A Heart Back Home

I'm on a mission to find more own-voices m/m romance, and I figured Kindle Unlimited would be a good way to tear through some quick, fun, light reads. It's been a mixed bag, but this has been the best one so far. This is less of a review, and more to record my observations as I explore the genre. I read [b:Then the Stars Fall 23110418 Then the Stars Fall Brandon Witt https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1409248194l/23110418.SX50.jpg 42660191] a few years back, and I think it set the bar quite high. I was hoping that this would scratch a similar itch, with the rural setting, but it didn't. Granted, Stars Fall was a 300+ page book that had more time to develop, and also, maybe I preferred that it was about older characters. A Heart Back Home was fine. I did roll my eyes quite a few times, but I also smiled a few times. I enjoyed the setting and the farm work plot points (though they were brief), but I didn't care much about the characters. I will probably read more in the series—I liked it well enough—and see if they're given some personality and depth (if they return). My main issue was with the pacing. I get that the shorter length limits the amount of time you have to build personalities, but there wasn't a lot to connect with for me. For the most part, we're told about people's personalities instead of being shown their personalities. There were also some plot points that seemed like they should have come into play sooner, but were forgotten about and shoe-horned in later to add some conflict. But, there wasn't enough time to have them really affect things before they were resolved or dismissed almost right away. Also, I'm finding that a romance trope that I'm really not into is either the main character or the love interest having a kid. That's not a criticism at all, I'm just still exploring what I like as a romance reader, and kids aren't it.Maybe I just need to read novels instead of these small novelettes, because I need more to connect with, and I'm wondering if it's unfair to expect that from an 80-page story. I think I'd have quite enjoyed this if it had been more fleshed out. That said, I do love being able to smash out a book really quickly (especially since I'm a slow reader), so I'll give some more KU short reads a try and see how I go.