Heels Over Head by Clay G. Small

I wasn’t sure about this book. It took me a long time to get into this book. It was slow going. I restarted it three separate times before finally committing all the way and diving in. It took me a few days to finish it and in the end? This one just wasn’t for me.

Henry Lindon is a businessman who has recently completed a large scale business transaction and through his brother, ended up getting a position at a university in the Dallas area where they live. Having grown up on a Kansas wheat farm, he still co-owns his parents farm with his brother and has on site management.

He, his brother and another friend from their small town have an arch enemy – a local boy from a wealthy family who the three embarrassed and harassed in high school and who still holds a grudge against them because of it.

And that is where it jumped the shark for me. For grown men to still hold high school grudges despite being wealthy and successful and be willing to put it all at risk was not believable for me.  Not only is the grudge holder wealthy and successful, he is also a sexual sadist and I found that part of the story distasteful.

In fact, most of the men who seemed to be in the fifty year old range were all very juvenile. Holding onto high school hurts; trying to one up each other through pranks; multiple marriages and playboy behavior by a few; alcoholic antics – it made it very hard to care what happened to any of the males in the story.

Henry, for all his critical thinking, slow decision making and deliberate and careful consideration of everything, was a reactive whiny milquetoast. He suspected his wife of an affair despite having very little indication she was in any way unfaithful but it definitely fit with the low treatment of women in the story.

Women are depicted as either ho’s, frigid ice queens; eye candy, victims or gold diggers. It was all quite unbelievable and the most of the women were either sexualized or victimized.

The final turn off for me was the fact that there was no resolve to the story. The ending was intended to be a cliff hanger, I think, and to encourage you to purchase the next book.

 In all honesty, I was kind of ticked off the story ended this way and because I didn’t care about the characters, I don’t plan on reading the next book or finding out how it turns out.

This may be a story that appeals more to male fans than female, I’m not sure. It left me cold. As I always say though, what one person doesn’t care for may be gold for another. If a cliff hanger appeals to you, then you might pick this one up and hang on for the next one too. It just wasn’t for me.