Jay Hogan kicks off her new Mackenzie Country series, set amid the spectacular scenery of New Zealand’s Southern Alps, with The Art of Husbandry, a beautiful story in which she skilfully and sensitively balances a storyline involving grief and terrible loss with the development of a deeply emotional romance.

After the death of his ten-year-old daughter and the collapse of his marriage, Wellington-based psychologist Gil Everton falls into a spiral of anger, grief, panic attacks, and PTSD. When, eighteen months later, he realises he’s tired of just going through the motions and being stuck in a kind of limbo, he decides he needs a drastic change, something that will give him a short, sharp shock into feeling things again and to help get him out of the rut he’s fallen into. To this end, he arranges, via a friend of a friend (of a friend, etc.), to take a three-month post as domestic manager on a remote sheep station in Mackenzie Country in the Southern Alps. Nothing could be more different to his city life, and he looks forward to the hard work and fresh air giving him the time and space he needs to think and decide on his next steps.

Holden Miller had thought he’d have a few more years learning the ropes of merino farming under his grandfather’s tutelage, but three years earlier, the older man developed dementia and at just twenty-seven, Holden found himself in charge of thirty-five thousand acres of land, ten thousand sheep, three hundred head of cattle and a handful of staff. He’s still feeling his way – being the boss is hard when most of the staff know a lot more about running the place than he does – and he’s also having to deal with the fact that his grandfather made some very bad decisions in the past few years as a result of his illness. Gaining back that lost ground is going to be incredibly difficult, but is imperative if the business is to survive.

Gil and Holden both have very good reasons for not wanting to become involved with anyone. Holden has never been interested in romantic relationships; his life is busy enough as it is and is busier than ever now he’s taken over the running of the station, and he’s always preferred things to be casual, hook-ups here and there, and a friends-with-benefits arrangement with local vet, Zach, whom he’s known since they were kids. Gil is still struggling under the weight of grief and loss – for his daughter and for his marriage – and isn’t in a place where he’s ready to start anything new.

Yet the spark of attraction that flares between them at their first meeting just refuses to die. Their chemistry is pretty intense from the get-go, and the author develops a strong friendship and a deep emotional connection between them that is completely organic and genuine. One of Jay Hogan’s many strengths is her ability to write mature relationships in which the characters communicate effectively while still being able to create realistic obstacles and conflict for them to overcome, and that’s no more true than here. Gil and Holden are honest with each other about their mutual attraction early on, but decide, given how complicated and stressful their lives are, it’s probably not a good idea to pursue it further. But as they get to know each other better and work alongside each other, it becomes very clear – to them and to us – that there’s more going on between them than sexual attraction, that there’s a growing understanding of who and what the other is about, and a willingness – a need – on both sides to help and support the other however they can.

Needless to say, it isn’t long before Gil and Holden are revisiting their decision not to act on their attraction. Holden is the first man Gil has been remotely interested in in a long time, and it takes him a while to come to terms with that, but once he does, once he he lets himself want again, he and Holden agree to just… see where things go. No promises, no expectations. And in any case, whatever is between them has a built-in time limit and Gil has a lot of unfinished business in Wellington – not least of which is finalising his divorce – and he always planned to return there.

The way Jay Hogan presents Gil, as someone exhausted under the weight of so much grief, guilt and pain, is incredibly vivid and very real. The reader feels all his conflicting emotions, his vulnerability and fears of opening himself up to life and love again – and also his determination to find a way forward. His growing happiness at finding purpose and joy in his work at the station is palpable, and I liked that he learns to let himself accept help and support. The author leaves him in a good place – ready to embrace life and move on – but also makes it clear that he’s still working through the healing process and has a way to go.

Holden’s journey is more subtle, and is mostly about his finally stepping out of his grandfather’s shadow when it comes to running Miller Station. When the book begins he’s at an awkward ‘in-between’ stage – struggling to find his feet as the boss of the place, and also to maintain the courage of his convictions in the face of his grandfather’s constant criticism. But with Gil’s support and encouragement, he’s finally able to cast aside his doubts about his suitability for the job and to grow into the man he’s meant to be.

While Gil and Holden are at the heart of this book, there’s a terrific group of superbly-drawn secondary characters around them that you can’t help but connect with, too, from the shepherds Tom, Sam and Alek, to Holden’s mother, Emily, and Zach, and Gil’s ex, Luke. At first, Luke seems to have behaved really badly; he and Gil had hit a rough patch, and after Carrie died, Luke became involved with someone else, so it’s easy to dislike him and apportion most of the blame for their break-up to him. But Jay Hogan doesn’t go in for two-dimensional villains, and shows us that there’s a lot more to what happened than that in a superbly written scene between Gil and Luke near the end of the book, in which Gil starts to understand that he wasn’t the only one who was drowning in grief and guilt. Holden’s ex, Zach, is also sympathetically written; when we meet him he’s closeted (his dad is a raging homophobe) but is considering coming out because he hopes to make a future with Holden. Holden had no idea Zach felt that way and lets him down as gently as he can, but obviously, seeing Holden with Gil doesn’t go down well and he’s a bit of an dick to Gil to begin with. Again, however, there’s no two-dimentionality here; Zach is well-rounded and easy to understand despite his behaviour (and it will probably come as no surprise to learn that Zach and Luke are the protagonists in the next book in the series).

The author does a fantastic job of portraying the highs and lows of life on a remote sheep station, weaving in what has obviously been very detailed research (she says in her acknowledgements that she spent time at two South Island high country stations) in a way that permeates the story rather than making obvious info-dumps. The isolation, the camaraderie between the tight-knit group of workers and their dependence on one another, the detail about the importance of the upcoming muster and how it all works – it’s fascinating and never teach-y or overdone, and the descriptions of the wild, rugged landscapes are – as I’ve said before – so incredibly evocative as to make you start searching for a plane ticket.

If I have a criticism, it’s that Holden abandons his ‘no relationships’ stance really quickly, but that’s my only real niggle. The Art of Husbandry is a gorgeous romance and a superbly written story about grief and loss and heartbreak and hope that will tug at the heartstrings and bring a tear to the eye. It’s another fantastic read from Jay Hogan, and I’m really looking forward to reading more about the goings-on in Mackenzie Country.