Review: Seeing You by Dakota Flint

This novella was originally part of the print Studs and Spurs anthology at MLRP, but has now been released as a e-book at Samhain.  It tells the story of Dylan who, after the death of his brother Simon in a car accident, has escaped from his brother's ranch in small town Montana to the big city where he is working on trying to forget those unhappy memories of his brother's death.  Whilst we are never told  who was driving the car at the time, Dylan still feels a tonne of guilt because Simon left behind his lover Wade and Dylan feels that Wade must wish it was he who had died and not Simon.  Dylan is also in love with Wade and has been long before his brother's death, something else about which he feels guilty.  As the story begins it's 18 months after Simon's death and Dylan returns to Montana after his sister phones him and tells him that Wade is running the ranch into the ground.  When Dylan returns he finds that ranch in a poor state, all the hands have been sacked or left because they weren't getting paid, the cattle sold off to pay bills and Wade, who is so mired in grief and depression that he is barely functioning.  Dylan then has the hard task of turning the ranch around and pulling Wade out of his grief, all the while continuing to hide his true feelings for Wade.

This novella is unusual from many of the stories of people recovering from the death of a partner in that both characters are grieving for the same man.  Simon and Dylan are brothers by adoption, when Dylan was taken in by Simon's family after the death of his parents and so they were the same age and the best of friends.  As we get the story from Dylan's first person point of view, it is his version of Simon that we see the most.  Simon as a mischievous child, as a flamboyant adult and as he lay dying in Dylan's arms.  By the end of the story I really felt like I knew the character of Simon - or at least as Dylan had known him, and this made me able to identify with the grief that Dylan feels for his brother and understand why he felt the need to escape to the city when his environment constantly reminded him of his loss.  On the flip side, this meant that I didn't know very much about Simon and Wade, except that Wade loved him a great deal.  In the end I think this was a good thing as the romantic times with Simon then didn't become too much of a barrier to the developing relationship between Wade and Dylan.

The story takes place over a few months and during that time Dylan is helping Wade come to terms with Simon's death.  Many of their scenes together are them remembering Simon or packing away Simon's things or talking about their grief and so it isn't until the last few pages that their own relationship started to develop in any way.  In a way I can understand why the story was written like that:  As a reader I needed to know that Wade was definitely ready to move on and begin a new relationship, but I was also frustrated that Simon seemed to be present, hanging around their thoughts, for most of the key scenes in the book.  This often meant that the scenes which focus solely on the development of feeling between the heroes seems to happen off page and a number of times I wished that there were more scenes with just the two men, talking, and being with each other without the intrusion of Simon in the relationship.  As a result of this, when Wade was ready to move on, it seemed very sudden and just slightly forced - something which may not have been so if there had been just a few more scenes of Wade and Dylan growing romantically closer to one another without the spectre of Simon hanging over them.  Having said that, I understand that the length of the novella probably meant that there wasn't room for more scenes and given the choice between an in depth portrayal of Wade and Dylan overcoming their grief or a too rushed and perhaps inappropriate move into a new relationship, then I would prefer the way it was done in the book.

Dylan was a very sympathetic narrator and I warmed to him a great deal.  His feelings for Simon and his sister, Erin, were genuine and heartfelt.  I felt sorry for his grief and also understood the guilty feelings that Simon's death brought, especially the thought that his brother's death had now made it possible for him to have the man he has wanted for many years, and who was previously unattainable.  Wade was a little less well drawn and was mostly defined by his grief for Simon.  However, as the story progressed, I began to see glimpses of the man that Dylan fell in love with and I was certainly pleased for their HEA.  As so much page time is spent with Dylan and Wade, the secondary characters fade a little into the background.  This wasn't a bad thing, as they were all still well rounded enough to fulfil their roles in a believable way, especially Erin and the old ranch hand Mack.

Overall, as a study in overcoming grief this novella was spot on.  I sympathised with the characters, wanted them to heal from their sorrow and was happy with the way the novella ended.  It also managed all this without being too heavy on the angst, as there were a number of scenes where the funny or the good times with Simon were mentioned as part of the healing process.  This is the first published story I've read by Dakota Flint (although I have read the freebies on her website, which were really good), but it certainly won't be the last.  I'd recommend this novella, with a grade of 'Very Good' to all those who like cowboy stories and who want to read a great story about two men overcoming their grief to start a new life together.

Buy this book HERE.