#cattle stop

Last year, I wrote 30 posts about queer books I've read and enjoyed. This year, I'm doing that again.

In the past twelve months, I've read almost exclusively queer romance novels, so my recs are going to be a whole lot of those. Today: Kit Oliver. 

As I was making the graphic for this post, I thought to myself, hey, I really enjoyed Kit Oliver. I should reread some of his books. And they’re SO GOOD. Oliver does yearning so well. There are just so many feels in these books. The dynamics are complex, deep, and realistic. The dialogue is also really enjoyable: witty, sharp, character developing. Also, the characters are all adults, with life behind them and baggage deal with. Put together, Oliver writes believable characters you really want to find their happily ever after. 

Oliver has written a number of novels and accompanying novella. The three in the little graphic are a hockey book (Light Up The Lamp), a small-town farming book (Cattle Stop), and a college/university book (The Place Between). Something for everyone. 

Apart from their daily food consumption, cattle also require at least seventeen different mineral elements in their diets. These minerals are usually of two types, macrominerals (significant minerals) and microminerals (trace minerals). Here, macro minerals are vital and include calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, chlorine, and sulfur. Likewise, microminerals are minimal; chromium, cobalt, copper, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, selenium, and zinc are required.

All these minerals can be confined to an enormous vitamin supply such as A, D, and E. All these vitamins and minerals are needed for these cattles for their bone development, sight, and soft tissue maintenance. Likewise, often the absence of these nutrients causes reduced fertility, reduced bone density, and increased occurrence of disease and illness.

Altogether, these vitamins and minerals are stored in the liver, and cattle use them for two to three years. 

Cattle Stop by Kit Oliver | ★★★★

Synopsis: Cooper has a bit of a problem. City-boy turned into Country-man, he's made a career for himself as a full time ranch and farm manager. On his way to another job, Cooper stops in to check on his best friend Drew and his farm find that the farm is... well... suffering and it's all Drew's farm-hand Whit's fault. Or that's at least what Cooper believes; because Whit is stubborn, stuck in his ways, and oh yeah-- not to mention he totally hates Cooper. Now Cooper has to suck up his pride and his apathy towards Whit while he works to save Drew's farm from ruin. Thoughts: Animal Husbandry and Farmstead work is a very not small part of my life right now. You don't want to know the amount of books I've read on chickens and poultry to prepare for my fluffy bird children when they get here next year. So you dangle a queer farm-based romance in front of my face and expect me not to snatch at it? Shame. Shame for 100 years. Honestly, I would say that Kit Oliver is a good comparable to Alexis Hall in the fact that this is well thought out and absolutely funny. Poor Cooper. I believe this is Kit Oliver's debut novel though. So. I expect great things from him in the future. There's also an already published sequel to this about the other main characters, Drew & Penny. So. I will eventually read that. Why 4 stars? Honestly. I really wish we could have gotten more inklings of what was going on in Whit's head. It's one thing that Coop doesn't notice subtle gestures... except there are no things in subtlety for Coop to miss. Whit sort of goes 0 to 60 into the physical aspect with Coop.