Wranglers: Judgment

Title: Wranglers: Judgment
Author: Vivien Dean
Publisher: Amber Allure
Genre: Contemporary
Length: Novella (23k words)
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

A Guest Review by Aunt Lynn

THE BLURB

Co-counseling a case does more than give Derek Rossi and Sam Kimball another win in their column. It brings them closer together as a couple, on the verge of something more.

Until a surprise visit from Sam’s parents — who don’t even know he’s gay — changes everything.

Now, Derek needs to prove the last six months haven’t been a fluke. And pray his relationship with Sam is strong enough to survive this personal trial…

THE REVIEW

Wranglers: Judgment is the final book in the Wranglers series by Vivien Dean. While it is possible to read this without reading the other installments, I wouldn’t suggest it; these short books are just part of a larger picture and you really should start with book one, Wranglers: Discovery.

Set a few months after the end of W: TDR and narrated by Derek, the story opens with our heroes getting ready to be interviewed on a morning news program about the case they are working on, the same case that was given to them in the last book regarding a young woman with HIV whose health insurance company is denying coverage. After they win the case, Sam’s parents unexpectedly visit from Texas — the same parents to whom Sam isn’t out — and he must deal with the consequences of them finding out the truth not only about his orientation, but about him and Derek. Meanwhile, Derek is having some coming out of his own to do — to himself. Is he willing to see and voice what Sam means to him? Is he ready to take their relationship to the next level, and if yes, what does that mean?

I love characters that grow during the course of the work, and Derek definitely shows growth from the series start to end. I was concerned in the previous book that I was losing sight of him, but we get him full-force here. I liked watching his support of Sam during his crisis and what that meant to both of them. Not big on public displays of affection and never saying the three little words before even though Sam has, if/when he does either, it is a big deal, something both the reader and Sam recognizes. And his offer at the end is remarkable, even causing the rarely-quiet Sam to be speechless, a feat in itself. In fact, there are several things that Derek does that surprises Sam into silence (Seeing Sam in shock was quickly becoming one of his favorite things.).

Because the previous two books were presented from Sam’s perspective, we were given the opportunity to see internal struggles and emotion churning beneath the sunny, confident exterior he normally shows, which was a plus. That being said, I liked the chance to see Sam through Derek’s eyes again, now nine months into their relationship. We didn’t have to be in Sam’s head to witness his satisfaction of winning the case, his vulnerability and hurt at his parents’ reaction to their discovery — regardless of how expected it was — and his amazement at Derek’s overtures.

We meet both sets of parents here, though we spend more time with Sam’s conservative mother and father who try to work through the shock of finding out about their only son’s orientation and the fact that he lied to them for decades. And though I saw their method of discovery coming from a mile away, it didn’t lessen my enjoyment of the story.

My only issue — and this is a plus and a negative — is that I got to the end and said “Wait! That’s it?!” I wanted more. It’s good in that I was engrossed in the story; bad in that, well, it’s over! I wanted to find out what it was like for them after Derek’s offer was accepted. I wanted to see more of them working together as a team — a real legal force, those two — and wish we had more of that through the series.

OVERALL

Fans of the series will not want to miss this final installment, and those interested in reading it should start with book one. In thinking over the series as a whole, one which I do recommend, I can’t help but feel that the four novellas would have been served and flowed better as a longer, single book with some additional interaction with them at work. But that’s just me.