he is caught between two very different men and two devastating urges: revenge, and despair. In a boomtown teetering on the edge of a bust, Elijah must face what it means to be a man in control of his own destiny, and choose a course that might end his life . . . or truly begin it for the very first time

Review:

I’ve been looking forward to Sweetwater for MONTHS!!  And honestly, it wasn’t at all what I expected it to be.  I expected darkness and violence and not flowers and romance for sure, but what I didn’t expect was for it to be do damn depressing.  Seriously, Elijah, the main character, had some monster demons inside of him.  And Sweetwater tells the story of Elijah’s journey to becoming his own man and the catalysts that set him on that path.

My problems?

I never emotionally connected to either character.  I think Elijah’s pain and desires were much too dark for me to understand and I was unable to rationalize the decisions he made.  As for Grady, I don’t feel like I ever got to know him.  I mean, most of the story is from Elijah’s POV and Elijah’s struggles within himself.  And then there would be a bit from Grady’s POV, and all it involved was thoughts of Elijah, where Elijah hardly ever thought of Grady.

The book runs around 64K words, and for about the first half of that, Elijah and the real love interest, Grady, only have one interaction where they actually exchange words.  All they have had prior to that was a bit of eye contact in the dead of night at the butchers and looks across the saloon.  Hardly enough time to develop a believable connection between two characters in my opinion.  But supposedly Grady knows what Elijah needs before he ever even speaks to him.  Huh?

Yes, Elijah was having sex with more than one man, but I can honestly say that didn’t really bother me.  There was no romance in what he was doing with Harlan; Elijah did it out of need and sense of duty.  I just didn’t find any of the sex to be…well…stimulating.  Even when Elijah was finally with Grady, there was never any passion, just sex and need.  And I need passion.

What worked?

I loved the setting: 1870 Wyoming in an almost dried up mining town where the saloon and brothel owners call the shots.  I thought the author did an amazing job with the atmosphere…it all felt very vivid to me.

There is a little murder mystery that I thought would be entirely too obvious, but of course it wasn’t and I completely fell for the decoy!  Well done on that point because I never saw that coming.  And how Elijah eventually handles it…

I really liked the ending.  It was a fairly solid HFN in my opinion…maybe even an almost HEA.  I would have liked to have seen the story continue on a little further though.

I’m still giving this book 3 stars because once I started it, I could not put it down.  I just needed to know if Elijah would ever find happiness.  And he did.

Overall Impression: It Was Good

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in return for a fair and honest review.*