Bowling for Turkeys by Amy Lane at Dreamspinner Press
Genre | Gay / Contemporary / Romance / Holiday |
Reviewed by | Barb on 02-January-2025 |
Genre | Gay / Contemporary / Romance / Holiday |
Reviewed by | Barb on 02-January-2025 |
Milo Tanaka was not recovering from the mother of all breakups when his best friend barged into his home and gave him a dog. While Julia the dog doesn’t like squirrels, cats, turkeys, other dogs, or most humans, at least she gets him out of bed.
When a tiny blond dog rockets out of nowhere to bark ferociously at Garth Potter’s enormous Daniff, "the Chad," Garth is annoyed, but Chad simply woofs in Julia’s face. But when Garth looks around for her irresponsible owner, he finds a fey panicky disaster desperately trying to keep his dog from getting eaten, and realizes Milo is simply new to dog ownership, not neglectful or cruel.
In fact, Milo is a truly decent guy, and he and his best friend have been struggling to find their footing in adulthood and relationships. As Garth befriends Milo and the irascible Julia, he finds himself entangled in Milo’s broken heart and fractured life. As much as Garth wants to fix it, he knows that Milo has to fix it himself. With the holidays approaching, Milo realizes that a good relationship won’t leave him isolated and afraid, but surrounded with friends, and that the key to thriving isn’t just chasing the turkeys out of his life—it’s letting a good man in.
Amy Lane is my favorite storyteller. She can weave a tale that will take underdog characters through all the emotional ups and downs of life and lead those characters to be their personal best. And then, as readers are shedding tears of joy for their turnaround, she pairs them with the perfect love match. Two halves of a whole come together on page. That’s the case here. Granted, there’s also quite a few dogs, cats, and supporting characters, but all are necessary to the recipe for one of this author’s outstanding and memorable tales.
As the story opens, Milo’s BFF, Mari, pulls him out of the doldrums, and literally out of bed, when she presents him with a little chihuahua mix to care for. Julia is a spitfire and gives Milo a reason to live again after a bad breakup with a man readers will likely come to hate as much as this reader did. Stuart is one of those people who are verbally abusive and excel at being mean while still smiling—my favorite type of villain. On one of their first outdoor walks, Milo and Julia come across a flock of wild turkeys. Julia promptly tears off after them, scattering the flock, and making Milo think of bowling for turkeys. Carefree but careless, she then sets her sights on a big bruiser of a dog named Chad who is actually a sweet pup owned by Garth, a handsome, gentle giant of a man. A friendship quickly develops between dogs and men, and Milo can now count his number of friends on two fingers. Amy Lane is also very good at setting up a story and getting me hooked early. Between the men and the dogs, I was sold.
But as the story goes on, we learn more about Milo and his background, his forever friendship with Mari, his mostly work-from-home job and his coworkers, and we learn more about Garth, his clients, his own BFF, and his love of animals. Garth really sees Milo and knows he’s going to need to go slow in befriending the skittish man so he stops at a few kisses whenever they part, until Milo is ready for more.
Readers get a front row seat for Milo’s healing, his new friendships, his caring and concern for others, his big heart—which has needed to be filled for a long time—and they get to see the comeuppance Stuart so richly deserves. One of the greatest slaps to Stuart’s ego is meeting the new Milo, the man he’s become since Stuart left—more confident, more creative, with more friends and pets and a strong sense of self. And that, too, summarizes the most beautiful facet of this author’s storytelling—readers don’t just get a happy-ever-after ending. They get a rich and powerful experience that they’ll carry in their hearts for a long time to come.
DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review.
Format | ebook and print |
Length | Novel, 221 pages/77844 words |
Heat Level | |
Publication Date | 05-November-2024 |
Price | $6.99 ebook, $16.99 paperback |
Buy Link | https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/bowling-for-turkeys-by-amy-lane-12520-b |