Book 847: A Prairie Dog’s Love Song (Clyde’s Corner #1) – Eli Easton

This is what happens when you see one book with a cute premise, One Trick Pony, realize it’s not the first in the series and then you’re another book and novella down a rabbit hole to read the one you really want to read 😀

Don’t get me wrong, definitely not complaining, I’m going to have to start tracking MM Romances against non-MM Romances so I can actually pace myself, but will I actually do that? No, no I won’t. CAN’T STOP. WON’T STOP!!!!

This cute novella was originally part of a holiday collection, but Easton released it as a standalone when she wrote a follow up, The Stolen Suitor, set in the same small Montana town.

A Prairie Dog’s Love Song is the story of Joshua, solo quiet cowboy who owns a ranch and has spent years pining after his best friends’ little brother, and the little brother, Ben, who has had to flee Clyde’s Corner when it’s revealed in an argument with Henry, who ends up being One Trick Pony‘s protagonist, that he’s been making gay-for-pay porn in Las Vegas. Of course, Joshua is going to go “rescue” him from sex work and bring him home.

For the most part, Easton did a great job of writing about the gay-for-pay industry without judgement or bias and I really liked how Ben approached it and talked about it. And in the end Joshua, wasn’t rescuing him so much as saying I love you and want to be enough for you and we can make a life together without you having to do this.

The main crisis of the novel ended up not being the gay-for-pay porn but whether or not Joshua could live out and proud with Ben. And this line, OMG ya’ll I legit teared up.

And the third thing is—well, it’s my intention to court him and hopefully get him to live and ranch with me. So y’all will have a couple of homos in the area. If any of you got a problem with that, you can just say it to my face right now. (Chapter 4)

The whole scene was wonderfully written and the post-scene recap with Joshua’s best friend in town, Nora, was hilariously written as well and it was just one of the high points of the novella. And it was only overshadowed by the horse ride to the Christmas dance with other gay couples visiting the town to show support. I mean REAL TEARS ya’ll.

If there was one thing that I wanted more of in the story was the majesty of Montana. I’ve never been, but I imagine it’s in a way like Alaska and I wanted Easton to write it as a character like Annabeth Albert did in her Frozen Hearts series (Arctic Sun, Arctic Wild, and Arctic Heat). She did come close on a few occasions, including this one,

Joshua knew there were exotic places that sure would be a sight to see. But he also thought it was possible that a man could travel over every spot of this earth only to realize that the best place was the one he’d left. And he thought maybe a place got inside you, and that made it the best, because you belonged to it, were rooted in it, like the grass or the trees. And he thought maybe, too, there was a lot of peace in appreciating what you had, in watching the small changes that happened season by season in just one special place instead of watching fleeting moments go by in a million places you didn’t really know and never would. (Chapter 8)

but, frankly that could be anywhere and focuses more on the aspect of home and where you belong than the grandiosity and majesty of Montana. Maybe with more space in the full-length novels she’ll really get to it!

Recommendation: This was a cute novella. I wish she would’ve fleshed it out a bit more when she released it as a standalone, maybe with flashbacks to their childhood or even including the conversation with Joshua’s best friend/Ben’s older brother (I feel like that was mentioned and completely forgotten). Between this and Christmas Angel, I’ve been able to place Easton’s securely as a middle-of-the-pack love-to-read but don’t have to seek out every book author. I can’t wait to see where the full-length novels change my thoughts.

Opening Line: “Joshua Braintree stared at the laptop screen with a mix of shock, arousal, and stone-cold pissed.”

Closing Line: “‘Let’s go home, hoss,’ Ben said.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)