Sweetwater in Riptide Publishing

Sep 21, 2014 Heather C rated it liked it

Shelves: m-m, ebook, bdsm, historical-romance, western, novella, cowboy, dubcon-rape, virgin, the-blogger-girls

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 charact 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.

Reviewed for The Blogger Girls ...more

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Nov 12, 2014 Jason Bradley rated it liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, m-m, ebook

Boy did the middle of the book drag on this one. The beginning hooked me and the end picked back up enough for it to be a pleasurable read. But during the middle chapters, it was a close call that I didn't put the book down. ...more

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Apr 25, 2014 Leanne rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mm, made-me-cry, hurt-comfort, historical, bdsm, cowboys, autobuy-author, non-con, dub-con, violence

Ohhh, god, what a dark and gritty little melancholic treat this was!!! Everything that I love about Lisa Henry's stories; gorgeous, evocative writing, dark and bitter sweet (mostly bitter, oy vey these guys have to work hard for their little HEA) and so sad... but hopeful too. As world building goes, this felt right on the money, not that I would really know, but I love Westerns, I have have my Deadwood box set and it felt like I was back with Al Swearengen and the guys. In fact, in an alternate ...more

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Jun 18, 2019 Jerry rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: coming-out, gay-teenage, historical, bdsm, cowboy, audio-narration, audio

4.5 stars mostly, but see below.

I must have skimmed the blurb when I marked it to read. Then I added it to my Audible wish list and then it popped up on my Romance package and I though, great lets listen. All of this without really knowing what the book was about.

So it starts out OK with Elijah Carter and his adopted dad, Doc Carter BUT Elijah is participating in cattle rustling/butchering, not so good, plus he is being verbally abused by the men involved with this. Then Elijah goes to the Empir 4.5 stars mostly, but see below.

I must have skimmed the blurb when I marked it to read. Then I added it to my Audible wish list and then it popped up on my Romance package and I though, great lets listen. All of this without really knowing what the book was about.

So it starts out OK with Elijah Carter and his adopted dad, Doc Carter BUT Elijah is participating in cattle rustling/butchering, not so good, plus he is being verbally abused by the men involved with this. Then Elijah goes to the Empire Saloon and meets Harlan Crane, a most depraved man. Yet Elijah is mesmerized by Crane who "sees" Elijah. But what he "sees" is a boy he can dominate, humiliate and sexually exploit and get away with it. For some reason, Elijah is desperately wanting someone to "see" him and he is weirdly drawn to Crane and allows Crane to do all these things to him. This is why I almost DNF or marked the book down to not liking or some other drastic thing.

At this point I am freaking out as I didn't think I wanted to continue, so I read all my friend's reviews and got a little education. I also cheated and read part of the epilogue which made me realize it will all turn out OK in the end. I have liked a lot of Lisa Henry's works so I thought she would tell a good story if I can just get past this. So I continued. It did not get that much better as Elijah was so compromised by the demons in his mind and his deafness which cause him to be subservient. So hard to stomach. But then he meets Grady Mullins, who is a cattle rustler (so not so good), but is respectful of Elijah's deafness and respects his need for having sex with another guy and does not dominate him. This is confusing to Elijah, but gives him a choice in men, a drastic difference between being treated well by Grady and terrible by Crane.
So the plot thickens with a death and I almost stopped reading. This is why it sometimes takes a while to read or listen to a book, I reach a place where I have to walk away from it to calm down.
The story continues and ends in better place than it started.

I know life is hard in 1870's Wyoming and the entire "wild west", but boy this book drives that home. I would entertain a continuation of Elijah and Grady's story, how everything turned out in say 1900. ...more

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Oct 02, 2014 Jody rated it it was amazing

There's surprising emotional depth in Ms. Henry's latest historical read as a young deaf man struggles to find himself in a town full of lawlessness and hopelessness. In finding himself though he loses his innocence in a journey both heartbreaking and heartwarming. With every step Ms. Henry immerses readers even further into Elijah's life and his dreams for something better which lead to some poor choices early on but ultimately lead him where he was meant to be.

Elijah is an endearing character There's surprising emotional depth in Ms. Henry's latest historical read as a young deaf man struggles to find himself in a town full of lawlessness and hopelessness. In finding himself though he loses his innocence in a journey both heartbreaking and heartwarming. With every step Ms. Henry immerses readers even further into Elijah's life and his dreams for something better which lead to some poor choices early on but ultimately lead him where he was meant to be.

