{"id":20133,"date":"2022-07-25T20:22:33","date_gmt":"2022-07-26T00:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=20133"},"modified":"2026-03-22T08:58:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T12:58:25","slug":"the-caretaker-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/20133","title":{"rendered":"The Caretaker"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

This story picks up after The Wanderer<\/em>. 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.<\/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

I adore both of these characters. Freddy and his obsession with cheese.<\/p>\n

Tad: We\u2019re finishing up a new batch of cheese. <\/p>\n

Freddie: Are you bribing me with cheese? <\/p>\n

Tad: Yes. <\/p>\n

Freddie: Fine.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Taine and his hamster and his marvelous adoptive father.<\/p>\n

Father Wilson had gifted him several books over the years on the Maori people. It had been important to the priest that Taine had a firm grasp on both sides of his biological family.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Also, we are introduced to Scottie. <\/p>\n

\u201cScottie? You want the one member of our group in dire need of anger management to run a nightclub.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The weakness of this story, for me, is the conflict–the age difference between Taine and Freddy and Freddy’s parent’s reactions. Everything else I very much enjoyed, but I didn’t like that bit.<\/p>\n

However, there were lots of other bits I did really enjoy.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot sure how I feel about you at the moment. Who ignores someone they just buggered for over two months?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost every friend of ours at least three times over the course of our sex lives?\u201d Taine pulled his mobile out of his pocket. \u201cWould you like me to list your own alphabetically?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That exchange is fantastic, and one of the things I love best about the series.<\/p>\n

Publisher: Hot Tree Publishing<\/p>\n

Rating: 7.5\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 nurse gathered himself. He squared […]<\/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":[194,30,292,196,742,148,41,26,56,934],"tags":[50,533,709,254,544,573,532],"class_list":["post-20133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-7-5-10","category-british","category-ebook","category-novella","category-physical-health","category-queer","category-reread","category-romance","category-sexual-content","category-trigger-warnings","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-5eJ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18342,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/18342","url_meta":{"origin":20133,"position":0},"title":"The Caretaker","author":"Michelle","date":"October 7, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Caretaker","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/The-Caretaker.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14094,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/14094","url_meta":{"origin":20133,"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":20133,"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":20133,"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":20133,"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":20133,"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\/20133","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=20133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}