All Play and No Work is the first book in the Cattle Valley series. It stars Ryan Blackfeather, Nate Gills, and Rio. The story is told in third person through all three mens’ povs, but mainly from Nate’s.


Cattle Valley is a town that is predominately occupied by LGBTQ individuals and their families. Ryan has moved there first and serves as the Sheriff. Nate and Rio are new arrivals with nothing to do yet and the story unfolds as the three men reconnect and a situation arises that Nate becomes involved in.

This particular book is a spin-off from another series in which the MCs appeared in first. I didn’t particularly like the way the author dropped us into the middle of a relationship we knew nothing about. I don’t want to have to read a series of previous books in order to understand these new characters. It felt like just a way to get us to buy the previous books. When the book started, it was like I’d arrived late to a movie and the audience knew what was happening and who the characters were and I had no clue what was happening. I didn’t care for it. We did get a flashback about the first time the three men had sex together, which I didn’t think gave much info about who they were or how their relationship began.

Another issue that other reviewers mentioned, was the lack of description about the characters. I agree that the character most clearly described was Ryan. We learn right off the bat he’s of Native American descent, has tattoos and is rather intimidating looking because he looks like a biker. As to Nate’s and Rio’s looks, we aren’t given an indication of how they look right away, but only in piecemeal throughout the story, part by part, and I think that’s the problem. We get eye color in one spot of one MC, then a chapter or so later, the hair color of another, and that’s why it seems like the readers don’t know what Nate and Rio look like. At first I thought Nate was more like Ryan in terms of his ‘roughness,’ but he’s not. Here’s what I pieced together. Nate is slimmer and shorter than both Ryan and Rio. He is very stylish, almost GQ and he has brown hair. Rio is from Buenos Aires, has shoulder length black hair and brown eyes. He is roughly the same height as Ryan and is described as a ‘bear.’ If the author had given the readers the descriptions of the men in the beginning of the book, instead of piece by piece, then I don’t think it would seem like we had no description. Instead, there wasn’t a good way to imagine what Ryan and Nate looked like until almost half way through the story.

As to the personalities. Ryan is the organizer, the leader, the dominant male of the three. Nate is creative, used to be a private investigator with hints that he comes from money even though we never learn how. He’s also very friendly. Rio comes from an orphan background, we don’t learn much about him either.

The book has a lot of sex in it that doesn’t move the story along. It seems the sex is in it to fill up pages or just to have sex. I think that half of the sex scenes could be removed, at least ten pages worth, and the story would be better for it. It would focus the story on Nate and his investigation of Wyn’s predicament more.

All Play and No Work is a fast, easy read with no angst. It has more sex scenes than needed and drops the reader into the story without any info about the characters. It’s a light read and if you’re looking for something not complicated, this could be for you. Just don’t expect much info about the characters or character development, because it’s not there. I give this book, 3 Stars.


( )

An alternative title for this book: All (Boring) Sex No Plot ( )

3.5 stars ( )

An easy, light read that introduces us to the Cattle Valley series. The book gives the merest hint, a tiny mention, of backstory for Ryan, Rio and Nate and then completely drops the subject again. Huh? Why bother! *why yes, yes it peeved me greatly* ( )

Slightly sapppy in parts but over all a good read ( )