Genre/Tags: Gay Romance

Author: Emmy Sanders

Story Rating: 5 Stars

Narrator: Blake Lockheart

Narrator Rating: 5 Stars

Length:

Audiobook Buy Links: Audible, Emmy Sanders

Best friends. Unrequited love. A story that spans decades.

Wyatt
At twelve, he was my best friend. At sixteen, he became my crush. And now, at thirty-four, he’s the man I’m still pining after.

Falling in love with Easton was never part of the plan. But now that I’ve done it, I can’t seem to stop. It doesn’t help that we’re living under the same roof. Or that Easton is so dang sweet I want to lick him from head to toe.

But Easton is straight, and all the cattle in Texas won’t change the fact that he’ll never look at me the way I see him. I want someone who can love me back. And I won’t be able to find that while I’m hung up on my best friend.

It’s time to find a way to say goodbye.

Easton
I always knew I was a little bit different than everybody else. When kids my age were hooking up, all I wanted to do was sit on the ranch with Wyatt and plot out our future. I didn’t need anyone else.

When Wyatt leaves Plum Valley, he takes a piece of me with him. When he returns at the moment I need him most, he helps me to heal and feel whole again. We have a good life now, Wyatt and I, best friends still after all these years.

So when I happen to catch my friend down on his knees in the barn, I don’t understand why, all of a sudden, I’m thinking things I shouldn’t be. Now, I can’t stop wondering and wanting.

But would taking that chance with Wyatt risk the best thing in my life?

Fool Hearts is a small-town, longtime friends to lovers romance with a whole lot of pining, a bi-awakening in a barn, swoon-worthy cowboys, a roller coaster of emotions, and one very HEA. It’s book 1 in the Plum Valley Cowboys series but can be read as a standalone.

**SPOILERS BELOW**

Review: 

I put this book up on our Coming Soon page at the side –>before it was released in 2022. I can’t believe that’s closing in on four years ago. I always meant to read it but something else got in the way. I even bought it as an audiobook when it was released… then put it aside. Until now. The reason I came back to it is because I had literally just finished listening to another audiobook that Blake Lockheart had narrated in dual narration. He blew the other narrator out of the water. So here I am, writing a review because of Blake Lockheart and my idea that the concept of this story was a good one. 

There are over 10,000 ratings and 1,300 reviews on Goodreads for Fool Hearts. I can see why it’s been a well received book. 

I love that cover and felt it was representative of Wyatt and the story being told.

The Writing: Told in 4 parts with a dual POV, Fool Hearts allows you to connect to both MCs. It was a good choice by the author. The storytelling is moreish – highly addictive. It also cruises along with an easy flow. Although Part 4 had a quick momentum shift. There is emotion to the writing. Not angst, not in the way I read angst, but it enables the reader to have visceral reactions. It’s about two boys who are friends for forever and a day with one wanting more. The book starts when they are twelve. It then cruises through their teenage years in leaps. Then we get to their 2os, then 30s into 40s. It literally spans decades of Wyatt pining for Easton. I’m a bit of a sucker for that type of story. Barbara Elsborg, for one, does it well. Emmy Sanders does it well here.

The Characters: They’re drawn very clearly, but I suspect the narration by Blake Lockheart was outstanding and added so much extra dimension. He did SUCH a great job. He has a lovely voice to listen to and he brought the glorious (in some parts) Texan “darlin'” to life. 

Easton: My best friend. My best friend. He’s my best friend is the soundtrack to Easton’s denial about his feelings for Wyatt. However, Easton is a boy then man of few words. He’s been raised by a widower father with all sons. It’s a testosterone, country household and his character fits pretty well within that kind of upbringing for romance. Easton likes Wyatt, even if his father says he needs other friends. Basically he sees Wyatt as different gay, why can’t his straight son see that? However, for Easton, Wyatt is all he needs.

Wyatt. I had an incredible soft spot for Wyatt throughout. He loved his best friend. To be honest, both boys/men have no issues in acknowledging they love one another, only as Wyatt hits his later teens he knows he’s in love with Easton, but he never says that to his friend. Easton is straight. So he leaves it alone. You know Easton has stronger feelings for Wyatt than he lets on but this story is about pining.  Any number of people – but Easton – know he has deeper feelings for Wyatt. When they’re in their later teens Becca is allowed into their inner sanctum. Easton knows she like-likes him but he’s not interested… until he is. Then Wyatt has to watch the man he loves get engaged, eventually married, and be okay with it. 

After the engagement, Wyatt moves away because he can’t do this anymore. It’s not just hard because of Easton it’s also about the land and the animals that he loves being on and around. It hurts a lot but Wyatt cares so much for Easton to be anything but outwardly happy for both of them, because he also likes Becca.

Even after Wyatt’s gone, he and Easton remain friends, they talk on the phone regularly. He comes back for the wedding from I think Illinois? Can’t exactly remember. When he’s back, Becca tells Wyatt she knows he has feelings for her soon-to-be husband and she’s sorry because if she hadn’t declared her interest first, she’s pretty certain Easton would have found his love for Wyatt instead. That does Wyatt’s head right in.

I’m not giving much away, Becca dies. Yes, folks. We have the convenient dead wife that is used with wild abandon in gay romance or mm. When she became engaged to Easton I said to my husband, ‘well, you know she’s dying soon’ because I’m tender like that. Also, I’ve been reading and reviewing in this genre for over thirteen years. So, after Becca dies, Wyatt drops everything and comes back to help Easton on the land and with his baby boy, Will, who survived his mother’s death. It moves along from there with the men living and working together, raising Will, solely as friends until Part 4 when Easton has a whiplash ‘I’m attracted to Wyatt’ moment that, of course, he keeps to himself. I was ready for war with Easton at this stage.    

Later on in the book demi-sexual is used to describe Easton and why he fell for Becca and why he has a head full of Wyatt throughout. It’s not a stretch. Except Wyatt makes a very valid point, which was one thing that hit me right in my heart space, when he thought that if emotion was important to Easton for intimate connection, why wasn’t he ever considered?

I can’t believe it. It’s been too long, and there’s been too many chances for Easton to see me as something more. And he never has. 

A Few Things: Sanders uses several people or things as props. Monty the horse is one. “Best friend, best horse.” Wyatt’s last name is Montgomery but I don’t recall Monty ever being used for Wyatt. I’ve already touched on Becca. Then there’s Will, Easton’s son. From 0-11 that boy has no page time, then suddenly in Part 4 he’s on page and calling Wyatt Pop, asking if his dad might move on with/marry him? Then there’s Sadie, Wyatt’s bestie when he lived away. She was there then gone. Until at the end, when she just popped up, I had to remind myself who she was. Harrison, Wyatt’s very-at-arms-length boyfriend, is another prop. He knew how much Wyatt cared for Easton because people on the International Space Station knew by this time that Wyatt, no matter how improbable, was holding an Olympic torch-like flame for his best friend. Wyatt’s parents, even Easton’s brothers, Aunt Perla, all minimally on page, hell, all of Plum Valley itself, knows. They’re used to create something or do something for Easton and Wyatt’s development or connection. It’s not a deal breaker because this book is primarily about Wyatt and Easton. About their long relationship of friends, devotion, and second chances. I liked that.       

I gave this audiobook 5 stars because I listened to it quickly. I also believe this was Emmy Sanders first book and it’s a lovely debut novel. The book gave me some rollercoaster feelings and I always like that. I loved Wyatt throughout. Easton was his so I was very glad he got his man. I have an inclination to read one or two of the other books in the series now. I’ll see how I feel when it’s time to buy a new audiobook but I recommend Fool Hearts if you like pining with a happy ending.