You Can Go Home Again

Title: You Can Go Home Again
Author: Drew Zachary
Publisher: Torquere Books
Genre: Contemporary M/M
Length: short story (40 PDF pages)
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

Summary Review: This easygoing romance between two old school friends, while not high octane, is still enjoyable.

THE BLURB

Veterinarian Peter Rawley has returned to his prairie home of Claremont after a six year absence to care for his ailing parents. While out at the local watering hole, he runs into his old friend Harlan Brant. Lan is number one on the list of people Pete wants to catch up with now that he’s back, and it looks like the feeling is mutual.

When a couple of drinks leads to an invitation to spend an off day out at Lan’s ranch, Pete wonders if an old friendship can become something more and if it’s true that you can go home again.

THE REVIEW

Peter had left Claremont, a small town in the Prairies, to attend the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph and for 6 years he never returned home even for holidays, because he didn’t want to reveal his sexual orientation. However, now that his father was ill his mother needed him so he packed up his job and decided to face the music. The first person he saw at The Watering Hole, the only bar in the area, was his old friend Lan. After catching up with each other’s careers and personal lives he was surprised to find out that Lan was still single in a town where there were very few bachelors and all of their friends were married. Obviously Lan would be a great catch for the ladies especially since he and his dad owned a large ranch.

A few drinks later Lan let slip that he wasn’t into women and that he preferred men. This gave Peter the opening he was looking for and he decided to pursue the possibility that maybe he and Lan could have something together. Peter took Lan home that evening because he was over the limit to drive, and they chatted and caught up some more. Lan also revealed that he had given Peter many hints over the years that he was attracted to him but Peter was too dense to figure it out. Two nights later he was called out to attend the difficult birth of a foal at Lan’s ranch, which led to them making a date at the old fishing hole a week later, a favourite spot when they were kids. Would their adult reunion and thoughts of skinny dipping again fulfil their dreams or would it fall as flat as a pancake? Would Peter be able to take the hint now and act on it?

This short story was fun as Peter and Lan reconnected and walked the roads of their old stamping ground, but with a major difference now that they were adults and playtime had a different meaning. The prose was folksy and the characters were low key as suited the plot. I liked Peter and Lan but I would hesitate to say that they were special. Like everything else in the book the sex was done well but the sparks were not overwhelming. To be honest, I wanted to read this book because the location was Canadian and there are not that many books with Canadian characters and locations, so it was great for me to visit the Prairies where I have never been, through this book, even though there wasn’t much that was distinctive about the locale.

You Can Go Home Again would be of interest to readers who are fans of Drew Zachary and like to read stories about old friends becoming lovers.