Genre/Tags: Gay Romance/ MM, Texas 

Author: Emmy Sanders

Story Rating: 4 Stars

Narrator: Blake Lockheart

Narrator Rating: 5 Stars

Length: 8 hours and 56 minutes

Audiobook Buy Links: Audible

A shameless flirt. A single dad. And an unexpected chance at love.

Harrison
When I left Plum Valley ten years ago, I never thought I’d return. But a call about animals in crisis brings me back to the town that inadvertently broke my heart.

What I don’t expect? Sam. The animal control officer looks every bit a cowboy wet dream, and for whatever reason, he’s latched on to me like a dog with a bone.

One impulsive night together only leaves me wanting more, but as a single parent with loads of baggage, dating isn’t easy. Could I try with Sam, the man with the quick smile and surprisingly filthy mouth?

Or am I only setting myself up for another round of heartache?

Sammy
I can’t say I’ve ever been called a wallflower. When I see something I want, I go after it. And what I want is Harrison.

But the veterinarian with the soulful blue eyes has his walls built up high. He doesn’t seem to understand that his messy life doesn’t scare me one bit. In fact, I’ve always wanted a family to call my own. A family like his.

Convincing Harrison we could work may be a challenge, but I’m up for the task. Amidst pillow forts, bedtime stories, and camping under the stars, I know I’m falling—for all of it.

I just hope I’m not the only one wishing for a happily-ever-after in the end.

Wishing Hearts is a small-town Texas romance between a busy single dad and a golden retriever of a man who knows how to work a pair of chaps. There’s shenanigans in a storage shed or two, a rambunctious little girl and her sidekick dog, family date nights, fun with rope, and one very HEA. It’s book 6 in the Plum Valley Cowboys series but can be read as a standalone.

Review:

I had to read this book because I’d only read one other in the series. Fool Hearts. The first book. The one where Harrison and Wyatt broke up because Wyatt couldn’t love anyone but Easton. I know more than a few readers felt Wyatt was a user. He tried to love Harrison but no one was ever going to be Easton. Even Harrison knows Wyatt didn’t intentionally hurt him, but intentional or not, it still hurt. I wanted to see Harrison get his man and have a HEA. Wyatt wasn’t right for him because Sammy had to find his way to Harrison. In all honesty, Wyatt is one of my all-time favourite fictional characters. Fool Hearts one of my favourite stories. I’ve re-listened to it multiple times. This book can be read as a complete standalone.

Also, I love Blake Lockheart (aka Andrew Gibson) as a narrator and I’d just finished listening to 11 audiobooks of The Last Picks series (Gregory Ashe) all narrated by Gibson (Lockheart) and was having narrator withdrawals. I missed his mellow, breathy tones. The way he imbues a book’s characters with life, and because I loved Fool Hearts I had to grab this. Worth it. 

The well named Wishing Hearts is the last in the Plum Valley series and is the least Plum Valley book. It’s literally a 6 degrees of separation book. While it starts in Plum Valley, both MCs actually live in Huston. Sammy, an animal protection officer, and Harrison, a veterinarian, were working in unison with some farm animals left in poor condition, and surprisingly to Harrison, they hook up. Once. Oh, and Plum Valley also figures back into the equation right at the end as well. Both times Wyatt is spotted. It was nice the way Sanders wrote it.

Sammy fancies the vet when he first sees him on the job. Attractive, a bit older, thirty-eight to Sammy’s thirty-two. Cute arse. Seems like a nice guy. After hooking up, Sammy wants more. Discovering they live in the same city he’s hoping he can sweet talk himself into more time spent with Harrison. Although Harrison takes off without exchanging numbers. Not to worry, Sammy is nothing if not persistent.

It just so happens that Harrison loves cowboys. It’s his sexual Kryptonite. While Sammy isn’t one, he does wear a hat and dresses very similarly, including a belt – he was a calf-roping champion for three years on the rodeo circuit. Big, BIG turn on for Harrison.

