REVIEW: The Greening of Thaddeus Grey by Jay Hogan

- May 22, 2026

THE GREENING OF THADDEUS GREY

by Jay Hogan

Release Date: May 22, 2026

Review

Sometimes you have to land in a pile of manure to get your life on track! It also helps when a kind but slightly grumpy man is there to clean you up and feed you.

Thaddeus has had a day of it. First, he finds out his boyfriend is cheating. WITH his best friend. While he’s out driving, contemplating his future, a storm comes in. Now he’s in the middle of nowhere, wet, and smelling rank.

The more time he spends with Ryder, who’s currently in a fight with the Council and a big corporation trying to take his land and destroy the surrounding nature.

Thad throws himself into helping Ryder, reframing what he thinks is important. What he wants his future to look like.

Except he’s keeping a secret. And once it’s out, he’s going to have to do something big to prove it wasn’t all a lie!

Such a great story. I loved everything about it. The setting, the people, and their individual and mutual journeys.

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Synopsis

Sometimes you have to lose everything to find the one thing that matters most.

The day begins like any other—canoodling with my live-in boyfriend, making weekend plans over breakfast, and arguing about the apartment renovation list. Then my best friend and business partner texts, begging me to ditch Thad so we can meet for a lunchtime quickie in our usual spot.

Small problem: I’m Thad. Oops.

By midday, I’ve lost one ratface boyfriend, my best mate, the company I built from scratch, and the courage to hire a hitman—although I’m not ruling that last one out just yet. The future I had neatly mapped out is now toast. In its place, a laundry list of awkward questions, rumours, and pitying looks.

And so, I do what I do best. I run—my crumbling life fading in the rearview mirror. No plan. No destination. Just a road. Through a forest. In a storm. To a dog. And a shed. And a towering man who smells of pine, rain, and, mercifully, bacon.

There’s dirt under my nails, something growing in my heart, and suddenly I’m breathing again. Breathing and smiling and lying, lying, lying. To the man I’m falling for. To the people I care about. To myself, most of all.

But for every lie, there’s a reckoning. And when the truth catches up, and the heart is truly at stake, there’s no running anymore.

About Jay Hogan

Jay is a 2020 Lambda Literary Award Finalist in Gay Romance and her book Off Balance was the 2021 New Zealand Romance Book of the Year. She is a New Zealand author writing mm romance and romantic suspense, primarily set in New Zealand. She writes character driven romances with lots of humour, a good dose of reality and a splash of angst. She's travelled extensively, lived in many countries, and in a past life she was a critical care nurse, nurse educator and counsellor.

Jay is owned by a huge Maine Coon cat and a gorgeous Cocker Spaniel

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