Tail of Two Brothers (Horsfall) by Jade Buchanan

[reviews_and_ramblings]

When I first took up this book I was really curious since it was the first time I heard of shapeshifter horses. Yes, yes, it's even too easy to make a naughty joke, and the author knows well, since she did it too.

Oliver Philip meets Bayard Stoddard for a job as safety consultant in the man's horse ranch. First time Oliver lays his eyes on Bayard, the man is lost: Oliver doesn't know if Bayard is gay, but Oliver definitely would like to find out. And when he learns that there is also a twin, Marshall, it's like a forbidden fantasy comes true, two big and strong men to sandwich him. But the second brother, Marshall, is not there and so Oliver limits his daydreaming to the one in front of him Bayard. The meeting goes well and Oliver is on his way home with a possible contract and a lot of fantasies to re-use at the right moment. He has not found if Bayard is gay, but the man was friendly and open to possibilities.

On his way back, Oliver finds a big horse, just like the ones Bayard showed him in his ranch, shackled at a tree along the road. The horse is evidently suffering and Oliver can't help to free him... but as soon as the horse is free, it turns in a very naked man, much like the one he just left... Oliver has found Bayard's brother, Marshall.

From this moment on, I had the feeling that the story rushed a bit. Oliver takes an unconscious Marshall home to Bayard, and Bayard asks Oliver to spend the night... all right I'm not against good sex, and good sex was, but what are Bayard's reasons? Oliver's ones are quite clear, he didn't hide them. During his encounter with Bayard, Marshall wakes up and claims that Oliver is his own. Bayard at first doesn't want to share, and allows Marshall only to witness to their encounter... first, it would be kind to really ask Oliver, and not to make him in front of an impossible decision, when sex is obtruding his mind. Second, it's not nice towards Marshall to let him near the candy but don't give it to him (like an horse with a carrott, pun very much intended).

Bayard probably realizes that he didn't behave good nor with Marshall than Oliver, and now he is willing to share... and I think he again behaves with few delicacy. Lucky for him, Oliver has his secret fantasy of being with two men, and so he is willing to please both men, but this part of the book arrives at the very end. Again I think, like the shapeshifter horses' idea, that it has possibilities, and was a bit sad to see it happens so late in the story. Of my same idea was probably also the author, since the second book in the story will focus again on the same threesome.

Even if Bayard and Marshall are twin, they are very much different in behavior; Bayard is a very authoritative man, and he proves this side of him in the way he behaves with both Oliver than Marshall. He is not a bad man, during sex he is gentle and caring, but I have the feeling that he is the boss and he is not used to be denied. Marshall is more an happy-to-go guy, used to the freedom to roam the fields without worries, since there is his older brother (of five minutes) to take care of everything else. In this perspective, I'm more lean to forget Bayard's initial possessive streak, it's a bit like when an older brother is asked to give his toys to his brother since he is little... but who is thinking to the big one? And then there is Oliver: from every side you look, Oliver is a classical bottom, he loves to be led and ordered around, and so, again, maybe Bayard's domineering attitude is exactly what Oliver wants.

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