Gio Valeri is a big city police officer who¿s been transferred to the small outback town of Richmond with his professional reputation in tatters. His transfer is a punishment, and Gio just wants to keep his head down and survive the next two years. No more mistakes. No more complications.Except Gio isn¿t counting on Jason Quinn.Jason Quinn, officer in charge of Richmond Station, is a single dad … Station, is a single dad struggling with balancing the demands of shift work with the challenges of raising his son. The last thing he needs is a new senior constable with a history of destroying other people¿s careers. But like it or not, Jason has to work with Gio.
In a remote two man station hours away from the next town, Gio and Jason have to learn to trust and rely on each another. Close quarters and a growing attraction mean that the lines between professional and personal are blurring. And even in Richmond, being a copper can be dangerous enough without risking their hearts as well.
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It’s the Australia Day public holiday so what a perfect book to read. I love gay romance stories set in Australia, especially stories set in the outback and this one captured the Aussie landscape perfectly. Great story and wonderful characters.
Loved this book and series. The setting is unique and authentic, and the romance hit my buttons. Recommend!
Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team
Sarah –
This is one of those books that really resonated with me. It’s a gritty, emotional story of a relationship between two men who don’t really let themselves do emotions or relationships. As the only law enforcement officers in an enormous and inhospitable rural area, the intimacy between Gio and Jason is initially forced and uncomfortable. Gio is running from his past in the city and Jason is still grieving his wife.
The relationship between Jason and Gio develops slowly. They slowly start to trust each other on the job. When Jason struggles to care for his son while working too many hours, he is slowly forced to trust Gio with his son. But while the relationship is slow, Gio’s new life in the outback is surprisingly entertaining and often exciting. His adventures wrangling poisonous snakes, naked pensioners, and abusive partners are told with both sensitivity and humour.
I don’t think this book fits neatly within the romance genre, but I personally like it better because it doesn’t. It’s a book about two lives that are forced together in difficult circumstances. It’s a book about reevaluating life choices and ambitions when our best laid plans fall apart. And it is a book about love and relationships – but not necessarily about romance in the way we’ve come to expect it. I loved this story and I’m looking forward to more in the series.
Veronica –
This story is sublime. I love the authenticity of the characters, the location, the language. (Thank you, Ms. Henry, for writing Aussies that actually sound like Aussies.) I loved watching Gio adjust from life as a city cop to life in the outback while dealing with the trouble he left behind on the Gold Coast. Jason juggling work as a cop with life as a single parent pulled at my heart strings. And I loved Taylor, Jason’s son – 10 years old, inquisitive, and fun. And most of all, I loved the way the relationship between Jason and Gio grew and developed and didn’t go according to plan and that their feelings are portrayed so simply.
Two Man Station hit the spot for me. I know next time I’m driving through a small country town in the bush and I pass the cop shop that I’ll be thinking of Jason and Gio.
This is the third book I’ve read by this author and each of them is vastly different and each of them was a five-star read. I’m going to have to find the time to check out more of her work. She is an author not to be missed.
Reviewers received a free copy of this book to read and review for Wicked Reads.
Well that was a thoroughly enjoyable story! Beautifully paced, event unfold gradually but it’s never slow. The characters are interesting and worked well together, with a supporting cast of characters ranging from frightening to charming. It was a great plot and seeing how it’s the first in the series I’m hoping this is the continuing story of Gio and Jason – though if Lisa Henry decides to explore other characters in the Australian wilderness I won’t exactly complain 😉
Gio’s story was a heart-breaker and his resilience is admirable, and honestly that applies to Jason’s tale as well. Both these guys have really been through the ringer so thank goodness they found each other.
Lisa Henry’s amazing descriptions of this barren but beautiful red earth land were so poetic and haunting, it was easy to imagine what this place looked like.
Honestly, the descriptions of some of the people really did give me the shivers. I would hate to run into some of those bigoted, wife beating asshats and I wish it was all poetic license that she came up with these guys… unfortunately I know it’s all too true.
Lisa Henry has a gift when it comes to crafting stories. She never rushes. She gives the plot and the characters room to breathe and grow and develop into something beautiful.
Two Man Station is a love story about two men whose lives have been devastated by separate events, who, slowly and cautiously, kindle a friendship that becomes much more. Henry takes her time introducing readers to Gio, a former city cop who did the right thing only to be labeled a pariah by his colleagues and superiors and sent to the Richmond Police Station as a way to sweep him under the rug and off the radar. And Jason, who is a single dad struggling to raise his son while being a full-time cop and wondering if he will ever know intimacy again or if loneliness will be his only bedmate.
As a reader, I felt that I “knew” Gio and Jason before their relationship become more serious, which gave weight and understanding to the decisions they made and the actions they were driven to take. Gio has almost been destroyed by the betrayal he has suffered, and every decision Jason makes is weighted by what he thinks he knows of Gio and his responsibility as a father. It’s a careful dance between wanting what one shouldn’t want and needing what every person deserves to have. Lisa Henry pulls it off beautifully.
This story has everything I love in a well written book:
√ Complete absence of insta-love
√ Strong, unique characters
√ Well developed plot
√ Scenery/location that enhances the overall story
Readers will not be disappointed in this book. I am looking forward to others in the series and wondering if future stories will include Gio and Jason. I find myself wondering if people from Gio’s past will resurface and, if so, in what way and how will they impact his new life. Whether we see Gio and Jason again, or if Henry introduces us to completely new characters, I am eager to read Emergency Services #2.
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