Off Trail

Title: Off Trail
Author: J.B. McDonald
Publisher: Torquere Books
Genre: M/M contemporary romance
Length: 293 pages
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

A guest review by Jenre

Summary Review
An emotional, angsty look at a grieving man who has to cope with a new life in a new town which combined great writing with strong characters to good effect.

THE BLURB

Recently widowed, with one dog now crippled and another about to give birth, Keith needs help. Problem is, he doesn’t want it. When Spencer blows into his life, Keith does his best to shove Spencer back out. Spencer is everything his dead husband wasn’t, and little too close to the wild side for Keith’s taste.

Spencer can see that Keith is drowning in details, just as he can see how a little aid would go a long way. But Keith keeps refusing help — for everything except the crippled dog. Spencer’s way into Keith’s house is through fur on wheels; finding his way into Keith’s heart won’t be so easy.

THE REVIEW

I’ve read and enjoyed JB McDonald’s previous novels, and so when I discovered that there was a new book out, I snapped it up. On the whole, I enjoyed this emotional, angsty read, but felt that the story was slightly marred by a weak ending.

Keith is a grieving man. Fourteen months previously his lover, dog breeder Josh, was killed in a car accident which left one of Josh’s favourite dogs lame. Keith was determined to save the dog, as he couldn’t save his lover and so Sam the dog has a special ‘doggy wheelchair’. As the story begins Keith has been forced out from the home he shared with Josh through a combination of Josh’s greedy family and an unsympathetic judge, and so has moved to the cabin holiday home – the only thing Josh’s family couldn’t take from him. Life isn’t easy for Keith though as he has to cope with repairs to the cabin, looking after 4 dogs (one of whom is unable to even go to the toilet by itself), nosy neighbours, interfering townsfolk and an unusual young man, Spencer, who breezes into his life bringing both new hope and despair for Keith.

I was capitvated by the book from the start. As soon as I began, I was drawn into Keith’s life as he struggles with his forced independence and the move to build a new life on his own. Keith has never had to work before, as Josh made a lot of money through the dog breeding and showing. They had a comfortable life together with Keith responsible for the running of the house, and Josh responsible for the business and the dogs. With Josh gone, Keith is left floundering. He has coped with the first few months, of reconciling himself to a life without Josh, and now has been forced to move.  I liked Keith a great deal, especially the fact that he’s a bit of an anti-social, grumpy bloke.  At the beginning Keith has a grim determination to succeed, to sort out his life and make a new start. As the book progresses, we follow Keith as things start to unravel for him, as circumstances conspire to bring him down, time after time. It was all quite heartbreaking to read and I empathised quite strongly with Keith and his problems. Keith is just a nice guy, despite his outwardly grumpy nature, who fate has stuck two fingers up at, and now he’s struggling and ill qualified to cope.

The character of Spencer is both a relief and part of Keith’s problems. I loved that Spencer was optimistic and smiley, and therefore was so different to Josh, and to Keith – and that this is part of the attraction for Keith. I also liked that Spencer was a calm, practical man, just what Keith needs. In many ways the two heroes were opposite, and yet they also worked as a couple. Another ‘character’ which features strongly in the book is that of the people of the small town where Keith and Spencer live. They are both a help and a hindrance to the pair. For example, It’s been 14 months since Josh died, plenty of time after his death to think about moving on, but Keith is dogged not only by his guilt and grief over Josh, but also by the people in the small town who knew and loved Josh and feel angry at Keith’s relaitionship with Spencer. Instead of telling the busybodies to mind their own business, Keith takes their criticisms to heart and this causes problems between him and Spencer. Also Spencer finds some of the small mindedness of the townsfolk – epitomised in his friend Mark – frustrating and annoying.

There were other parts of this book which worked well too, such as the fascinating descriptions of dog sledding; a grippingly tense rescue; the beauty (and inconvenience) of living in the country; the satisfying but also maddening relationship between Keith and his dogs; the way that gay rights were integrated into the book without it ever seeming jarring or politicised; and the gradual realisation by Keith that he is able to move out of his grief and feel the stirrings of lust and love again. All of these worked together to produce this moving and compelling story.

What didn’t work so well for me was the way the story ended. There’s a very definite HEA, so no worries there, but the end comes suddenly out of a time of crisis between Keith and Spencer. One minute their problems seem insurmountable, and the next everything has been resolved. It seemed to me to be slightly forced in that regard, but having thought about it I can’t see how things could have been done differently. In the end, I was left with a vague feeling of disappointment, even though the book up to that point had been excellent.

However, that was just a slight niggle in what was a really great book about coping alone and moving on from the death of a loved one. If you like angst, like character based books which deal with troubling issues, then Off Trail will be ideal for you.