Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Tamarillo Tart
SERIES: Southern Lights, Book 2
AUTHOR: Jay Hogan
NARRATOR: Gary Furlong
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 8 hours and 1 minutes
RELEASE DATE: April 24, 2023
BLURB:
Cassidy Martin is a country boy through and through. He loves his horses, his Lord of the Rings tourist business, and his isolated paradise at the foot of New Zealand’s Southern Alps. Not that everyone appreciates the seclusion he craves. Take his ex-wife, for example.
The sexy-as-hell guy on his latest tour might be whip-smart and push all of Cass’s buttons, but he’s about as country as a pair of Louboutins, and Cass has been there and done that. Broken heart with the T-shirt.
Stefan Hamilton doesn’t do “outdoorsy”, he’s a city boy, born and bred. The closest Stef gets to the country is “Cowboy Night” at his favourite Auckland gay bar even if the music makes Stef want to rip his hair out by the roots.
But Stef is also a hardcore Lord of the Rings fanboy. So, when he gets the chance to go on a horse trek to the iconic film locations in the Southern Alps, he sucks up his fear of the gigantic animals and his allergy to camping for the chance to let his nerd flag fly. But when his mate pulls out at the last minute, Stef is left to negotiate the horses, the wrath of mother nature, and an inconvenient crush on the cowboy leading the tour.
City meets country and the sparks fly.
REVIEW:
Tamarillo Tart is the second book in Jay Hogan’s Southern Lights series, focusing on Stefan Hamilton, a twinky city boy who falls for Cassidy Martin, a cowboy/country boy with a passion for Lord of the Rings and solitude. Hogan gives us plenty of fish-out-of-water humor from this city/country, opposites attract romance between Stef, BFF of Tanner from the first book, Powder and Pavlova, and Cass, LoTR tourist guide in the gorgeous middle of nowhere at the foot of New Zealand’s Southern Alps.
Hogan is exceptional at sharp, snarky, sardonic wit, and we get boatloads of it from Stef in particular, as he and Cass take each other’s measure. But Cass is no shrinking violet and can give as good as he gets. He finds Stef to be equal parts intriguing and amusing and the tenderness that unexpectedly develops between them, along with some incendiary undeniable attraction, is what fuels this story.
Tropes aplenty here, but Hogan makes them feel fresh. Her strength is in her characters, and she digs in here with rich detail and texture for both Stef and Cass. Hogan also gives us a nice dose of low-angst hurt/comfort which is my favorite part of this story – that and Stef’s acknowledgment that he has an inner strength that he’s kept locked down while circumstances prompt him to challenge his artificially imposed limitations. The story’s pacing is a bit uneven, though, and some parts, especially early on, move slowly and/or are unnecessarily prolonged.
While I adore Hogan’s writing, I always tend to partake in her stories in audiobook format because her go-to narrator is Gary Furlong. He is in the top 5 of my favorite narrators because he infuses life and energy into any story (or the phone book, dictionary, instruction manual, etc. …) through his top-notch vocal performances. There are many excellent narrators out there who superbly execute the fundamentals – consistency, distinction, intonation, pacing, emphasis, appropriate pitch and timbre, to name a few – and nail the emotional connection and cadence of the narrative. Furlong is next-level though, because he does all of that superbly and gives barnstormer performances that showcase full-body acting. I don’t mean “full body” in the sense of moving his whole body, but rather, throwing his whole self into the performances – acting the part as if he were on a stage, delivering the lines as if he were doing so as the character in real life. It’s an appreciable difference that makes his performances consistently stand out.
Furlong’s invested performance of Tamarillo Tart transports us to the Southern Alps of New Zealand where we can visualize these two charismatic men sparring and sexing it up. Furlong is particularly good at sass and snark, and there’s plenty of that here. He’s also terrific at the twinky vibe of a strong-willed, determined man who knows who he is (ala Cameron Wano from Hogan’s Auckland Med series) and he is on-point here with Stef. Cass has a lower pitched voice that perfectly fits his character, and his timbre plays off Stef’s well.
Tamarillo Tart is an enjoyable story made completely absorbing by Furlong’s talents. I recommend this audiobook, along with Powder and Pavlova, which you do not have to read first, but will give you some early context on Stef’s personality.
RATING: 
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