Narrated by John Solo
Cowboy Seeks Husband is a standalone romance set on a Louisiana cattle ranch which is also being used as the location for filming of the first series of Queer Seeks Spouse, the a Bachelor-esque reality show which is the first of its kind to feature contestants from the LGBTQ+ community. It’s a simple, low angst story (and despite the attempts of the show’s producers to make it otherwise, it’s fairly low drama, too!) and while I had a few nitpicks about the narration, John Solo does a good job overall.
Walker Reed was “voluntold” into being a candidate for Queer Seeks Spouse by his stepmother and friend/ranch foreman, mostly because they really need an injection of cash to make repairs and improvements to the ranch, but also because they know how lonely Walker has been since his last relationship ended some years before. He signs the application, not for one moment expecting to be chosen for the show – and no-one is more surprised than he is when he gets the call telling him he’s going to be the star of their inaugural series. Once the film crew and contestants arrive however, he begins to regret his decision; everywhere he looks there’s a camera or microphone in his face, and he’s being told what he can and can’t do; he tries to resign himself to having practically his every waking moment recorded for the next six weeks with the thoughts of the money he’s earning… and the idea that maybe – and no matter how unlikely – he might meet someone special.
Like Walker, Roan Carmichael is in it for the money. He dropped out of his MA course and took a job in a coffee shop so that he could care for his mother, who has stage-four cancer. When the time comes to head out to Louisiana, he’s reluctant to leave her, but he steels himself to stay on the show long enough to earn the money to pay for some experimental treatment that could prolong her life. He’s not completely comfortable with the fact that he’s not really going on the show to ‘make a luuurve connection’ and he draws the line at disclosing the details of his mother’s illness to gain sympathy from the viewers or the bachelor at the centre of it all.
Cowboy Seeks Husband is a cute, undemanding story about two men who aren’t looking for love but end up finding it in the most unexpected of places. There’s definitely more than a hint of insta-love going on, as Walker is interested in Roan pretty much from the start, no matter that the producers try to steer him in other directions, but because Walker and Roan aren’t allowed to spend much time alone – and when they do manage to snatch a moment to talk, they’re usually quickly dragged away to do something else – their romance feels a bit underdeveloped. The behind-the-scenes manipulations by the producers to ensure there is plenty of “drama” in the finished product (I think “drama” was their favourite word!) are funny in a way that appealed to my cynical side, but are also incredibly frustrating as they engineer various scenarios which, in the way of romance novels, are one Big Mis after another!
But Roan and Walker do manage to get to know each other a bit, admit to the attraction they’re feeling and agree that they’d like to give a real relationship a try. There are some lovely tender moments between them, and there’s some real “drama” before the end, which really tugs at the heartstrings.
There are a lot of secondary characters, but most of them are just spear-carriers – apart from Tessa, Walker’s awesome stepmum, fellow contestant Ben (who is in the middle of a personal crisis) and the truly awful producer Molly, who I could happily have pushed face down into a cowpat; and while the story isn’t without humour, it’s got a quieter, more serious side, too. But it’s a bit repetitive at times; Walker is told to stay away from Roan and pay attention to some of the other contestants; he seeks out Roan as often as he can anyway; the producers find them together and yell at them some more; rinse: repeat.
I couldn’t ignore the insta-love, or the fact that Roan and Walker come from completely different worlds, and other than Roan saying how much he loves being at the ranch, there’s no real discussion between them about how they’re going move forward together. I didn’t feel there was much chemistry between them either, and while I liked Walker – he’s decent and steadfast and supportive – Roan came off a bit bland in comparison. And for those who like to know such things, the nature of the setting prohibits much by way of sexytimes, but the guys do manage some alone time in the second half. On the back of a horse. Ride ‘em cowboy? And then it seemed the authors felt they had to make up for that lack by writing a sex scene that was FOUR CHAPTERS LONG at the end. There’s delayed gratification and there’s “wake me up when it’s all over.”
The degree to which I enjoy John Solo’s narration tends to very widely – and I think it depends on how much I’m enjoying the story and am able to tune out the things in his narrations that bug me. He’s a good performer, no question, and brings many skills to the table; his pacing is fine, he conveys the emotional content of the story well, he creates distinct character voices and differentiates effectively between them, and I really liked the slight Louisiana drawl he adopts to portray Walker. But while the vocal ticks I’ve noted in the past seem to be appearing less frequently, they do still tend to turn up at the most inopportune moments, and especially during sex scenes. It’s very difficult to describe in writing but he over-EM–pha-sis-es CER-tain words and syllables in what I call his “movie-trailer-guy” mode, or adds a really weird kind of tremor to his voice in moments of high emotion (he does it a few times when Roan is in the throes of passion and honestly, it’s pretty cringeworthy). What’s so frustrating is that if you take those things out of the equation, he’s an excellent narrator. I’ve rated him highly before – I gave him an A- for his work in Leta Blake’s Any Given Lifetime, and he’s terrific in Leta Blake’s Will and Patrick series – but I suspect the better quality of both those stories made me more forgiving. (Or something.) With all that said though, for over 90% of the book, Mr. Solo delivers a really good performance, so I’m grading accordingly.
Cowboy Seeks Husband wasn’t a resounding success, but it wasn’t a waste of the hours I spent listening to it either. If you’re in the mood for a romance featuring a hot cowboy and don’t mind a bit of insta-love, it might just fit the bill.
Caz
Buy Cowboy Seeks Husband by Leta Blake and Indra Vaughn on Amazon
