Title: Frank At Heart
Author: Pat Henshaw
Series: Foothills Pride (#6)
Genre: Contemporary gay romance
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Publication date: May 31, 2017
ISBN: 9781635336313
ASIN: B072HWHXNV
Pages: 151
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34936542-frank-at-heart
Everything about thirty-five-year-old Stone Acres hardware store owner Frank McCord is old-fashioned—from his bow tie and overalls to the way he happily makes house calls to his dreams of lasting romance, true love, and marriage. Frank’s predecessors have run the store and been mainstays in the small California town for over a century. While genial Frank upholds tradition and earns the respect of friends and neighbors, he fears he’s too dull and old to attract a husband.
Then handsome thirty-six-year-old electronic games designer Christopher Darling and his fifteen-year-old son, Henry, come into his life. Christopher has everything Frank could want in a potential partner: charm, kindness, and compatibility. Also, he’s a terrific father to Henry. When their Stone Acres home turns out to be uninhabitable, Frank offers the Darlings temporary lodging in his ancestral farmhouse, where he and his tenant Emil reside. Since Emil thinks Frank is his, sparks fly. Suddenly, Frank’s monotonous life promises to explode with love and threatens to change him forever.
I’m always happy to see another installment in the Foothills Pride series. It’s one of my favorites. These are relatively short reads, low on heat but high on character growth. Even the town itself is a player on the stage. Every story stands alone, but there are always familiar faces and at least mentions of how everyone else is getting on since we last visited. It’s like sitting down on the porch with a friend to catch up on the latest news.
This time around, we have Frank, the owner of the town’s hardware store. He’s old-fashioned, a bit nerdy, and doesn’t believe he’s anyone’s type when it comes to love. But he’s a romantic, and he dreams of finding his true love.
I liked Frank from the first page, though I did have to laugh at his opinion of himself as “middle aged.” I don’t think I’d considered thirty-five all that old. On the other hand, Frank definitely has an air about him of being older than his calendar years suggest. He dresses the part of his grandfather, almost as though he’s trying to earn his approval from beyond the grave.
My favorite thing about Frank is his absolute honesty (his name is quite fitting, and I doubt that’s accidental, given his character traits and the title of the story). He knows and owns his struggles with anger and anxiety, and he knows who to go to for help. His friends have his back.
Christopher is, of course, just as “darling” as his surname implies. I loved his innocence and his desire to believe the best of people. I know the pain of being taken in by something I thought was the right thing to do, and I really felt for him.
I’m a sucker for books with teenagers, especially when they’re well-written. Henry is wonderful, and he’s exactly as you’d expect a smart kid his age to be. I love how the adults never talk down to him. In fact, Frank treats the handful of other teens who pass through with the same respect.
Emil is wickedly fun to dislike at first, and then he takes a somewhat darker turn that I wasn’t expecting. To be honest, I wondered from the blurb if Frank was going to have to choose between Emil and Christopher. I won’t spoil it, but in the end, I mostly just felt sad for Emil.
Perhaps my favorite thing about these books is that they are the way the world should work. Not merely happy endings but full of love, support, kindness, joy, and friendship all throughout. They’re the kind of uplifting stories we could use more of.
For a visit to a favorite town, characters who are easy to love, and a story with just a hint of a message, this gets 10/10 fountain pens.
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Pat Henshaw, author of the Foothills Pride Stories, was born and raised in Nebraska where she promptly left the cold and snow after college, living at various times in Texas, Colorado, Northern Virginia, and Northern California. Pat enjoys travel, having visited Mexico, Canada, Europe, Nicaragua, Thailand, and Egypt, and Europe, including a cruise down the Danube. She now lives in Sacramento.
Now retired, Pat has spent her life surrounded by words: Teaching English composition at the junior college level; writing book reviews for newspapers, magazines, and websites; helping students find information as a librarian; and promoting PBS television programs.
Her triumphs are raising two incredible daughters who daily amaze her with their power and compassion. Fortunately, her incredibly supportive husband keeps her grounded in reality when she threatens to drift away while writing fiction.
Website | Facebook | Facebook Foothills Pride group | Twitter | Amazon | Email
