The Station

By: Keira Andrews

Narrated by: Joel Leslie

Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Two men exiled to an untamed land must capture love.

Ever since Cambridge-bound Colin Lancaster spied on stable master Patrick Callahan mastering another man, he's longed for Patrick to do the same to him. When Patrick is caught with his pants down and threatened with death for his crime, Colin speaks up in his defense and confesses his own sinful nature. They're soon banished to the faraway prison colony of Australia.

Patrick never asked for Colin's help, and now he's stuck with the pampered fool. While it's true that being transported to Australia is a far cry from the luxury Colin is accustomed to, he's determined to make the best of it and prove himself. Patrick learned long ago that love is a fairy tale, but he's inexorably drawn to sweet, optimistic Colin despite himself.

From the miserable depths of a prison ship to the vast, untamed Australian outback, Colin and Patrick must rely on each other. Danger lurks everywhere, and when they unexpectedly get the chance to escape to a new life as cowboys, they'll need each other more than ever.

Contains mature themes.

©2018 Keira Andrews (P)2019 Tantor

Full of passion, sweetness, acceptance and love

I loved Colin and Patrick gay awakening, opposites attract, fish out of water historical romance with a side of culture shock. This book gave me all the swoony swoons while also pulling at my heartstrings with all the emotions. There were big feelings here. This is a single POV (Colin’s) only. I usually prefer dual POV but this was done very well and the descriptions of the other characters allowed fairly accurate assumptions about their thoughts and motivations. This book is set in the 1830’s when sodomy was still a crime in England. Colin is the son of a rich English family. Patrick is Irish and takes care of the family’s horses. When Patrick is caught with another man, Colin admits to his feelings in order to save Patrick’s life. They are both put on a ship bound for the penal colony in Australia. The journey to their HEA is eventful and emotional as they travel by ship and then through the wilds of Australia to assist a widow with setting up her cattle station. To get to their happiness, all the MCs need to deal with their pasts because they continue to negatively impact their lives and much of the angst comes from these issues. The story included sweet moments, steamy scenes, chuckles, supportive friends, messy families, painful pasts, evil actors, henchmen, healing, and heart squeezing love. The story was well written and included witty dialogue, three dimensional characters who grow, and an engaging storyline.

Joel Leslie did a fantastic job narrating the story and characters into life with enough change of inflection, tone and cadence to voice multiple characters quite convincingly.

Great journey story, lots of personality

Nothing in this story is new compared to other stories out there, but the combination of ideas, themes, and setting make it worth the listen. Also, there's a strong woman who is part of the story, which makes it even better since you never forget that this is an MM romance for even one minute--and yet, there she is and her love and journey story is also complete. She is not a ditz, she's just strong. All the characters are strong, which is the great thing about the best new fiction.

You have a horrific ship journey, a tough across arid land journey, and even a failed civilized London journey, all set back in time with a strong modern voice. Everything works. It's cohesive and deep, as if three or four other journey books were combined to create this one story. I really appreciate this book. For one, it has angst, but it's not as deep and threatening as angst in similar stories.

This is probably due to the completeness of each character's story as well as Joel Leslie reading it. Joel has the ability to do all the accents as well as create excitement, tremors, and terror in his readings. No amount of misguided sound leveling can detract much from a Joel Leslie reading. This book is probably going to be one of those whose deep personality alone will draw me back into listening to it again.

lovely!

love this book!! great story , wonderful character s, intense love scenes!! im sure im about to listen to this again!

Solid

Solid. Not especially remarkable, but does the job. I enjoyed it. The language for the sex scenes is too flowery, but that's my biggest complaint.

Loved It!

I absolutely loved this book. It was my first from this author, and my first from this narrator. Great world building and wonderful characters. By sheer happenstance, I've never read a book from this time period where homosexuality was punishable by death, so this story almost felt like nonfiction to me. I loved Colin and how he was treated by his family broke my heart so much, I actually had to take a break. It was so hurtful and he was just so alone and out of his element. I also really liked Patrick, though he was jaded and at times his standoffishness, and/or stubbornness, was a little painful. This story was quite the journey, both literally and emotionally, suspenseful and dangerous, and I loved how it ended. I also loved supporting characters Emily and Robbie. I wish there was a sequel or even a bonus short story for this book to see all their lives maybe a year later or something!

I thought Joel Leslie did a fantastic job with his narration. He had distinct voices for all the characters, and I especially liked Patrick's Irish accent.

Overall: 5 stars
Performance: 5 stars
Story: 5 stars

Story is good. Love the narrator

The story is good, got quite irritating with one of the MCs and some part of the story is not that reasonable in my opinion. But still good. However, what made the total book very nice is Joel Leslie. He made me laugh and cry even though I think I wouldn't if I were to just reading.

Love outback style!

Love the happy ending. I just wish a Queer Love Story didn't have to include internalized homophobia, etc.

So much chemistry and tension

The Australian setting is realized so well. Vibrant, hot, dry, and full of things that'll kill you. Hell, even the voyage to Australia has a well-crafted boat setting, muggy and tense. It brings the story to life. The MCs are strong, distinct characters. The romance is believable (and sexy), and the characters are lovable. Seemed there should've been more mention of what they lost, not just what they gained. It's like the book was apprehensive to show even brief angst despite characters and situations designed for at least a bit of it. The conclusion left some serious matters from the climatic action scene unresolved (not related to the romance). A few small things felt imbued with significance like they were a clue for a future scene, but they don't come back up in any important way. Why don't we ever circle back to the ring & the letters to family...?

It's awfully infuriating that everyone seems so convinced Colin is too much of a well-born gentleman to be suffering among the other prisoners, but Patrick is too low-born to be afforded the same empathy even after lovable characters get to know him. It's realistic, just upsetting. Patrick deserved to be a lot angrier.

An escape to another world and time

Love this so and will listen to again and again and again
It’s a gay couple’s fantasy despite the struggles and obstacles

Patrick and Colin…

Decent story…I hated how Patrick and Colin were treated but I was glad how their story turned out. I didn’t care for the narrator. Not a big fan of Joel Leslie…sounded very masterpiece theater and not in a good way.

Enjoyable

This was a good listen, and Joel Leslie was a great narrator again, as always.

A return to the Outback

A story of bravery and hardship and love of two men winning through. Great story well narrated and gives a sence of life in the early days of Australia's outback.