Review Tour: Second Best Men by Fearne Hill

22 November of 2023 by ButtonsMom2003

Second Best Men By Fearne Hill

Genre: Contemporary Romance, GLBTQ, MM

Tropes: Forced proximity, City/country, Coming out, Opposites attract

Released: November 16, 2023

Publisher: Self-Published

Length: 162 Pages

Synopsis

Two snowed-in men. 300 cows. And a mangy dog.

Tucked away down a rutted dirt track resides a grumpy dairy farmer who lives his life firmly in the closet.

And secretly, he’s desperately lonely.

That farmer is me—Rob Langford. I have more meaningful conversations with my prize bull than people. Except, one snowy night, I stumble across a fancy car wedged into a ditch.

The driver needs my help.

He’s injured. Stranded. The snow lies two feet deep.

And over the next few days, I discover this quiet, thoughtful man doesn’t mind my run-down cottage and my lumpy old sofa. He’s even quite tolerant of my smelly arthritic dog.

Strong. Handsome. Self-possessed.

A man who knows what he wants. In bed and out of it. And bizarrely, that thing is me.

But, of course, to be what he needs, I have to step out of the shadows. And into his life.

Review

Reviewed by ButtonsMom2003

Sweet and hot!

Second Best Men is a standalone book but it’s loosely related to Fearne Hill’s Rossingley series. Fans will enjoy getting to visit briefly with several characters from that series. I have to add how much I love the Rossingley books and I hope that Fearne Hill continues to write more stories set in this world.

Rob is a dairy farmer who farms land owned by the Earl of Rossingley (Lucien from the Rossingley series). During a bad snow storm, he rescues Evan, whose car has run into a tree. Evan is a doctor and knows that he isn’t badly hurt but it takes him a bit to convince Rob of that. Rob takes him in and tends to his wounds, even helping to put his dislocated shoulder back in place.

Neither Rob nor Evan are out, Evan has only recently admitted to himself that he is gay and is being divorced by his wife. Rob has never felt comfortable about coming out. He’s sure that his family won’t mind but he worries about what the local people will think since he’s dated women in the past and everyone assumes he’s straight. Evan leaves suddenly when his car is getting towed and he only has time to leave a thank you note for Rob. Months pass and they meet again in a very unexpected way and the sparks fly.

This book is a very sweet love story. Rob loves the work he does and he loves the animals he cares for: milk cows, a bull, an elderly poodle and more. Taking care of Evan is a bit different because he has a very hard time dealing with human illness and helping Evan to put his dislocated shoulder back in pretty much did him in.

This is a very nice slow-burn romance with two wonderful MCs who exchange a lot of witty banter that had me smiling a lot while I read this. I also learned a new phrase: “up the duff.” I love reading books set in other countries written by non-US authors. Second Best Men was wonderfully British and I learned that “up the duff” means pregnant!