Adventures in the Wild West with a Gay Spin
There are quite a few western themed novels with a gay theme. Here are three that I enjoyed.
According to Hoyle by Abigail Roux starts off slow but builds up to a bucking bronco ride of a plot. I appreciated that I wasn’t quite sure how the story was going to play out. I appreciated that one of the primary characters depended on sign language to communicate.
“US Marshals Eli Flynn and William Henry Washington — longtime friends and colleagues — are escorting two prisoners to New Orleans for trial when they discover there’s more than outlawry to the infamous shootist Dusty Rose and the enigmatic man known as Cage.”
Towards the end it does get a little steamy, but always in service to the plot. This one is definitely of the slow-burn variety.
The details of life in the 1800s kept the world very specific and easy to envision.
Imagine Bruce Willis on a paddleboat and you get a small sense of the level of action within this high stakes adventure. Very satisfying.
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The Ballad of Crow and Sparrow by V. L. Locey is full of train robberies, kidnapping, and ultimately becomes a complicated tale of survival against ruthless outlaws. The story is gritty at times and it is hard to not feel sympathy for the characters in their desperate circumstances.
“Sometimes a man’s biggest blunder can turn into his greatest triumph.
Orphaned at fourteen, Crow Poulin now has to hunt and trap the White Mountains of Arizona, as his father had taught him, all alone. It’s a lonely existence, until one morning, while checking his trap line, Crow finds more than a rabbit in a snare. He stumbles across the outlaw Jack Wittington lying half dead in the wilds. He takes the wanted man in, heals him, and in return for saving his life, the smooth-talking criminal invites Crow to join his family. Starved for human interaction and a father figure, Crow leaves the mountains behind for what he assumes will be a brighter future.”
But the future that this blurb hints at is NOT how this plays out.
Absolutely kept me engaged to the last page.
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Robby Riverton: Mail Order Bride by Eli Easton is in the spirit of Some Like It Hot goes west. Through a chain of ridiculous circumstances, when a New York actor finds himself desperately trying to evade mobsters trying to kill him, he disguises himself as a woman. Farce ensues. It is light fare but it was entertaining.
“The year is 1860. Robby Riverton is a rising star on the New York stage. But he witnesses a murder by a famous crime boss and is forced to go on the run–all the way to Santa Fe. When he still hasn’t ditched his pursuers, he disguises himself as a mail order bride he meets on the wagon train. Caught between gangsters that want to kill him, and the crazy, uncouth family of his “intended”, Robby’s only ally is a lazy sheriff who sees exactly who Robby is — and can’t resist him.”
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The Lock-Keeper’s Heart by Neil S. Plakcy isn’t exactly a western, as it takes place in rural Pennsylvania in the 1800s, but between the details of the life of a lock-keeper and those who used the locks, and the nearby towns, it might be of interest to those who enjoy westerns.
“Fans of MM historical romance will appreciate a fascinating time period, filled with unique details and a vibrant location, and a focus on the lives of working-class men in the 19th century who dare to love other men. This historical MM romance set in a small town in rural Pennsylvania in 1872 has a hurt/comfort theme”
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The Station by Keira Andrews is so far west that it arguably becomes east. But it deals with cattle driving in 1800s Australia. Keira Andrews is a pretty dependable author. She is great at creating characters within circumstances that are compelling. This story is no different.
“From the miserable depths of a prison ship to the vast, untamed Australian outback, Colin and Patrick must rely on each other. Danger lurks everywhere, and when they unexpectedly get the chance to escape to a new life as cowboys, they’ll need each other more than ever.”
Between the horrors of a convict ship from the UK, to survival on a brutal landscape while fighting off cattle rustlers, I could not put the book down.
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Voyageurs is another book by Kiera Andrews that is set in a western setting. It is a short story really. A fellow with little outdoors experience travels by boat with a mixed-race Indian guide from New York to Fort Charlotte, Canada before winter sets in. But the two men deal with sickness, outlaws, and horrible weather while they travel the waterways west. It is a rather good, albeit short, read.
“It’s 1793, and Simon Cavendish needs to get to his station at Fort Charlotte, a fur-trading outpost in the untamed Canadian wild. The fort is only accessible by canoe, and there’s just one man daring enough to take him on the perilous, thousand-mile journey from Montreal this late in the summer.
Young Christian Smith, the son of an Ojibwe mother and absent English father, is desperate for money to strike out on his own, so he agrees to take clueless Simon deep into the wild. As they travel endless lakes and rivers, they butt heads.”
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There are quite a few other western themed books with gay characters, but I’ll have to go back through my reading and listening to get the titles. I’ll get the ones I liked up on The Purple Fantastic eventually!
