Drawing The Devil

By Jon Keys

Genre: LGBT, M/M Romance

Synopsis

A heart can live a lifetime in eight seconds.

Ever since his father caught him with another boy and threw him out at the tender age of sixteen, Dustin Lewis has been fighting his way up the national bull-riding rankings. He’s on the brink of qualifying for the National Finals when he draws Diablo, a notoriously rank bull—and the ride goes bad.

When bullfighter Shane Rees frees Dustin from the rigging of the same bull that nearly destroyed his face, he comes dangerously close to dropping his guard. Shane knows the potential consequences of being gay in a sport loaded with testosterone-overdosed cowboys, and the resulting scars of mind and body have left him with little self-worth.

Their near-death-by-bull first meeting sparks an attraction that awakens every last one of their personal demons. Yet as the National Finals draws closer, so do they. But they’ll have to overcome emotional highs, near-tragic lows, and bone-crushing danger before love can bust out of the chute.

Warning: Contains man-on-man boot knocking, rawhide and raw emotions, badass cowboys and even badder-ass bulls. This ain’t your old man’s rodeo.

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Tina’s Review

The story starts off a little roughly written with short, choppy and stiff narration. Although the plot describes an exciting moment, the elementary style of writing detracted from the enjoyment. Thankfully, it starts to smooth out a little after only 10-15 %. Shane seems like a pretty solid character, if a bit insecure. Dustin is written in a way that more often than not, he comes off as a kid in his mid-teens as opposed to a young man starting his twenties. Maybe it’s his supposed ADHD, but I don’t buy that, being the parent of an ADHD pre-teen. Worse, I had to continually remind myself that Dustin is over twenty years old because, too often, the dynamics between him and Shane felt more like older man and early high school kid. The few secondary characters add good dimension. Dialogue and interaction are passable most of the time. The plot’s synopsis caught my attention immediately as I am a huge fan of bull riding and it sounded intriguing. I have to state that reading that Bushwhacker was some aggressive beast kind of threw me for a loop because the reality of it is quite the opposite, whereas Modified Clyde or David’s Dream would have been a more likely candidate. The plot, in writing, was pretty good and it flows a little better than average. There were numerous conflicts throughout the book, most of which were resolved well. It does, sadly, bring light to the fact that gay men face hate crimes still to this day. Predictability was not too much of an issue. The ending was concluded in a way where all the loose ends were tied and tucked away, but there was enough vagueness in it that there could later be a follow-up book or one featuring Todd and his barrel-racer crush.

Author Bio

My earliest memories revolve around books; with the first ones I can recall reading being “The Warlord of Mars” and anything with Tarzan. (The local library wasn’t particularly up to date.) But as puberty set in I started sneaking my mother’s romance magazines and added the world of romance and erotica to the mix of science fiction, fantasy and comic books.

A voracious reader for almost half a century, I’ve only recently begun creating my own flights of fiction for the entertainment of others. Born in the Southwest and now living in the Midwest, I’ve worked as a ranch hand, teacher, computer tech, roughneck, designer, retail clerk, welder, artist, and, yes, pool boy; with interests ranging from kayaking and hunting to painting and cooking, I draw from a wide range of life experiences to create written works that draw the reader in and wrap them in a good story.

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