"Scrap Metal" by Harper Fox

Nichol Seacliff has spent the past year on the Scottish sheep farm where he grew up to help his grandfather keep it going.  It's just the two of them left in the family after his mother and older brother were killed in an accident out of the country.  Nichol had been at university working on his doctorate but dropped out to move back to the farm on the Isle of Arran.  It's been a hard adjustment, especially since Nichol and Harry do not get along.  One night, Nichol discovers a stranger in one of the barns, a starving young man who needs a place to hide from a gang in Glasgow.  Cameron Beale is so scared and desperate that he agrees to stay on and help for only room and board.  As Harry and Nichol work to turn the city boy into a decent farm hand, Cam and Nichol begin to have feelings beyond friendship but more tragedy and Cam's past may derail their future.

You know how it feels when you read an author for the first time and the writing is so good that you have to go back and reread parts of the book again?  That's what "Scrap Metal" was like for me.  I'd read praise for Harper Fox over the past several years, so when I saw that she had an e-book available for free, I was anxious to read it.  It surpassed all expectations!   She has a lyrical way with words that captures not only the emotional voices of the two main characters but also how it feels to live on an isolated sheep farm where failure is inevitable and near.  Lots of Gaelic phrases were mixed in along with their translations, which made this emotional story even more poignant.  The farm itself became another character, and there were lots of interactions with animals, too.  I can't wait to read more by this author.  Highly recommended.  258 pages (Kindle edition).