Review of Two In Hand by Mary Winter

Mary Winter
Two In Hand
Pink Petal Books, June 2009

Genre & Keywords: Contemporary, Cowboys , Ménage, M/M and M/M/F
Rating: êêêê
Heat level: ¹¹


I like stories about cowboys, gay or straight, so when I read the back blurb of Two In Hand I instantly wanted to buy and read this book by Mary Winter.
And it did definitely not disappoint me: I liked this novel about two men and one woman very, very much! I'll list my High 5, Low 5 on Two In Hand.

First the Back Blurb:

Katie Kendall knew about making two beings operate as one—she participated in two-in-hand combined driving competitions. If she could control two horses in the same harness, then surely two cowboys in the same relationship would be a piece of cake. Right?
Daniel Westin had loved Katie when they were both teenagers and confusion over his changing sexuality made him leave her. When he met team roper and stock contractor, James Stanton, Daniel realized his romantic dreams had been realized. Except for one thing, Katie was missing out of their lives.
So Daniel invites Katie to a rodeo. Perhaps, if she sees how good he and James work together, she’ll remember how good things were between them. And maybe, just maybe, Daniel and James can convince Katie that she can handle them.

This story features scenes of m/m and threesome sexual encounters.

Low 5

• The first low is that I’d never read anything by Mary Winter before: a missed chance! But the good thing is that I have yet a lot of back list books to discover. In many categories, according to the author’s website.

• Another low is the length of the book, it’s way too short (90 pages in my ebook edition). I would’ve loved to read a little bit more about this lovely threesome.

• The one on one (M/M) love scenes did sometimes occur ‘behind closed doors’, which I regretted.

• There’s one (series of) scene(s) that I thought had more potential. It’s when Katie and Daniel had sex in the shower while James was asleep in the bed in the next room. The night before he left the bed to go sleep by himself in the second bed in the room. I would have liked to read a bit more about James’ reason to leave their bed, and about his feelings about Katie and Daniel having one on one time in the shower the next morning. Was he jealous, did he even know?

• I can’t really think of a fifth low… or maybe that I wouldn’t have minded if the guys had gone to some more rodeos with nice descriptions of them contesting and handling the horses and stuff.


High 5

• The story is told through the eyes of all three main characters; especially James’ view and feelings in the beginning added something special. Towards the end his view is not presented that much anymore, but that’s okay. The switching in point of views is done well and works great in this story of a threesome.

• Scorching hot sex scenes with a lot of emotion were really one of the highs of this story. Ms. Winter found a nice balance between the hotness of her characters’ physical actions and all the dilemma’s and feelings that are involved when a third person enters a good relationship.

• A big plus is the sweetness of James. He is very easy to love with his calm and reassuring posture and his never ceasing love for Daniel and his fast growing feelings for Katie. She’s such a lucky lady for having not only one but two gorgeous guys adore and love her!! James is not only sweet but also great looking, with his dark appearance. Overall I liked him better than the blond and doubting Daniel, probably this is done on purpose by the author because otherwise James could easily be considered the disposable third wheel, I guess.

• The background of western life and rodeos, in which this story is set, is great. I like heroes handling horses and ropes, wearing cowboy hats, boots and tight fitting jeans (preferably with bare, ripped chests :)). This provides already a lot of sexiness to a story.

• Katie’s reserve when it comes to getting involved (first only sexually, later in a long lasting relationship) with the two guys, appeared to be realistic. She’s taking her time telling the men what she decided, which makes them wondering and anticipating. Sometimes I get irritated by all the heroines jumping to every whim of the hero because of the physical attraction to the man. Katie is a stronger woman than that, while this doesn’t diminish the hotness of the attraction a bit.

So, this was my summary of five highs and lows. I can recommend Two in Hand, especially if you like ménages and cowboy heroes.