Guest Reviewed by Trish
Title: Somebody to Love
Author: Merry Farmer
Heroes: Phineas Bell/Elliott Tucker
Genre: MM Historical
Length: 277 Pages
Publisher: Merry Farmer
Release Date: April 29, 2014
Available at: Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and All Romance Ebooks
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads
Blurb: For Phineas Bell, love has not only been out of reach, it has been impossible. In a world where men who love other men are anathema, he has poured his love into his work, his town, and the friends who accept him as family. But when a handsome new lodger takes over his home and his heart, breaking all his careful rules, Phin must choose between playing it safe and letting love in.
War hero Elliott Tucker is the answer to Cold Springs’s prayers for a sheriff worth his salt. But with every single woman in town throwing themselves at him, Elliott has eyes for only one person: Phin. The sparks are hot between then, but in spite of Elliott’s best efforts, Phin’s heart proves the toughest nut to crack. A love that starts with fire threatens to burn them both…
… until a shocking abduction throws Phin and Elliott together on the trail of ruthless kidnappers. Will their efforts to save a child wrench them apart or will it prove that at last they’ve found somebody to love?
Review: This may be one of my toughest reviews. Was this story technically written well, yes. No grammar issues and no typos that I recall, the story moved along at nice pace. But did I care for the characters’ relationship, not so much. Also, when I started this book, I was surprised to see it takes place in 1900. There is no indication in the blurb that it was Historical. I like Historical stories but feel this information should be included in the Book’s description.
We meet Phineas “Phin”, the local Bank owner in Cold Springs, Montana. I liked Phineas. Phin is smart, honest, trustworthy and loyal. The town loves him. He has no contact with his own family, however, he is surrounded by the family of his best friend, Michael West, his wife Charlotte, and their 3 children. I enjoyed this part of the story with Phin and the West family. Phin is a gay man who can’t live his true life as he should, but he has accepted that and built a pretty nice life for himself. Then we meet Elliot Tucker. He is a war hero and Cold Springs’ new Sheriff, and I instantly did not care for him. He is described as gorgeous with a friendly personality. However, I found his character dishonest, manipulative and immature. It’s not easy to love a romance story when you don’t care for 50% of the couple.
Most of the story revolves around Elliot and Phin being attracted to one another, but then it went in a direction that had Elliott lying and using the local women to hide his attraction to Phin. The kind and honest Phineas was not happy about this and asked Elliot to stop tricking the women which he does not. Phin and Elliot did not mesh for me as a couple. I think Elliot was suppose to come across as the “Hot Alpha” male but failed. They argued often and Phin obviously didn’t care for Elliot’s lying ways. However, that didn’t stop Elliot from insta-love. And when Phin didn’t declare his love right back, Elliot threw a bit of a tantrum. I found it very difficult to root for this couple.
As the story progressed, we learn there is a criminal element. At this point, I hoped Elliot would win me over considering he is the local Sheriff and could shine here and show some skills. That did not happen. When the kidnapping takes place, the first words Elliot says to Phineas are “what do we do?” Wait, what? Did the local Sheriff just ask the local Banker what to do when a child is kidnapped before their eyes? Yes he did. The author had a great opportunity at this point to “show” us what Elliott is made of but sadly that did not happen. We are “told” he is war hero and Sheriff but his actions are the complete opposite.
The story then moves toward solving the crime, enter the federal “keystone cops”. There is a lot going on at this point of the story, not just the kidnapping. We have counterfeit money, blackmail, abusive cops who break the law and Elliot complaining to Phin that he doesn’t love him back. Phin is heartbroken about the kidnapping, but this does not stop Elliot from pursuing Phin even while they are hot on the trail of the kidnappers. Eventually, they rescue the child and Phin declares his love to Elliott.
On the positive side, I did enjoy Phineas. He has a great relationship with the West family, as well as the town, and that part of the story was done well.
As I said above, this was a difficult review because I did enjoy some of the story, but my lack of Elliott love outweighed the rest. The story had the potential for awesomeness. With the right character traits from Elliott, he and Phin would have knocked it out of the park, but sadly, Elliott was not written that way, and I was left feeling that Phineas settled. As the title says, Phin found Somebody to Love, and Elliott was somebody.
Overall Impression: It was okay
*I received a copy of this book from the author/publisher in return for a fair and honest review.*
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