The Sutton Station final installment, and what a beauty it is.

And how brilliant is it that this one is told from Travis’s point of view? What a gorgeous man he is. The whole setting gets a new light, seen from his eyes. Still full of red dirt, but with the added awe of a person who has chosen to live in this wondrous land, one who wasn’t simply born into it.

So, author. You proceed to break my heart in so many pieces I’m still looking for some of them. Then you go on and mend it, like it was never broken in the first place.

As I sit and read, I get lost in the red dirt trails, and I rightly don’t know where I am when I look up from the pages. It takes a moment to realize that I am in my home, not in the outback, struggling.

What I really loved in this last book was the fact that there wasn’t any mandatory romantic crisis, no shocking turn of events to put everything upside down. Just life, and all its quirky happenings of deep joy, coupled with deep sorrow—that’s what a good story is.

The only minus note I have is that the women in this last installment were extremely traditional in their roles, except for a very small window of red disappearing into the setting sun at the end. All the other women, from Ma, to Travis’s mother in Texas, they were all cooking and taking care of their houses. It irked me a bit. One yiihaa-cowgirl scene doesn’t make up for all the fabulous roles these ladies could have presented.

Another thing I absolutely adored was the fact that all the love scenes were mostly fade to black. I am very weary of the explicit sexing, and this was just amazingly well done. Thank you. It was sweet, and good, and just enough.

The epilogue was great, I loved it. It added a lot of little nuggets of fun facts, little things that I know I would be wondering about, later.

Because, you see, this is a story that stays with you. For days, dare I say months? Charlie and Travis are real, to me. They live very far away, so I don’t hear from them very often. But they are friends, nonetheless.

The first three were my Best of 2014.

This last one lands smack-bang in the newly instated Best of 2015.

Read this series.

*** 

I was given a pre-edit ARC copy of this book. A positive review was not promised in exchange.

I just read number 2 in this series about a month ago, and I positively love that I get to walk into Ma’s kitchen again at Sutton Station, and sit down for a new episode. I love that place.

This time there is a little drama, handled in the calmest of ways, and then there’s the added bonus of a wombat that walked straight into my heart and sat down and nested. By DOG I love Nugget.

The Aussie drawl is perfect, without ever going into any kind of tedious weird spelling. It just flows right, and I hear a voice-mixture of all the Australians I’ve ever heard, (which are admittedly far too few, and including Steve Irving, the ladies of Drover’s Run, and some of the cast in Spartacus. But hey, it works for me).

I love cattle work, I have done it for years, and this setting rings true. For sure, it tells a good story also about some strong and feisty women, which I cannot but adore. Thank you for them, thank you for Trudy, Ma, and Nara. Thank you for giving Nara a future, and for not quitting on Trudy. Ma? Thank you. Thank you.

I adore the modernization of the station, the look to the future, and I am simply amazed at the evident research behind this story, to bring it alive. Or maybe N. R. Walker is in the cattle business? One would believe so.

There were moments of tension here, and there were moments of knee-slapping hilarity, too. I think the naming of the poddies had me screaming out loud. Travis is to die for, truly.

Here, I’ll leave you with a short paragraph, just so you can see what I’m talking about:

I scoffed out a laugh. “My life used to be boring! I can still remember thinkin’ nothing ever happened out here. It wasn’t that long ago.”

His eyes went wide. It matched his smile. “You make it sound like it’s my fault!”

“It is!” I told him. “Since you got here, it’s been not-boring every day.”

Language is important to me, and even though I was given a pre-edit ARC copy, I found very few errors and typos. This is a serious author who self-publishes, with respect for the readers. I salute that, and point my finger to this series in evidence for those who say that self-published isn’t up to par. It may be true sometimes, but with this author, not at all.

Absolutely smashing work. Top marks.

And the best part? At the end there, in the list of books written by this author? It says Coming Soon, Red Dirt Heart 4.

YAY! DOUBLE YAY!

I love a series where every book is a complete stand-alone piece, where I don’t feel cheated at the end. Where the storyline is rounded and I feel I’ve got all the answers I needed, for now. That means the next book is just going to be a bonus-new-encounter-with-favorite-boys. Where Australia can re-enter the scene, and charm my socks off.

*** 

I was given a pre-edit ARC copy of this book. A positive review was not promised in exchange.