Just months after breaking up with his boyfriend, Noah Jenkins inherits his grandfather’s farm and he decides it’s time for a change of scenery. He packs his bags, buys a dog, and moves onto the property. When his Labrador puppy Daisy gets hurt he meets local vet Hunter Ross and life starts to look interesting again.
Hunter Ross has always lived in small, conservative Newton, in rural Illinois. At 39 he’s never been in love and never had a lover and mayhave neglected to tell anyone he’s close to that he’s gay. It’s never been a problem – until Daisy, Yellow and her owner, Noah, show up.
Is Noah’s love enough for Hunter to risk everything? Does Hunter have the strength to make the hardest choices he’ll ever make and survive?
Book Title: Daisy, Yellow
Author: Angelique Jurd
Publisher: Small Black Cat Media
Cover Artist: May Dawney Designs
Genre/s: Contemporary Gay Romance
Length: 177 pages
Amazon US
Amazon UK
The great thing about small towns it turns out is that delivery is free and it’s quick. His new furniture will arrive tomorrow morning, which gives him time to get the living room ready. The parking lot in front of the clinic is empty but Noah can see Hunter’s truck parked further back and, on a whim, he follows the driveway down. He parks, unbuckles Daisy from her harness, and clips her leash on before he gets out of the car. When he turns around, Hunter is leaning against the doorway, wearing low slung jeans and a threadbare tee-shirt, arms crossed over his chest.
“Hi.”
“Hi,” Noah croaks. His mouth and throat have gone dry and when Daisy pulls the leash free from his grasp, he barely notices. Hunter pushes the screen door open with a bare foot and she rushes inside.
“Shit, sorry!” He leaps after her, but Hunter doesn’t seem concerned, only amused.
From the depths of the house comes a volley of high pitched barks followed by an angry hiss.
“Sounds like she’s found Rosie.”
Noah trails behind him as Hunter goes inside, taking in his surroundings as walks. The cluttered living room is small with plain, simple furnishings in faded colors. In contrast, Noah notices, the sounds system, hooked to a laptop and a flat screen television, is state of the art. In the middle of the room stands the cat from the clinic, back arched and tail puffed up. Daisy bounces forward with a yip only to be met by a grey and white paw that smacks her nose three times in quick succession and sends her scuttling back to Noah with a yelp and a whimper.
As he picks her up he spots two scratches across her nose, both beading with blood.
“Hey, your cat scratched my pup.”
“Your pup tried to chase my cat.”
Annoyed, Noah clutches Daisy to his chest and braces his shoulders. She’s bleeding.
“You should control her better.”
The statement is met by laughter. That he likes the sound of it annoys Noah even more than the laughter itself.
“She’s a cat. How do you propose I control her?”
“I don’t know but you’re a vet, you should be able to think of something.”
Hunter steps over and peers at the scratches on Daisy’s nose.
“She’ll live. You can trust me on this, I’m a vet.” The mocking tone makes it very clear what Hunter thinks of Noah’s reaction. He bends and gathers Rosie up and puts her on the back of an armchair. She immediately jumps off, flicks her tail at the room and saunters down the hallway.
In Noah’s arms, Daisy quivers and whimpers.
Noah is about to protest again when Hunter leans forward and brushes a kiss over his mouth. It’s brief and rough, over before Noah can even register it’s happening. Stunned, he runs his finger over his bottom lip and hugs Daisy to his chest as he watches Hunter walk away, calling over his shoulder as he goes.
“Do you want coffee?”
Two hot guys and a cute puppy? Absolutely!
So, Noah inherits his grandpa’s little farm house in smallminded USA. After catching his boyfriend of a year cheating on him, literally in the act, he figures the country life would be a nice change of pace. Afterall, he can do his job anywhere… something about bridges and architecture or something? Anyway… he packs up, buys a puppy and settles in just fine. It’s tricky, he doesn’t know what he’s doing, but it feels good and he’s happy….
When Daisy, his new puppy gets a bee sting, he gets scared, thinking it could be a snake bite and rushes her to the vet… that’s where he meets hot veterinarian, Hunter. Now, Hunter has lived in this town his entire life. He knows everybody and everybody knows him and his family…..which I think is why this upset me so bad.
Small town livin’ ain’t easy…. This, I know…. But Hunter is forty years old and never had a relationship, never even so much as dated, all because he knows the town won’t be accepting of his sexual preference. How sad is that? His entire life he’s been alone, taking care of everyone’s pets and genuinely being a good person. I hated that he went so long without at least companionship, until Noah….
The two were so cute together, I really liked them together. Noah with his puppy and Hunter with his cat, they were the epitome of adorbs! But, it was hard because Hunter knew that they couldn’t be “out”…. And boy, he was not wrong…. After an accident leaves Noah in the hospital, someone sees them together and assumes, then spreads that gossip like wildfire… in twenty-four hours, the town was bent on making these guys lives miserable.
People were so mean and hateful; vandalizing cars and businesses…. Burning houses down… and though the guys get to have their say to a couple of the terrible people….it in no way made up for the horrible things they went through….and to me, it was so disappointing, because the story itself was so cute, so, so cute…but I cannot get over the ending… sure, the people got arrested, (it was merely mentioned)…. But then what? I was so disappointed by the end. Ugh, I hated that they just ran away. It felt like they let the bigoted townspeople run them off… they won…. They got exactly what they’d set out to do and I HATE that. I hate when the bad people get away with being bad people. It’s kind of made me sick to my stomach a little bit, if I’m honest. I wasn’t expecting that.
I did love how amazing both men’s parents were though… Both sets of parents loved their boys unconditionally and it was nice to see.
So, in conclusion…overall, good story…. Hated the last 15-20 percent. Don’t think I’ll follow up in the series.
3 pieces of eye candy from me.
Author, acafan, Buddhist. Angelique is owned by four cats, three adult children, two temperamental computers, and a very patient boyfriend (not a partridge in a pear tree).
A former print journalist and editor, she has over the years, written about a wide variety of topics from politics to duck breeding to rock concerts. Her interest in fandom studies was sparked in 2015 when she watched Supernatural for the first time and she has been fascinated by the intersection between fans and creators ever since and is currently completing an MA (Media Studies) in the subject.
She likes cold champagne, hot coffee, neat whiskey, loud Springsteen, and the Winchester brothers kicking butt. When she’s not writing she likes to color, watch movies, and get more tattoos.
Social Media Links
Instagram: angeliquejurd
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