The Gaucho Code

by Julia Talbot

Pete is running from the law, all the way from Texas to Argentina, where the local cowboys are a sight different than the horse thieves Pete knew back home. When he meets Jorge, he’s on his very last leg, and he needs a friend. Jorge would love to be more, but he tries to be content with helping Pete out of the gutter. Can Jorge convince Pete that the gaucho code is worth living?

Previously published in Cowboy Up!

Genres: M M Romance

32 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 12, 2011

About the author

Julia Talbot lives in the great Southwest, where there is hot and cold running rodeo, cowboys, and everything from meat and potatoes to the best Tex-Mex. A full time author, Julia is a hybrid author, and has been published by many presses as well as self publishing. She believes that everyone deserves a happy ending, so she writes about love without limits, where boys love boys, girls love girls, and boys and girls get together to get wild, especially when her crazy paranormal characters are involved. Julia also writes as Minerva Howe. Find Julia at @juliatalbot on Twitter, or at www.juliatalbot.com

Reviews

[Marlobo ♥ epilogues · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read as part of Cowboy Up Anthology.

[Tam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review can be found at Brief Encounters Reviews.

I found this in my e-mail from waaaay back and am glad that I decided to open it up. It starts with Pete, nearly dead of thirst and even his horse dying on him, when he staggers into a small town in Argentina. He is taken in my Jorge’s mother whom he happens to be visiting. Jorge is a gaucho, who travels around finding lost cows which he returns to their ranches for a finder’s fee. He could have a permanent position, but in part due to his preference for me, he prefers the life of solitude.

However he offers Pete the chance to work with him, and they get a chance to know each other on the way to Jorge’s next stop. He’s pretty upfront about being gay, and even Pete’s not against the idea, but until they reach the ranch owned by Jorge’s old war buddy who is sympathetic to his plight as a lonely gay man. The two finally get together before they depart, but Pete’s past is about to catch up with him.

It seems Pete and his brother were not such good boys and robbed a few banks. As well, his brother killed a man in jealousy and before he died in Mexico, he told everyone that Pete had killed the man. Now the man’s father is after Pete and determined to take is revenge, but Jorge believes that Pete is a good person and believes him when he says he didn’t kill the man.

I’m not sure what it means, but I found myself reading this story with a Spanish accent in my head. LOL It was kind of soft and gentle, the two men getting to know each other, dancing around each other and eventually coming together. Jorge did change Pete’s life for the better, only he didn’t realize it until it was almost too late and the noose was around his neck, yet again.

I found it interesting that the men would chase Pete all the way to Argentina. That is FAR to say the least, but I think I’ve heard of such things, so not completely unrealistic. There was a bit of information about the gauchos and how many of them were less than honourable men, having common law wives they got pregnant and came home when they needed somewhere to crash. Jorge’s Italian/British mother was a sensible woman of the times, and I liked Jorge’s ranch owning friend a great deal who just wanted his friend to be happy.

So if you’re looking for a different time and place historical I think this might fit the bill. I am not much of a historical reader, but I really enjoy those that go out of the normal time periods and locations for a more unique setting.