I’m relatively new to Jay Hogan’s books, having read my first one in September 2020, and I still have a few books in her backlist that I need to read. Against the Grain was the second book of hers that I read and the first book I read in the Auckland Med series. Yes, I read this one out of order but it didn’t really matter to my enjoyment of the story. I never felt lost while reading this one and I eventually caught up and listened to the first three books when they came out as audiobooks.

I loved Against the Grain when I read it with my eyes but I can’t begin to express how much more I loved it after I listened to Gary Furlong’s excellent audio performance. I’ve been a big fan of his for a while now but I think he outdid himself with this one. Audiobooks don’t tend to get my emotions involved with a story as much as when I read a book but this had me tearing up in more than one place. Gary put so much emotion into his performance that I could easily be convinced that he was telling his own story rather than words written by someone else. I hope that makes sense; I know this isn’t his story but his performance made it seem very real to me when listening to it.

Against the Grain is a well-developed and intense story. The main focus is on Miller, a masculine character who plays wheelchair Rugby, and Sandy, a more femme character who’s a nurse in the hospital where Miller works. They don’t meet under the best circumstances but Miller was captivated by Sandy right from the get-go. Miller isn’t exactly in-the-closet but he’s not out to his teammates or most of his co-workers. Sandy wears what he likes to wear; sometimes it’s skirts or dresses and sometimes it’s pants/trousers. He identifies as male but isn’t afraid or ashamed of expressing his more feminine side.

I almost don’t know where to start with my review so I’ll just say I loved everything about this story. Beyond the somewhat difficult road that Miller and Sandy travel to their HEA there are a couple of other very interesting subplots. One of these involves a 17-year-old bisexual friend of Miller’s nephew with a homophobic father.

If you like complex stories, with more than one plot line, I can highly recommend Against the Grain.

Reviews for Jay Hogan

Reviews for Gary Furlong

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