Well Traveled

An excellent and enjoyable Western.

I love historical romances for the feeling that I'm experiencing the private lives of characters from a different era, and this book definitely feels like a real window on the past. The leads, Jed and Gideon, were both appealing characters, with flaws and strengths. There's a lot of sex in this book, all very hot. But I also loved the framing device of a trip across the Wild West, and the action in the middle (when they come across the Hennessy farm) was quite gripping.

It was really refreshing to read a same-sex romance with a bisexual point-of-view character, Gideon. I got the impression Jed was also bisexual, but I can't say for sure. At the start of the book, Gideon's attraction to Jed leads him to spend (extra) time with a female prostitute (those scenes aren't explicitly described); when Gideon knows himself to be in love with Jed, but fears they don't have a future together, he hopes to find another man or woman he loves in the same way. I'm grateful to the authors for writing bisexuality in a way that echoes my own experience.

I only wish there were a lot more books about these two.

This was a surprising favourite. I'm not really interested in American history and don't watch or read a lot of Westerns, but this book was very well written and felt realistic with a slow-burn romance between two people from different worlds. The Native culture and traditions described were seemingly well-researched and approached with respect and all of the characters felt multi-dimensional which elevated this story from a M/M Romance to something I'd recommend to anyone. There are plenty of sex scenes for those here for that but it's interspersed between rich descriptions of the American west along with the complications and hardship that comes along with it.
Follow Gideon and Jed from Montana to Oakland, CA in the fall of 1895 as they learn about each other and each other's very different worlds.