I so very much wanted to like this book, and am so very disappointed that I did not. The setting – very rural Victoria, Australia, in the 1890s – was fascinating, and I think the initial chapters do a marvelous job of not only introducing the characters but also the place. The descriptions of the trees, the birds, the desolation and the beauty of the landscape surrounding the main characters were absorbing in a way I found delightful..

Anglican priest Matthew Ottenshaw receives his first church assignment in the aforementioned small town. He takes his calling and his profession seriously, and wants to do well, a goal that is both helped and hindered by the local sergeant, Jonah Parks. Jonah tends to order Matthew around initially, announcing rather than inviting him on a tour of the town, but Matthew finds that Jonah is deeply smart and aware of how the town views them both (job first, person second). He also realizes that he and Matthew will end up working together. Matthew’s attraction to Jonah is more of a problem he feels he has to solve on his own.

I liked the differences in their dialogue, the way the writing took such care to distinguish between the two of them, and how their language and word choices revealed so much. But the book went sour for me in a hurry, and I ended up skimming to the ending.

First, there is no specific antagonist except “the law” or “the government” until the very, very end, and that lack of specificity meant that for me, the narrative turned into a daily journal of day time job/night time secret visits for Jonah and Matthew. It got dull in a hurry because it felt like the tension was suspended then reanimated abruptly. Their relationship is illegal and being found out could easily mean persecution, but the source of that persecution from an individual person or group was largely absent, so when it did show up (I’m trying to avoid spoilers) it was a handful of pages to deal with.

Worse, there are several minority characters who have very specific roles, all of them limited and stereotyped, and all of them in service to highlighting the nobility and goodness of the two white protagonists. One tells stories about Jonah’s heroism, and another provides a means to an end to the story. The ways in which these characters were marginalized in this book caused me to further lose interest because they seemed only to appear and be deployed to make clear the goodness of Jonah and Matthew compared to the rest of the town. In fact, the other characters in the town receive scant development after the opening chapters, which, again, made their reappearances in what were supposed to be key moments seem too convenient and contrived. I reached the final pages disappointed that the promise of the beginning wasn’t sustained.

– SB Sarah

A small town, a new arrival, and a love that is as undeniable as it is unlawful…

Victoria, Australia, 1891

Anglican priest Matthew Ottenshaw receives his first posting in tiny Dinbratten, two days’ ride from his Melbourne home. Determined to honour his calling as best he can, he throws himself into the footy mad, two-pub town, navigating the dusty streets, learning the gossip, and striking up a friendship with Jonah Parks, the resident police sergeant and local bona fide hero.

A police officer and a priest often find themselves needed at the same place, and Jonah and Matthew’s friendship deepens quickly, as they set about their business of protecting the bodies and souls of Dinbratten’s residents. When a bushfire threatens the town, and Matthew’s inexperience with fire endangers the church buildings, Jonah comes to the rescue, and a reckless kiss in the midst of the chaos takes their friendship to forbidden.

Neither Matthew nor Jonah can go back to the way things were before, but continuing their relationship puts everything at risk: their jobs, their friends, even their lives. In the outback town of Dinbratten where everyone knows everything about everyone else, how can they ever expect to keep a secret this explosive?