The Winter Courtship Rituals of Fur-Bearing Critters

By: Amy Lane

Narrated by: Philip Alces

Length: 2 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's Summary

Rance Crawford is an alpaca rancher, fiber mill owner, and self-proclaimed grumpy bastard. When sweet, charming tenderfoot Ben McCutcheon moves onto Crawford's rural road, Rance is very aware that Ben makes it a grand total of two gay men in their tiny town, and even though he is instantly, painfully smitten, any move he makes could be simply chalked up to being hard up. Using his best weapon and favorite skill, Crawford launches an awkward, wordless effort to make sure Ben is kept warm during the cold Colorado winter, every last piece of him - especially his heart.

©2011 Amy Lane (P)2014 Dreamspinner Press

Querky romance for a great series starter.

Cute start to a series that gets even better.
Although this story seems to stop short at the end, have no worries the series continues with all the characters getting involved.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

Absolutely Wonderful!

Any additional comments?

Rance Crawford is an alpaca and sheep rancher, owns a fiber mill, does most of his own spinning along with his best friend (the appropriated named) Ariadne, and has the social skills of an amoeba. I loved this character so much it's not even funny.

When charming and socially adept Ben McCutcheon inherits his great-aunt's property next door, Rance is suddenly floored by this vibrant and beautiful man. So much so that he immediately moves out of his comfort zone to woo Ben. With his knitting.

I'll tell you this book made me want to learn how to knit. Even though it hasn't got a lot of steam at first, the UST is there, and the steams builds until it finally explodes. Deliciously so.

Full of feel good moments and low on angst I absolutely LOVED this story.

More than that though, I ADORED the narration by Philip Alces. I've never listened to him before, but WOW was I impressed. I loved everything from start to finish and wouldn't change a thing.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

So Cute!!!

I'll have to send this one on to all of my knitting friends. A truly sweet story. I LOVE curmugeons! Rance is wonderful and Ben is just right for him.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

cute

super cute winter time story. Opposites attract and he fact that Rance is a gumpy ole man who likes to knit is just a bonus

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Super fun, low angst story; Decent narration

Ben moves to tiny Granby and his neighbor is grumpy recluse Rance “Craw” Crawford who runs the Alpaca farm/yarn store. As noted in the blurb, the only apparently two gay men in town are now living side by side.

As the title suggests, most of the story revolves around a bizarre method of courtship (knitting) as Craw pursues Ben using the most subtle seduction technique EVER!

Craw is afraid Ben will think he is only wanted because he’s the only guy around, and Ben was burned before in a bad relationship and not eager to be hurt again.

In this, the first of the knitting series, we meet all the wonderful secondary characters that show up in the rest of the books. This is actually the weakest of the series, in my opinion… the secondary characters are so richly developed that they almost over-shadow the romance between Ben and Craw. Of course we see more of them in the other’s books, which is awesome, but I would have loved to spend more time with Ben and Craw as a couple here.

This is a fairly angst-free, almost tongue in cheek romance, different from Amy’s more tissue-laden stories and is a fun, light read. If you intend to read the entire series – which I HIGHLY recommend – do so in order.

Story: 4 of 5 stars

Narration:

Not my favorite narration. Sorry. I just thought there was so much more that could have been done with the voices – Stanley was a bit over done when compared to the absence of variation between Ben, Craw and even Ariadne. I was so ready to hear the bearish, growly, rumbly Craw and the smooth tones of Ben as a lovely contrast, so I was bummed when Philip essentially just read everybody in the same tone.
The editing is good and the sound quality is fine. His reading voice is pleasant, but I wanted more.
3 of 5 stars

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Review of Winter Courtship Novelette

The book was very good to me though very short. The only part of the story that was awkward was when the main character described his arousal and erection as a pee pee dance feeling. It made me feel a bit insulted, because I do not know if Ms. Lane was aiming for him to be her idea of how a country person speaks, or that he was not a very educated person. Either way it was distracting and did not fit.

Kindly grizzly knits as his language of love.

Characters are well developed and the dialog is entirely believable. There isn’t a lot of conflict as the only obstacle is deciding when to be vulnerable. Nevertheless, a satisfying listen.

Adorable!

Best book was fun and awkard, sweet and funny, romantic and quirky. To put it simply it was absolutely adorable.

sweet love story with two cute guys

super adorable characters make this book a joy. even the antagonist ex is slightly likeable. can't wait to listen to the rest of the series.

hellah funny

I laughed so much listening to this. what a great book. oh I learnt a lot about knitting and fur too.

Bubblegum for the ears

Amy Lane a great author, her work is generally amusing,light and some even have a slight edge to them a bit of sour mixed in with the sweet. Unfortunately this is not one of them although fairly well written, the plot is generic you know gruff man meets sweet young thing and instantly falls for his sunny smile. it's been done to death and I'm sorry to say much better, I would love to give examples but I'm not sure can here. Philip Alces's reading is much like the book itself ok but not great when compared to others.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful