Title: Falls Chance Ranch Series
Book 1
Author: Rolf & Ranger
Cover Artist: Author
Publisher & Link: Self Published
Genre: M/M Romance Polyamory/Cowboys/Domestic Discipline
Length: Novel
Rating: 5+ stars DIK 
A Guest Review by Raine
Summary Review: The first in an outstanding and original series set on a Wyoming ranch with beautifully drawn characters who help stressed ill executives find a balance between work and life- their latest client Dale is in desperate need of their old fashioned and loving kindness.
Blurb:
Are you worried about your executive?
Is he burned out?
Frazzled?
Less than stellar?
Is he an excellent employee that you don’t want to lose?
If the answer to those questions is an unqualified yes!,
then you need to think about sending him to
Falls Chance Ranch.
In a matter of weeks or months, we’ll turn around your executive and return him to you fit and ready to pick up the reins again.
Falls Chance is a working sheep ranch deep in the heartland of Wyoming. Your executives will be put to work on the ranch
while we retrain bad habits into good ones.
Executives will remain on the ranch
until we’re assured that they’re safe to return to their jobs.
The average stay is eight weeks
but can run shorter or longer depending upon the person.
Our program is completely confidential
and has a highly proven track record.
Our graduates are in many of the top companies around the globe.
Review:
I have wanted to review this series for Wave’s site before, but my nerve failed as I feared to do it justice. However given this is my last chance – it seemed appropriate to gird my loins and go for it. My main aim is to enthusiastically share the pleasure I have got from these unique books. Consequently this is my one and only purely personal 5+ DIK rating.
The series is blissfully original and written with total love and commitment by a partnership – Rolf & Ranger. The books are generously given freely on their website, and they publish chapters as WIP so if you wish you can follow the stories in that form. They are supported by a very protective and caring Yahoo Group. I have found these stories incredibly addictive, constantly reread them and discover new elements each time I do so. Aside from the full length books, there are a number of short stories and interludes that really add a great deal to the whole Falls Chance experience. The extended family give a deep richness of emotion to the present day stories. The third book, Mustang Hill is my very favourite even though it still brings a lump to my throat. However this review deals with the very first story.
Business executive wunderkind Dale, in denial about a break down, stressed to the point of sleep sick hallucinations is pressured by his worried company into a recuperative stay on the ranch. We learn about the ranch programme through his bewildered, exasperated, angry and fascinated eyes.
The books have a slightly old fashioned quality about them, partly because of the setting of a working, cattle, sheep and horse ranch. However it is also because the household follow a domestic discipline life. This is manifests itself in a very sincere holistic everyday way and is worlds apart from the BDSM often found in M/M novels. The main characters follow traditions lived by Philip and David, the original owners of the ranch. The stories have a lovely sense of history, almost a mythology of their very own as many of the characters we meet are different generations of men who when they had need, have lived on the ranch as family.
The present family residents, caring Paul, enigmatic but delightful Jasper, fun loving Riley and forthright protective Flynn have all infiltrated my reading life and become very real to me. They demonstrate a very appealing care for Dale and his problems. Their distinctly individual interactions with him reveal their personalities. There is a pleasing sense of change and development within the relationships which still manages to encompass a feeling of security. This story is a very intimate portrait of a man struggling with his nature and the results on his personality of his particular upbringing. The solutions to his problems take him on a completely unexpected personal, psychological and emotional journey. He is a gorgeously complex character.
The structure of life on the ranch is wonderfully imagined, the stallion Bandit is as strongly written as any mere human character and I love the details about his free ranging herd of mares and foals.The Wyoming scenery, ranch routine and the ups and downs of community life all very slowly combine to create a charming and compelling picture. There are other qualities in the stories; a magnificent sense of place, history, music, along with a mystical, spiritual and physical endeavour which combine in a strongly distinctive way. The books provide me with a genuine comfort read. I love revisiting the ranch knowing Paul will be baking and writing, Jasper showing he is serenity personified, Flynn being ever protective and in control, while Riley is working with the horses or finding ways to have fun and that Dale bravely finds his home with them all.
I hope you discover these special books and enjoy them as much as I do.
Highly Recommended
I didn’t know this series (going to have a look ASAP) 😀
Thank you for your review 😎
Hi Helena
hope you like what you see and you enjoy the books. There is lots of quality reading to be had. 😀
Love your review Raine although I did find the blurb a bit long. What does domestic discipline mean exactly in this context, or would that be a spoiler? I always want to explore different human M/M worlds the same way I do science fiction worlds and this one seems very unusual and I would like to pursue it, but I need to know that there’s no cruelty against the MCs, before I buy this book. Maybe you could email me if your explanation includes spoilers.
Congratulations on your first 5+stars DIK review. 😀
BTW I visited Wyoming – big sky country – about 15 years ago and watching that video convinced me that it’s time to return. It’s awesome!
I will miss your reviews Raine not only because they are excellent, but also because you have introduced me to so many different stories and series. Thank you for your “enquiring” mind and I hope you will continue to email me with your new “finds.” You’re a treasure, and I don ‘t used that term lightly.
Hey Wave,
Thank you for the extremely kind words I very much appreciate them. I will continue to push books and I will be pleased if you do the same !
Re the domestic discipline, the books are very much part of a genuine real life concept, and the way the guys in the stories live their lives are treated with respect and care. The most physical discipline used tends to be old fashioned spanking, but also things like lines and standing looking at walls are used. It is all about love.
I have been to Wyoming too, only about 20 years ago and by chance….. visited the area the ranch is roughly set in! 😀
Hope you enjoy the rest of the holidays, and the bad weather finally decides it has had enough.
Great review and thank you for introducing me to these books . I thought first one was really sweet and seemed genuine but still hoping to wait till they are done before continuing with these books. Are they planning on finishing the series do you know?
Are they planning on finishing the series do you know?
You do know that some series never end, don’t you Sirius? 😆 I’m still waiting for 4 years for the next book in one of my series which is 4 years overdue. 🙂
I think the books are just going to carry on, however there are no cliffhangers and each book is more or less complete in itself. The first three are all done. The fourth Silver Bullet is a little more complicated in that while the main plot is beautifully concluded, the sub plot about two of the family climbing Everest, has now been extracted into its own story, so that is still being written.
Glad you liked the first story, I have to say they just get better and become an accumulation of goodness! 😯
I’ve read and loved these books but have to admit that I’m glad they removed the mountain climbers. Those were two fantastic characters and they sort of left them out there hanging on the mountain.
All the books are low key and comforting, somehow. I wish there were more but I wasn’t left feeling like any of the books left me without a solid ending.
Really pleased you are a fan too Andrea. 🙂 Yes I felt for Tom and Jake too, but I am looking forward to the rest of their adventure. I love the other short stories about them, Tom is so appealing in his own stroppy way. 😀
I love this series!
I have a question regarding the 4th book: is it finished and can I get it only in the yahoo group? Any help in how to find it – and Tom and Jake’s story(ies) – would be greatly appreciated!!
Hi Andrea,
As far as I know the most up to date writing is to be found through the Yahoo group, there have been problems with Yahoo and the group now have a lifeboat set up but it is all to be found via joining the group. The stories are down load able too now thanks to clever members.
Re Silver Bullet, the ranch section is finished, but the Everest story is going it alone.
There is also very enjoyable Christmas story concerning Gerry et al……..
Happy reading!
Thanks! I did join the group and the stories are now on my ereader. Now I only need a lot of time because once I start it’s difficult to stop…
The thing is Andrea once you have read them once…..you end up starting again at the beginning………
Have a very Happy New Year at Falls Chance Ranch! 😀
Yes, I need a LOT of time because I know that I will have to reread the first three before I start the fourth… And I think this will be the fourth (?) time I read the series… and that although I actually have been building a TBR… 😀
Happy New Year!
Wow, that’s quite an endorsement – I’ll be checking the series out. Thanks for the review!
Hope you enjoy the stories Pea – they are as Andrea M says low key in many ways, but have real heart. 🙂
Raine
Is this available for sale anywhere? I would like to buy it in Kindle format so that I can download it to my Kindle but it’s not on Amazon and I hate joining Yahoo groups, or any group for that matter. 🙂 I started reading it online and got hooked. Damn!!
Wave, there are downloadable versions in the Files section of the Yahoo group and the Forum. Looks like maybe you might have to join either one:
http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Fallschanceranch/info
http://fallschanceranch.forumotion.co.uk/
I’ve enjoyed this series, but have to say I don’t like the domestic disciplinary aspect. This seems such a strange thing to say, since that’s pretty much what the stories are about! It’s the storytelling that pulls me in, and the characterisations. I just grit my teeth and skip all the paddling and other things the “brats” have to go through.
I guess I could compare this to my liking the “Administration” series. Don’t like the BDSM aspects of that, but enjoy the storytelling and writing.
Thanks very much Gaye. I appreciate the information. 🙂
Thanks Gaycrow 😀
Hi Raine! Sorry for butting in. I was so pleased to see your review, because the Falls Chance Ranch series doesn’t seem to get a lot of main stream attention. It has a lot of fans, but everything flows along under the radar. Maybe it’s the subject matter … the polyamorous relationships as well as the domestic discipline aspects of the story aren’t for everyone.
Hey Gaycrow,
It’s great to meet a kindred spirit on this series. I agree they are not for everyone but I so love these guys and their life on the ranch, for me it is simple comfort reading. Everything practically fades to black except for the real affection the relationships show. I was anxious about reviewing the series cos I know the group are understandably protective of the writers. Thanks for the links. 🙂
Not to put a damper on things, but as much as I love the basic stories and how well the characters are developed, anyone who’s sensitive to the nuances of writing may have a problem with them. They’re *extremely* repetitive, particularly the descriptions of the discipline, which eventually become very boring, and certain expressions, which are used over and over again. There are also major problems with formatting, punctuation, etc. In summary, all the stories could use an experienced editor’s hand, and if there are plans to publish, then this is an absolute necessity.
My rating, reluctantly, would be four stars. But, even though I tend to be more or less a grammar nazi, I wouldn’t want to discourage anyone from enjoying this very different M/M series. I only bring this up because the uncritical adoration of its fans seems to gotten in the way of improving the writing. Rolf and Ranger are two very talented writers who could do better. They can self-publish, of course, and I hope they will, but the standards for traditional publishing could cause the books to be rejected, if they take that path.
I made it very clear that this was a personal choice for my rating, an indulgence perhaps for my last review in that I did not balance my enjoyment with a critical analysis.
Yes there are things that I could pick up on, but they do not intrude on my enjoyment and this review was all about my enjoyment. Personally, I suspend my disbelief and just enjoy the flow of these books, I am sorry you don’t get them in the same way.
I think the writers are incredibly generous in freely sharing their stories and that does, in my mind put a different slant on things.
Raine you did make it perfectly clear that it was a gushing review. You really did :).
Actually, I do get them in the same way, and I respect your intention to express your feelings about the books without any attempt to critique. That doesn’t alter the fact that there are also readers who do want to know if there is anything that might stand in the way of their enjoyment. It was well worth it to me to read them, but the problems did get in the way of my enjoyment, somewhat. I would like to see the books published, and I hope the authors will see the advantages of having them edited. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time that a deservedly popular book or series was published, with something closer to professional editing.
I plan to check these stories out, thanks! This is one of the many things I will miss very much about this website, stories being bought to my attention that I’m sure I would have overlooked otherwise. A loss to readers (and authors) alike.
I know exactly what you mean rdafan7, I have been introduced to so many books I wouldn’t have found on my own by reviews / comments on this site. I am really going to miss this community of readers. 🙁
On the happy side, I hope you enjoy Falls Chance Ranch as much as I do. 🙂
I began reading this series even before I moved into the gay romance community. I’m in agreement with comments about the need for editing, as well as some American-picking to fit the Wyoming setting. But the characters and stories are rich and detailed, and the relationships between the men (not just the “main” five but also the many others with ties to the ranch) are intricate and interesting. I go back and re-read from the beginning every so often just to revisit their world. 🙂
Hi Shae,
I enjoy the other characters / partnerships very much too. I’ve mentioned Tom and Jake, but I am very interested in where they are going with Luthe and Darcy…….I particularly like the older generation stories, Wade is an intriguing ‘brat’. 😀
So pleased to meet another fan, who also does the rereading thing.