Planting His Dream

Title: Planting His Dream
Author: Andrew Grey and Derrick McClain (Narrator)
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: July 12th 2016
Genre(s): M/M Contemporary Romance
Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
Reviewed by: Belen
Heat Level: 3 flames out of 5
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Blurb:

Foster dreams of getting away, but after his father’s death, he has to take over the family dairy farm. It soon becomes clear his father hasn’t been doing the best job of running it, so not only does Foster need to take over the day-to-day operations, he also needs to find new ways of bringing in revenue.

Javi has no time to dream. He and his family are migrant workers, and daily survival is a struggle, so they travel to anywhere they can get work. When they arrive in their old van, Foster arranges for Javi to help him on the farm.

To Javi’s surprise, Foster listens to his ideas and actually puts them into action. Over days that turn into weeks, they grow to like and then care for each other, but they come from two very different worlds, and they both have responsibilities to their families that neither can walk away from. Is it possible for them to discover a dream they can share? Perhaps they can plant their own and nurture it together to see it grow, if their different backgrounds don’t separate them forever.

Foster has spent his entire life working the family dairy farm. He’s given up parties, spending time with friends, and being a “kid” in order to work side by side with his father to make their farm viable. When Foster’s father dies unexpectedly it creates a strain of finances and work.

Putting the advice of a neighboring farmer into action Foster begins to treat the farm like a business and expand crops and the family’s personal garden in order to sell their goods at the local farmer’s market for more income. When a migrant family who had helped the year before returns early, Foster is able to use the oldest son, Javi’s, strong back and work ethic to help with some of the mounting chores and responsibility of running the operation.

Foster’s attraction to Javi is his biggest secret, but when Javi expresses his own feelings to Foster, the two begin a relationship based on mutual respect and attraction. But Javi comes from a different world than Foster and they have a lot to work through in order to be together.

The reader gets a good inside look into the sweat and backbreaking work involved in running a small farm, and a smaller snapshot into the lives of one of the migrant families who seasonally works there. While there is a lot of focus into the day to day work, it doesn’t come at the expense of the slow-burn romance that finally heats up quite well.

Charmingly narrated by Derrick McClain Planting His Dream is a sweet, low angst, romance with some heat and with no real conflict or big blow ups…It’s just an easy, pleasurable listen.