2.5* ( )

Eight Seconds on the Mountain by PD Singer opens at a rodeo in Jake’s viewpoint as he reluctantly follows his boyfriend Kurt into the restricted area where the broncos are stabled. Kurt wants to look at the horses. Jake keeps his attention on the increasingly hostile cowboys who surround them, and he knows that he and Kurt look out of place dressed in their Forest Service uniforms. He dreads what would happen if these men guess that he and Kurt are lovers.

Meanwhile, the cowboys are competing one by one in their event, which Kurt explains to Jake (and the reader) in a subtle, understated way. Each cowboy is trying to stay on the back of a bucking bronco for eight seconds while having his riding technique scrutinized from all sides by judges. To Jake’s horror, Kurt impulsively makes a bet with an obnoxious cowboy that he can ride one of the broncos for eight seconds. As the cowboys all throw down their money to bet against Kurt, Jake wonders how he and Kurt will get out of this disastrous situation.

Eight Seconds on the Mountain is a stunning short story, and I say this as a reviewer who doesn’t usually find enough plot in most short stories to satisfy me. Though it is book 4 in the author’s popular Mountain series, it can be read as a stand-alone story as well as a good introduction to the series. The story does a great job with two essential features. First, it restricts itself to the one perspective that will maximize suspense, the first-person viewpoint of Kurt’s exasperated boyfriend Jake, who has an incomplete context in which to view their situation.

Second, the sex scene is very hot and filled with moments that reveal much about the characters. Usually when a sex scene happens towards the end of the story, I think of it as the unnecessary “celebratory sex scene” that authors sometimes give the readers even though we have already learned everything about the characters. The best sex scenes contain a deeper level of meaning that reveals the lovers’ personalities and how they feel about each other, and this particular sex scene in Eight Seconds on the Mountain does this even while bringing the story to a close. Very impressive!

Val for AReCafe ( )