Against the Grain by Jay Hogan

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Title: Against the Grain
Author: Jay Hogan
Series: Auckland Med #4
Published by: Indie
Release Date: December 8, 2020
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 406
Genres: Contemporary, LGBT, Romance, Sports Romance
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2021 COYER Fall, Lenoreo's 2021 Diversity Reading Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:

Blurb:

I don’t like labels and I’m happy that way, but it’s taken a long time to get here. A jerk of a father, too many bullies to name, and a string of dipshit boyfriends whose interest in me rarely made it past the skirts I sometimes wear. Suffice to say, my faith in men runs a little thin.

The last thing I need is a gruff, opinionated, fiery, closeted, Paralympian jock messing with my hard-won peace. Miller Harrison is a wrinkle in my life I could definitely do without. I have a job that I love at Auckland Med., a boss who understands me, and a group of friends who accept me as I am.

I should walk away.

But Miller knows a thing or two about living life against the grain, and that hope I thought I’d buried a long time ago, is threatening to surface.

My Review:

4.5 stars — Wow.  It’s weird, I took longer to read this book than I expected…I kept coming back for tidbits.  But now that I’m done, I’m sad I won’t be in this world with these characters anymore.  Hence the bump up by half a star.  Looks like I’m going to have to get the other books in the series, oh darn.

The funny thing about our heroes is that they both exasperated me on more than one occasion.  They were the definition of flawed.  And yet, I still loved them.  It was actually gratifying to see them make some pretty big blunders that I can see happening in real life, and learning from them and growing as people.  None of us start off knowing all the right things to do and say, it’s a constant journey.  So I guess while it was hard to read at times, I really appreciated it all the same.

I kind of liked the juxtaposition between our two heroes as well.  Miller is a semi-closeted gay man, who is not at all on the up and up with all things letters (LGBT…).  As he’s described in the book, he’s very masc, and so in some ways some things are easier for him.  He goes through the journey of coming out completely in this book, and we get to see that there are challenges for everyone, no matter your flavour/presentation.  We also get to see the challenges that come with being double diversitied — gay and disabled in Miller’s case.  He definitely makes some missteps with Sandy, but I always felt that he was earnest in his desire to do better.  He may have been gruff and closed off with many other people, but Sandy got behind his walls.

On the other side we have Sandy, who in some ways is more stereotypically gay, and in other ways defies categorization.  He’s a bit more gender fluid, though he prefers not to place himself inside a neat box.  I really loved that, because I think so often we like to label people and categorize them, and that’s just not how it works in the real world.  He could be so strong, and I loved how he was so authentically himself.  But he was not without doubts and worries, without vulnerabilities.  And in some ways, his doubts had him putting up his walls at the drop of a hat.  It was hard, but I understood it.  And I was glad he had people around him that could help him with perspective.

They were pretty adorable together.  I loved that I wouldn’t have expected their pairing, and yet you could feel their attraction to one another, and they didn’t question it.

There were a lot of things going on in the background of this story.  If you haven’t read the other books in this series (as I hadn’t), I bet you’re going to want to after this.  We got to see all 3 previous couples, though Cam and Reuben the most.  I can honestly say I’m intrigued and look forward to reading their stories for myself.

And then there was the whole Geo/Jake/Sam bit.  That was unexpected, but added another dimension to their journey.  I kind of loved what it added and how it wound up at the end.

We also got some great family moments for both our heroes, mostly great supporting family (but there’s always bad with the good).

So yeah.  There was a lot going on, but I really enjoyed myself.  I can’t wait to read more by this author, she always gives me something different than what I’m expecting, in the BEST ways.

COYER Scavenger Hunt #39: Read a book you’ve won in a giveaway — I won this book in Sarina Bowen’s Sarindipity Facebook Group last December.