Two Man Station

Ha. The title made me giggle. Come on, it's a perfect porn title!

I hate cheesy romance and never understood Fifty Shades. But romance books have to be cheesy a little, right? And I don't think I was entirely against romance books either. Maybe I just hate the overly cheesy ones? But I read Twilight, so, yeah, maybe I'm not the authority here.

I remember romance books from the '90s, those with illustrations of topless men on the covers. A few that I tried reading were all cheesy. I don't think I've ever finished reading one. In other words, my life was fine until Goodreads brought me to m/m new adult romance this year: love stories of adults who don't say "make love" but just say sex or f*ck. Dusts hands.

Regardless of what I just said, look at me, I pixelate the word f*ck.

So I found Lisa Henry. I scanned her list of books and went, "I can't read that... Maybe not that... Or not that either... Not yet... OMG I CANNOT READ THAT!"

But seriously, Lisa Henry's a great writer, you can read all her books. I read a couple, and the first one was Two Man Station.

In Two Man Station, as a punishment for reporting a colleague, Gio, a cop, is being relocated to the small outback town of Richmond, which station is manned by only two people — him and his new boss, Jason. They only have one other colleague at the office — Sandra, the Everything-Manager. And if backup is needed, it would be from the nearest station two-hour drive away.

Soon, we and Gio learn the reality of policing a small town on a two-man squad. Just learning how they rotate shifts and remain on standby is already making me exhausted. This is practically a 24-7 duty for both of the cops with little room to have a life of their own. On top of that, Jason is also a single father to his 10-year-old son Taylor, which is another aspect of life that he finds himself struggling to balance. To get the picture, because he doesn't have a sitter, he'd drop Taylor at Sandra's every time he's being called for work in the middle of the night or, at times, just cross his fingers and leave Taylor alone at home.

Amidst demanding work and a distant start, there is a growing attraction between the two. One sexual encounter leads to more, then leads to them giving relationship a try. It works out for about three days before it falls apart and they have to find their way to each other again.

There are funny and sweet and angsty moments in the book. I love that it's imperfect and gradual — but not boring. And I love that it's a love story without the two characters saying "I love you" — I've checked.

Image: lisahenryonline.com