Book 849: One Trick Pony (Clyde’s Corner #3) – Eli Easton

Now, a novella and a book later, I’m able to read and write about the book that drew me into wanting to read the series 😀 I first saw this one come into my inbox from Gay Romance Reviews, but ended up not requesting it because Kindle Unlimited is a gem and I figured I would be able to get to it in my own time. Well that time happened sooner than expected and here we are.

The blurb of this one drew me in with bad-boy Henry from A Prairie Dog’s Love Song having cleaned up his act and started working for Joshua and Ben on the ranch and his awkward interactions with Ben’s friend and former gay-for-pay (but actually gay) porn coworker Micah. I mean come on how was I NOT going to read this one?

I’m always going to love a redemption story and when you combine it with what turns out to be a double redemption story (meh on the sex worker part) it’s just that much better.

Easton did a wonderful job writing Henry’s character. Not only did she get into the mind of someone who really was trying to do their best to better their life and leave the trouble they’d caused/been a part of behind, but she wrote someone trying to figure out their sexual orientation and place in a small rural town really well.

As much as I enjoyed the idea of the Ladies Society trying to help Henry continue his improvement, it was definitely a bit over the top and rubbed me the wrong way at the end when they basically scolded Henry for staying in the closet and then switched gears to say they were always fans of him before everyone else was and offered to help improve Micah’s reputation in town. I don’t think we were supposed to like this group of women because there’s a group of them in every small town and they’re almost always over the top AND annoying AND self-serving. It just made me so mad, that Henry felt he needed them and even when he found out he didn’t, he still wanted to impress them 🙁

I found the sex scenes to be believable and well written. They weren’t too rushed and had enough build up that they felt satisfying when they were done. I wish there might’ve been one or two more after they began penetrative sex, but I also really appreciated how Easton wrote about Micah’s performance anxiety which was what originally drove him away from Las Vegas to spend time with Ben at the ranch.

The big crisis of the novel, outside of whether Henry will want to come out to be with Micah, was a bit out of left field even though it was queued up early in the novel. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good kidnap plot, but there could’ve been more hints leading up to it or Micah could’ve had a bit more stress about it while he was on the ranch. But, it did provide a wonderful hero to the rescue moment so swoon for that.

I did have some issues with the overall editing of the book. There were quite a few errors from repeated words to formatting errors, which are easy enough to fix like this one:

She wore her huge sloppy straw hat and long apron over bright purple leggings and a pink top. She always dressed kindy wild for a lady in her 70s. She was definitely not the Ladies Society type. (Chapter 12)

The hat could be sloppy, but seems like a weird way to describe a hat when I’m guessing they meant “floppy”. There’s nothing else sloppy, just eccentric about the lady’s description.

In addition, there were a couple of minor continuity errors, but none more so than this one:

‘Well, you all know how I feel about it. My son Jeremy and his husband Chris are gay. And they’re both good men.’ (Chapter 28)

His [Jeremy’s] boyfriend Chris was over talking to Eric and Trix. He had dark hair and wore a bright purple short-sleeved button-down shirt with a brilliant white tank underneath. (Epilogue)

Don’t get me wrong, any mention of Jeremy and Chris made me happy, but I got so excited when Mabe mentioned that they got married! I was like OMG is there a short story to give that info, but then just a few pages later they’re mentioned as boyfriends again in the epilogue :’-(

But, overall the only real complaint I have goes back to what I mentioned in the first review of the series. Montana wasn’t a character like I felt it could’ve been. Honestly, the farms could be small town anywhere as long as there are ranches and/or horses. I really felt she could’ve spent a bit more time talking about the openness and majesty of Montana. This one got the closest, with how she wrote about Henry and Micah fly fishing on the river.

Recommendation: Of the three stories in the Clyde’s Corner series, this is by far the best one. It’s full length, unlike A Prairie Dog’s Love Song, and Easton focused the story on one pair rather than doubling up and increasing the characters like she did in The Stolen Suitor. This one was the best when it came to writing Montana as a character, but really the horses and the fishing carried that so I have to wonder if you could trade out Montana for any other wide-open western state. I’ll definitely read other books by Easton, but I’m not sure I’ll seek them out.

Opening Line: “Red lights flashed in Henry’s rearview mirror.”

Closing Line: “He told me I’ve been eatin’ too many of them funny mushrooms.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)

Additional Quotes from One Trick Pony
“Being here at sunrise was the best twenty minutes in his day. Like the day couldn’t help but be good seeing as how a miracle like the sunrise existed in the world. And even if the day was crap, Henry would hold the secret in his heart that this was out there, and that he could have it again the next day, and no one could take it away from him.” (Chapter 6)

“These past few weeks had been the best of Henry’s life. It was the first time he’d had anything like the love you saw in the movies. Or what Ben and Joshua had. Truth be told, it was the first real affection, touch he’d had at all, except for his mother’s. It killed him to think Micah would leave and never come back. But he didn’t deserve Micah nohow. What did he have to offer him, really? Especially compared to the glamorous life he had in Vegas. And yeah, Micah said he was burnt out and all that, but he was sure stubborn about going back. And why shouldn’t he? Even if he didn’t want to film any more, even if he wanted to find a boyfriend and settle down, he could have anyone in the world.” (Chapter 20)