Reviewed by Vicki
TITLE: Cherish the Land 
SERIES: Lang Downs #5
AUTHOR: Arel Tachna
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 220 pages
BLURB:
Sequel to Conquer the Flames
Lang Downs: Book Five
Seth Simms never wanted to be a cowboy, although to listen to his best friend, Jason Thompson, tell it, he isn’t one. He just happens to have lucked out in coming to live on Lang Downs with his brother ten years ago. He found enough stability to finish high school and go off to university, but he never really believed Lang Downs would be the same haven for him that it had become for so many others. He’s too messed up in the head. No one would accept someone with his issues.
All his life, Jason has had one goal: to come home to Lang Downs as resident veterinarian when they need his skills and jackaroo when they don’t. And it means he gets to spend time with Seth during his occasional visits, even though his dream of going from friends to lovers is hopeless since Seth is straight.
When Seth unexpectedly comes home to stay, Jason takes it as the boon it is. But juggling a relationship with another jackaroo and his friendship with Seth isn’t easy, and that’s before Jason realizes how deep Seth’s issues run and how dangerously Seth chooses to cope with them.
REVIEW:
Jason and Seth have been best friends for years, growing up at Lang Downs a big sheep farm in Australia. Ten years ago Chris, Seth’s older brother, was attacked and beaten, Seth ran in to Macklin and Caine, the couple that own the farm, who helped the boys and got them to Lang Downs. Chris is gay, and found his partner Jesse, and settled in to life on Lang Downs. Chris was happy with his friend Jason, but the boys went their separate ways for school, and have only had minimal contact for the last few years. Jason grew up on Lang Downs, but went away to school to become a vet, hoping to return and contribute his skills to the farm. Seth went to school then settled in Sydney working as a mechanic, with a girlfriend.
The two men have now individually decided to come home to Lang Downs. Seth has left his girlfriend, decided he would like to pursue his attraction to Jason that he has kept to himself all these years. Jason had always planned to return, and does, not knowing that Seth is on his way back. Jason hooks up with a new jackaroo, and is building himself a new life. In comes Seth to confuse matters!
Part of the plot of this book is Jason and Seth and their drama, unfortunately I didn’t find any of it particularly interesting. I didn’t get the feeling of passion and longing between them, I just got lots of Jason moaning about being in love with his straight best friend, and Seth moaning about missing Jason and wishing he had told him he loved him before he started seeing Cooper. Then there was this weird thing with Seth cutting himself, that really was odd to me. Not the cutting part, I get that, but I didn’t understand what was causing it for Seth. So it was all a little off for me. They felt more like friends than lovers to me the whole time, even by the end of the book.
The other part of the book was a bit more interesting. The farm next door to Lang Downs has been owned by the Taylor family. In book three of this series, Jeremy Taylor, the brother of Devlin Taylor, current owner of Taylor Peak, runs from his homophobic brother and ends up at Lang Downs, settling in with a man named Sam. Now in this book, Devlin has an accident, and Jeremy has some drama to deal with. There is some issues with the jackaroos, some problems with how Devlin was running the station, and Jeremy and Sam have some decisions to make, with the help of the folks at Lang Downs. This I liked!
I’ve really liked the other books in this series, this one just didn’t keep me interested. There wasn’t much action, only a bit of drama here and there, and not much sex. I didn’t hate it by any means, but I wish there had been more to it. I loved seeing all of the characters from the previous books, I loved the feeling of family these men and women have created, and I did like to see Jason and Seth come home. There was the chance for much passion between them, it just never really got there for me.
I would recommend this series, even though I didn’t really love this book. The overall series is very good, this one was an ok addition, just not my favorite.
RATING:
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