REVIEW: The Good Green Earth (Colors of Love #3) by V.C. Locey

The Official Description: After the Syracuse Stallions clinch the championship, Nathan Zinkan, the renowned wild man of the AHL is arrested for a DUI. Again. When a no-nonsense judge adds a heavy dose of community service to an already stiff sentence, Nathan has to forget a summer of partying and slide on a pair of gardening gloves. His entire future now rides on how well he can behave while helping elderly urban gardeners tend to their tomatoes.

Watching local garden center owner Bran Cavanaugh working without his shirt is a benefit he wasn’t expecting. Pity Bran is also the one in charge of the community garden as well as keeping tabs on Nathan’s hours served. The two men are instantly at odds due to Nathan’s rebellious nature and Bran’s icy demeanor. Yet there’s no denying the attraction that begins to build between the hot-headed athlete and the cool as a cucumber master gardener.

Will their attraction grow into something deeper, or will it wither and die on the vine?

Just the facts: M/M contemporary romance, gay main characters,

A hockey player with a lot of trauma in his past and a Gardener still dealing with grief come together and clash before they are drawn to one another.

My thoughts bit: When Nathan is arrested for a DUI his life changes drastically. Not only does his license get suspended but he’s assigned to do some community service at a gardener. He’s going to spend the summer helping elderly gardeners, not partying along with the rest of his colleagues.

Bran Cavanaugh is the owner of the community garden and he’s supervising Nathan. There’s a mutual attraction, at least, Nathan thinks there is. He’s used to one-night hookups and maybe doing that with a little too much alcohol in his system. Nathan’s twenty years old and seems to be on a destructive path although he sure isn’t ready to accept that. He’s got a lot of trauma in his past and not a lot of support in his present. His mother left when he was very young, his favorite brother blames him for … everything… and his father is in hospital permanently.

I don’t want to reveal all the intricacies of Nathan’s history because I really enjoyed the way Locey unwound the tale. It was interesting to get to know a character, in the same way, I would get to know someone in life. We don’t introduce ourselves and blurt out all the things that have happened to us in the past. This story is kind of like Locey was peeling layers off an ocean, each little story one of these men passed on revealed a little more about them.

Both main characters in this book are dealing with trauma in their pasts. For Nathan, it’s the loss of most of every member in his family in one way or another, For Bran, it’s the violent loss of his spouse. Their differing stories demonstrate how different peoples’ reactions to grief and loss can be. Some of us cut ourselves off from having love in our lives, some of us try to find it everywhere.

The metamorphosis of Nathan over the course of the book is engaging and authentic. I was really cheering for him and hoping that he would find a way to move past everything that he’d gone through.

This is a well-written book that’s very emotional and depicts the very real struggle with substance abuse. I enjoyed this and happily give it 4 stars.

The warnings bit: Please be aware, I’m by no means an expert on what may or may not have the potential to disturb people. I simply list things that I think a reader might want to be aware of. In This book: (SPOILERS) Description of suicide attempt in the past, mentions of a sibling who was killed on active duty, family discord, abandonment by a parent, deceased spouse, description of a murdered spouse dying in arms, substance abuse, alcoholism (current and past), homophobia.

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USA Today Bestselling Author V.L. Locey – Penning LGBT hockey romance that skates into sinful pleasures.

V.L. Locey loves worn jeans, yoga, belly laughs, walking, reading and writing lusty tales, Greek mythology, Torchwood and Dr. Who, the New York Rangers, comic books, and coffee. (Not necessarily in that order.) She shares her life with her husband, her daughter, one dog, two cats, a pair of geese, far too many chickens, and two steers.

When not writing spicy romances, she enjoys spending her day with her menagerie in the rolling hills of Pennsylvania with a cup of fresh java in one hand and a steamy romance novel in the other.

 

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Readalikes: Other stories that are similar or give the same feel

• Goalie Interference (Hat Trick #2) by Avon Gale, Piper Vaughn
• Synchro Boy by Shannon McFerran
• Out of Nowhere (Middle of Somewhere #2) by Roan Parrish

I received an ARC of The Good Green Earth (Colors of Love #3) by V.C. Locey via Signal Boost Promotions in exchange for an unbiased review.