{"id":18342,"date":"2021-10-07T19:14:01","date_gmt":"2021-10-07T23:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=18342"},"modified":"2026-03-22T08:58:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T12:58:25","slug":"the-caretaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/18342","title":{"rendered":"The Caretaker"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Caretaker<\/a><\/em> (2017) Dahlia Donovan<\/a> (The Sin Bin)<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>Freddie Whittle is a cancer nurse. It’s an incredibly hard job, and he puts too much of himself into it, but he doesn’t want to do anything else.<\/p>\n

Taine stood silent while the nurse gathered himself. He squared his shoulders, took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly before striding purposefully into the room, shifting from worried young man to confident medical professional in the blink of an eye.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Taine Afoa is a half Scottish half-Maori retired rugby player who had an extremely unusual beginning, having been raised by the priest upon whose step he had been abandoned as an infant.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you sure you\u2019re a Catholic priest?\u201d \u201cGod judges, son, not I. He gave you to me to cherish and love. What sort of father doesn\u2019t love his son, whatever his choices in life?\u201d\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I really love all the characters in this story: Tain, Father Wilson, his adopted father, Freddie and his fathers. They’re all complex and complicated individuals.<\/p>\n

Freddie had simply balked at all the constant coddling. They loved him. He knew it, but wished they\u2019d occasionally not try to drown him in it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I will admit that I am often aggravated by The Big Misunderstanding in romance, but I can appreciate an Issue that is well done, and I think this one was. Taine IS older than Freddie. Freddie’s fathers are ridiculously over-protective. <\/p>\n

But mostly Freddie is delightful.<\/p>\n

“There\u2019s a shed that\u2019s mine on the edge of the property.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWhy?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cBecause when I was learning to play the bagpipes, my dads almost lost their minds. They built me a little clubhouse to practice.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Also: cheese.<\/p>\n

Publisher: Hot Tree Publishing
\nRating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Caretaker (2017) Dahlia Donovan (The Sin Bin) Freddie Whittle is a cancer nurse. It’s an incredibly hard job, and he puts too much of himself into it, but he doesn’t want to do anything else. Taine stood silent while the nurse gathered himself. He squared his shoulders, took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,30,292,196,742,148,41,26,56,934],"tags":[198,50,533,709,254,544,573,532],"class_list":["post-18342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-10","category-british","category-ebook","category-novella","category-physical-health","category-queer","category-reread","category-romance","category-sexual-content","category-trigger-warnings","tag-bdsm","tag-boinking","tag-cancer","tag-cheese","tag-dahlia-donovan","tag-mm","tag-serious-illness","tag-sin-bin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-4LQ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":20133,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/20133","url_meta":{"origin":18342,"position":0},"title":"The Caretaker","author":"Michelle","date":"July 25, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Caretaker (2017) Dahlia Donovan (The Sin Bin) This story picks up after The Wanderer. Taine is another retired rugby player. Freddie is the traveling nurse who helped Graham through his cancer treatments, and became a friend. Taine is fascinated by the slight young man. Taine stood silent while the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14094,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/14094","url_meta":{"origin":18342,"position":1},"title":"Sin Bin Series: Box Set","author":"Michelle","date":"March 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Sin Bin Series: Box Set (2020) Dahlia Donovan This is seven stories (and three short stories) around a group of former rugby players and friends and the men they fall in love with. The Wanderer (2017) The Caretaker (2017) The Botanist (2017) The Royal Marine (2017) The Unexpected Santa (2017)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sin Bin Series","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Sin-Bin-Series.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18355,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/18355","url_meta":{"origin":18342,"position":2},"title":"The Lion Tamer","author":"Michelle","date":"October 12, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The Lion Tamer (2018) Dahlia Donovan (The Sin Bin) As noted throughout the series, Scottie us a wreck, who is incapable of being a functioning adult. Scottie sat up slowly and glanced around to find the scenery had changed quite significantly. \u201cWhy the fuck am I in a hospital bed?\u201d\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Lion Tamer","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/The-Lion-Tamer.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/The-Lion-Tamer.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/The-Lion-Tamer.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/The-Lion-Tamer.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":20143,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/20143","url_meta":{"origin":18342,"position":3},"title":"The Lion Tamer","author":"Michelle","date":"July 27, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Lion Tamer (2018) Dahlia Donovan (The Sin Bin) First off, this story has a lot happening. Over the course of the series we've watched Scottie spiral out of control. The story just before this sees the start of the interactions between Scottie and Gray. Gray sees Scottie as a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18338,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/18338","url_meta":{"origin":18342,"position":4},"title":"The Wanderer","author":"Michelle","date":"October 5, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The Wanderer (2017) Dahlia Donovan (The Sin Bin) This is a romance. With cancer. Graham languished in his bungalow on the water for two days. He never got sick, which made him the worst patient in the world. One of the things that makes this story so good is that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Wanderer","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/The-Wanderer.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14163,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/14163","url_meta":{"origin":18342,"position":5},"title":"After the Scrum","author":"Michelle","date":"March 31, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"After the Scrum (2014) Dahlia Donovan (Sin Bin) Caddock Stanford lost his brother, lost his place on the national rugby team, and became the parent to his young nephew. So he wants a place to start over, to make a new life for himself and Devlin. \u201cLooe\u2019s a brilliant place\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/After-the-Scrum.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}