Pour It On

Marie Sexton's Never a Hero, while nicely written, seemed to be reaching as if there's a writers' contest to see who could come up with the romance hero with the most challenging personal problems to overcome.  So Sexton invented Owen Meade whose congenitally amputated arm and debilitating stutter make him a tough sell as romantic hero.

But since this story is set in Tucker Springs, Colorado, where romance's least likely heroes live, Owen is a shoe-in for love.  That's not true of Nick, the guy who falls in love with him.  Nick, a veterinarian, seems to be fairly low-key and easy going.  Unlike the gay bar bouncer Denver Rogers in Heidi Cullinan's Tucker Springs novel, Nick isn't beefy enough to run interference for Owen.

So I was confused as to why Nick is attracted to Owen, even though Nick has a ballsy sister with the same type of amputation.  Sometimes it seems to me in gay fiction, the gay hero finds another gay man and whether they like one another or not, it's a match made in heaven.  But from my viewpoint, it's just a like-minded warm body to stave off loneliness--not what anyone wants to confuse with true love.