4.5 stars! LOVED it!!! ( )

Set (mostly) in Texas, this novella is about bull riding, two somewhat lost men who help each other define who they really are, and a whole lot of traveling, morally questionable goings-on, and the need to find a home. ‘Shane Thorpe Knew Jesus and Rode Bulls’ (what a title!) is part of the ‘States of Love’ series that offers stories of romance that span every corner of the United States. It gives a great feel for a way of life and a way of thinking more than actual geographical information, and that style makes it different from the first two books in this series. The characters are at the center of this story but there are also lots of details that say “Texas” with a healthy dose of Colorado thrown in as a bonus.

Joe is a lost soul in more ways than one. His single mother raised him the best way she is able, he has big plans to go to college, but Fate has other ideas. His mother dies on his high school graduation day, and he ends up leaving Colorado with his best friend, Harley, to chase their dream of riding bulls and living in Abilene, Texas. Harley, having had to grow up quickly to escape his bast*rd of a father, teaches Joe a lot about “real life” – including how to make “withdrawals”. Robbing gas stations and small convenience stores, in plain English. I have to admit I had trouble liking Joe because of this cavalier attitude toward other people’s money. I could see where he was coming from, and he was always “nice” about it – never actually pulling the gun he carried – but still. Despite all of this I found myself liking him when he had to go through Harley dying three years into their trip, and even more when he took Shane under his wing and helped him accept that he is gay.

Shane grew up in a religious household, was told that being gay is a sin, and is only slowly beginning to withdraw from his mother’s clutches. Shane knows he is gay, has even experimented with a friend in high school, but he is scared to admit it and incur the Lord’s wrath. When he meets Joe in a bar right after Harley’s death and rescues him, it is the beginning of a friendship that gradually shows Shane there is another way of looking at his sexuality. The changes are so slow they are almost not noticeable, but it was great to see how Shane grows and changes to the point where he can admit that he likes Joe as way more than a friend and begins to move forward.

The pace of this story is slow, there are flashbacks and lots of back story told after the fact, and even the action part, when a Texas Ranger begins to trace Joe’s “withdrawals”, is in no way hectic. By the time that ranger gets closer to Joe, I was so involved in Joe and Shane’s story that I hoped the ranger would never catch him; Joe had made me into his accessory, and that made me smile.

If you like stories with lots of local flavor and intriguing characters, if bull riders and rodeos are your thing, and if you’re looking for an entertaining character study with a touch of criminal activity, then you might enjoy this novella.


NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews. ( )