Sam stays in step beside me, and I glance at his hat and then his boots. “You’re a sight.”
Sam practically preens. “Well, somebody told me he’s got a—” He looks left and right before whispering, hand at his mouth, “Cowboy kink.”

~*~
“Although,” I muse, “somebody would be even luckier if you were in chaps.”

I really like Harrison. I felt for him. He’s more than a decade older than he was in Fool Hearts. Where he was once flirty and up for a good time, he now has the responsibility of being the sole parent of a ten-year-old daughter, Winnie. I don’t especially like children in romance books and this book wasn’t really an exception. However, she is part of the overall theme of good guys and found family so I just rolled with it. Fool Hearts has a child in it too but Will isn’t quite so integral to the present relationship as Winnie is in Wishing Hearts.    

Harrison is convinced that it’s too hard to invite someone into a relationship with him while being a dad. A couple of prior guys didn’t like feeling they weren’t number one. He’s also hurt after being Wyatt’s second choice when he worked out Easton was Wyatt’s first choice. He empathises with guys he tried a relationship with after. Which also makes him feel like he has baggage. So when he’s back in Houston, and Sammy tracks him down, Harrison doesn’t mention Winnie at first. It’s a tough gig being a parent even when there’s two of you. Being a solo parent? Huge. Winnie’s mum left not long after birth. That causes some abandonment issues for Winnie, like when Wyatt was away in Plum Valley. He struggles with no time to breathe but doesn’t realise it. You learn how to juggle it all as a single parent, especially when you’ve got years of it under your belt. You can lose yourself. Harrison’s parents help but he’s still the primary caregiver. Asking someone to be there and support him? Not easy.      

“And, if you haven’t noticed, I like gettin’ my hands dirty. This is gonna be fun for me, all right? Stop treatin’ yourself like a burden.”
His words stop me still. Is that what I’m doing? Assuming I’m a burden?

Sammy is adorable. He actively listens to Harrison and gives him what he needs. Men who listen and create the dynamic of curiosity within relationship, in their partner, who understand give and take, it’s a formula that works. In fiction and in real life. He wants Harrison and that includes being respectfully involved with him while also caring about Winnie. He genuinely wants Harrison to learn to lean on him. Sammy comes from the foster system so he has no bio family. Carl and Tilly, people he works with, are Sammy’s found family. Carl worries that Sammy will jump in too quickly, with his big heart, and be hurt. Again. Sammy only knows how to be himself, bless him, so Sammy remains Sammy. He falls pretty quickly. He doesn’t rush Harrison but he loves the whole package of a ready made family. He loves being part of building a tree fort. Learning about Winnie the Pooh stories from Winnie. Looking at the stars. It seems to be one character’s theme in the two books I’ve read in the Plum Valley series. Easton had a thing for stars in Fool Hearts, book #1. 

I can’t not say this – Stud. OMG. It’s overused. Even once is an overuse of that word outside of the breeding world. Certainly should never be used as an endearment. Sammy did start with darlin’ but Wyatt used that word and Sammy caught on quickly. Stud replaced it and it’s a bit, um, unfortunate. 

Overall, I thought Wishing Hearts was a sweet, sweet story. Gentle. There is no forced drama or angst. Harrison’s parents are lovely. Their respective coworkers are by and large good people. The MCs are adorable and caring. They have their human emotions and issues, like most of us: Uncertainty. Insecurity. Frustrations. Hope. Happiness. Joy. Some fear about being a good parent. Worrying about vulnerability. And like so many other people, they deserve their happiness. Which Harrison and Sammy fittingly get, as does Winnie. Two dads who love one another and who also love her. Security for all! The HEA is well deserved and fitting.

Harrison’s dad sums up his observations above about Sammy with his son and granddaughter. Something I can relate to as a parent, also as a grandparent. It’s what you want for your family. For Wishing Hearts it’s 4.5 Stars!