Review: Continues the story.... a good sequel
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 1, 2013
As with the first book in the series, Inherit the Sky, this book did not fully live up to it's potential for me. However it was still a pleasant read.I enjoyed the characters in the book, where once again we have one main character (Jesse) who is a jackaroo and another character (Chris) who is totally out of his element.Chris has been assaulted (for being gay) and rescued by Macklin and a few other men from the sheep station. When they find out that Chris and his younger brother Seth are struggling on their own, Caine and Macklin take them back to Lang Downs. Jesse is working at the station for the season with no real plans for the future or for settling down.Chris and Jesse start a casual relationship but of course things aren't simple. They begin to have feelings for each other but each of them doubt they are right for the other. They don't fully admit their feelings to each other but their internal reflections show that their bond is more than physical."Chris needed someone so much better than Jesse, someone with a stable life and the ability to make promises and keep them. Jesse didn't know where he'd be after April when the seasonal work at Lang Downs ended.""His heart was his to give as he chose. Jesse might not keep it, but if the other option was breaking things off now, Chris realized he'd rather have a broken heart later, having loved now for all he was worth, than never have that experience at all."This book was an interesting blend of story that focused on the new couple of Jesse and Chris but also continued to build on the story of the original couple, Macklin and Caine.As with the previous book, I had a few issues with the writing style. Basically I didn't like the way the sex scenes were written (they didn't seem natural) and also found a few passages where I felt the author was aiming for the deep or profound but it just didn't work. For example, I didn't understand the following "They walked upstairs to their bedroom, hand in hand, pausing to kiss occasionally, but mostly walking together like it was the simplest thing in the world. Macklin wasn't sure if it was the simplest thing or the most complicated, but he knew one thing to the depths of his soul: it was the most important." Maybe I am missing something here? There is also the scene where Caine tops Macklin for the first time. Macklin has always resisted as he didn't want to give up control. In the midst of this scene, instead of focusing on the beauty and significance of Macklin's gesture, the author has Macklin thinking "The problem had been his own hang-ups and issues, but they all seemed insignificant in the face of Caine's proposal. If they lost more men because of it, they'd hire new ones. If they had to work twice as many hours to get everything done, they'd do it." It seemed unnecessary and weird because how would the men even know that Macklin had been topped to lose respect for him? Finally there were a few sections where Caine's stutter seemed too obvious, alternating from no stutter in one paragraph, followed by a paragraph full of stutter (showing he was nervous), to another one with no stutter.These issues weren't enough to detract from the story too much and it was still a nice enough read.