Elijah is an endearing character who lost most of his hearing as a child and was taken in by a kindhearted doctor who treated him as a son with love and respect. Elijah's always felt he was a disappointment though for his unnatural cravings and desire to head West to find something bigger and better. This self-loathing leads him to the powerful Harlan Crane who doesn't hesitate in using Elijah's shame to feed his own dominant needs leaving Elijah even more lost and confused but addicted to the intense feelings their encounters engender. Crane sees him as smart but manipulates him to satisfy his own needs and being Elijah's first makes for a very heady introduction to sex for the young man. Leading to even more confusion is the sweet and caring criminal Grady, who wants to protect Elijah as he sees him as someone who matters. Elijah doesn't believe in love though, the emotion's done nothing but destroy him when it's gone, so his encounters with Grady scare him just as much as they call to him. He simply wants to matter, he wants to be seen as someone worthy and not the idiot that most people see him as. His interactions with Grady are deep and engagingly intimate and didn't make me feel dirty as did the encounters between Crane and Elijah. It's a difficult journey to HEA for Elijah as his past choices, as well as Grady's, come back to haunt them in a gut-wrenching but immensely satisfying conclusion.

The physical and emotional details of this story are vividly depicted to fully immerse me in the story from the very first page. The sexual encounters ranged from sweet and sensual to gritty with bits of bdsm included which were nicely dispersed throughout the story to allow for character development. We get to experience life mostly through Elijah's eyes which brought tears to my eyes as he struggled to find himself in a world keeping him buried. Though there are two men vying for Elijah's attentions it's clear that Grady wants Elijah for love as opposed to Harlan who wants him as a possession and plaything. Grady shows Elijah the bright and sunny side of intimacy whereas it's all darkness with Harlan. The characters are all flawed in some way but utterly engaging and unforgettable. Elijah is someone who didn't always make the right decision but the believable ones which left me rooting for him to find his HEA and highly recommending this compelling historical read. ...more

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Apr 04, 2019 Jerry rated it really liked it

Shelves: coming-out, violence, commitment, young-love, historical, cowboy, true-love, physically-mentally-challenged, audio-narration, audio

4.5 stars mostly, but see below.

I must have skimmed the blurb when I marked it to read. Then I added it to my Audible wish list and then it popped up on my Romance package and I though, great lets listen. All of this without really knowing what the book was about.

So it starts out OK with Elijah Carter and his adopted dad, Doc Carter BUT Elijah is participating in cattle rustling/butchering, not so good, plus he is being verbally abused by the men involved with this. Then Elijah goes to the Empir 4.5 stars mostly, but see below.

I must have skimmed the blurb when I marked it to read. Then I added it to my Audible wish list and then it popped up on my Romance package and I though, great lets listen. All of this without really knowing what the book was about.

So it starts out OK with Elijah Carter and his adopted dad, Doc Carter BUT Elijah is participating in cattle rustling/butchering, not so good, plus he is being verbally abused by the men involved with this. Then Elijah goes to the Empire Saloon and meets Harlan Crane, a most depraved man. Yet Elijah is mesmerized by Crane who "sees" Elijah. But what he "sees" is a boy he can dominate, humiliate and sexually exploit and get away with it. For some reason, Elijah is desperately wanting someone to "see" him and he is weirdly drawn to Crane and allows Crane to do all these things to him. This is why I almost DNF or marked the book down to not liking or some other drastic thing.

At this point I am freaking out as I didn't think I wanted to continue, so I read all my friend's reviews and got a little education. I also cheated and read part of the epilogue which made me realize it will all turn out OK in the end. I have liked a lot of Lisa Henry's works so I thought she would tell a good story if I can just get past this. So I continued. It did not get that much better as Elijah was so compromised by the demons in his mind and his deafness which cause him to be subservient. So hard to stomach. But then he meets Grady Mullins, who is a cattle rustler (so not so good), but is respectful of Elijah's deafness and respects his need for having sex with another guy and does not dominate him. This is confusing to Elijah, but gives him a choice in men, a drastic difference between being treated well by Grady and terrible by Crane.
So the plot thickens with a death and I almost stopped reading. This is why it sometimes takes a while to read or listen to a book, I reach a place where I have to walk away from it to calm down.
The story continues and ends in better place than it started.

I know life is hard in 1870's Wyoming and the entire "wild west", but boy this book drives that home. I would entertain a continuation of Elijah and Grady's story, how everything turned out in say 1900. ...more

Like · see review