Rating: 4.5 stars
Buy Link: Amazon | iBooks | Amazon UK
Length: Novel

Gil is barely hanging on. Eighteen months ago, his life tragically changed forever when his young daughter was killed in a car accident. His marriage fell apart and Gil and his husband separated in a blaze of grief and blame. Gil is tired of just trying to survive and he puts his psychology practice on hold to work at a sheep station in the high country for three months. He wants to be able to breathe again and move forward in his life, while trying to keep the nightmares at bay. When Gil arrives in Mackenzie Country, he isn’t sure exactly what he’s going to find, but he never imagines that his libido will start coming back to life when he lays his eyes on Holden, the younger owner of the station.

Holden always knew he was going to be in charge of the station, but when his grandfather was hospitalized, it happened a lot sooner than he thought it would. His grandfather’s dementia led the man to make some poor business decisions and Holden has worked exceptionally hard to keep the business from going under. He has lived on the station his entire life and failing is not an option. But being a gay shepherd in an isolated land isn’t the best for his social life and Holden is blown away when he first sees Gil.

Neither man is looking for love and their lives couldn’t be more different and still the men fall for each other and heal each other in unexpected and gentle ways. But Gil’s life is far away from the isolated sheep farm and the men will have to be brave enough to go after all the things they want together.

This book has a lot of signature Jay Hogan elements and the first would be the location and atmosphere of the setting. The story takes place on a remote sheep farm and it’s easy to get caught up in the detail and imagery. The book opens on a tragic tale of a car accident that shattered so many things. Gil is barely holding it together and needs to make a change and learn how to simply breathe again. Everything for him is agony and he goes so far out of his comfort zone. Yet when he arrives in the high country, he finds a peace in the air and a home with Holden. The attraction is immediate; the rest takes some time.

Holden is trying not to feel overwhelmed. He has a huge task running the station and he is trying to undo some bad decisions his grandfather made and the whole operation is balancing on his choices now. But everything seems better when these two men are together. There is plenty of hurt, but there is also plenty of comfort and, despite an age and geographic differences, these men belong together. It was wonderful watching them fall for each other in soothing ways. They find ways to communicate and they find ways to own their relationship and, although they both have doubts, they look out for each other from the start. This is the beginning of a new series and I am all in for a return to Mackenzie Country.