Review: "The Broken H" by J.L. Langley

The Broken H by J.L. Langley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


As the sequel to The Tin Star, The Broken H features Sheriff Grayson Hunter, who played a secondary character in the previous book, and Shane Cortez, the man he's loved all his life.

Shane has been part of Gray's life since Shane was sixteen and Gray was three, when Gray's parents took an almost starving and battered Shane off the street and offered him a home to live. Despite the big age difference between them, the two boys became inseparable friends almost immediately. That changed when Gray turned eighteen, realized that his feelings for Shane went beyond mere friendship and tried to tell the older man how he felt. Shane's reaction (and apparent rejection) sent Gray running away from his parents' ranch, the Broken H, and he's stayed away from Shane since then. Fate has a way to bring lovers back together, though. When Gray's father suffers a heart attack, he's called home and there's no denying his feelings for Shane anymore. Surprisingly, it looks like Shane has something to say in the matter too...

Here's the deal: I loved Shane and Gray individually, but their relationship was a bit uncomfortable to me. The flashbacks from their past, when Shane was still a young man and Gray was a child, were filled with brotherly affection, so I had a hard time adjusting to the change in their relationship. In itself, the age gap between them wasn't the issue - Ethan and Jamie, from The Tin Star, had eleven years between them and I didn't have a problem with it - but the fact that Shane and Gray had basically grown up like "brothers". Heck, Gray's parents even treated Shane like a son!

Besides that, there were just too many editing errors in this book. I'm not the best person to point them out, since English isn't my mother language, but they were too bizarre and obvious. Sadly, they got in the way of my enjoying this read, because I found myself having to reread entire sentences to understand their meaning. That didn't happen once or twice, but several times - especially in the second half of the book.

Overall, this ended up being just an OK read to me, with likable characters, sweet and funny love scenes - I especially liked Gray's fetishes - and a bit of tension to keep the story going. It would have been a 4-star read to me if it weren't for the things I mentioned above.



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