Tanner Wallis is in dire straits. Having run away from the hospital after he and his boyfriend were attacked on the street, he has nowhere to turn. After being robbed and dumped by his latest ride, things only get worse when he stumbles onto a brutal attack on a cow and then is discovered at the scene of the crime by the owner of the ranch. But Tanner does his best to convince him--Mason Seidel--that he was only a witness. Seeing Tanner's condition, Mason offers to let him stay on the ranch for a few days until he's well enough to continue on his way.

The last thing Mason needs is trouble on the ranch. He's recently returned to help run things after his father--who kicked him out of the house a decade earlier for being gay--suffered a debilitating stroke. Things are still strained between Mason and his father, but he does his best considering everything that's happened. And considering his father's beliefs, Mason knows he should let Tanner heal up and be on his way. But something about the younger man attracts him and that something proves extremely difficult to deny...

With this being such complicated and challenging story, Rowan McAllister's choice of title--My Only Sunshine--seems incredibly appropriate to me. In so many ways, both Tanner and Mason are living lives that are shadowed by clouds and storms, neither every really knowing when things will let up. But when they find each other, it seems like there might be a ray of light breaking through. The question of whether it will be enough to make the clouds go away is one that lingers there for them both for some time, neither really knowing if they could or should be the redemption and comfort that they both so desperately need. And it's certainly a well-written story, as well.

[Content warnings: descriptions of violence/hate crime, character with PTSD, violence against animals] ( )