Davo

by N.R. Walker

When Fergus Galloway takes on a research trip to a tiny mining town in the far Western Australian outback, he’s as far from Sydney as he can get.

Which is entirely the point.

He arrives in Pannalego totally unprepared for the baking heat, unprepared for the people who call it home, unprepared for the craziness and the laughs. And absolutely unprepared for the man he meets there who steals his heart.

Davo is a mining man, as rugged as he is gorgeous. Loves his found family, loves where he lives, and loves his life. He also loves the feel of soft fabric on his skin.

What was supposed to be a short field trip changes Fergus’s life. Going to a place many call uninhabitable might turn out to be the only place he wants to live.

Genres: M M Romance, Romance, Contemporary, Audiobook, LGBT, Novella, Australia

169 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 28, 2022

About the author

Author also writes as A. Voyeur

N.R. Walker is an Australian author, who loves her genre of gay romance. She loves writing and spends far too much time doing it, but wouldn't have it any other way.

She is many things; a mother, a wife, a sister, a writer. She has pretty, pretty boys who she gives them life with words.

She likes it when they do dirty, dirty things...but likes it even more when they fall in love. She used to think having people in her head talking to her was weird, until one day she happened across other writers who told her it was normal.

She’s been writing ever since...

https://www.facebook.com/N.R.WalkerAu...

Reviews

[Snjez]

dnf @40%

I'm not feeling this. The story is on the shorter side and things happen too fast to have a deeper meaning, at least for me.

[Marci · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pure happiness. 🥰 Davo is N.R. Walker at her best - funny and sweet without overdoing or forcing it. I was cracking up laughing because of the antics of a certain swearing bird.😂 There’s also a lizard named Lizzy Taylor. Need I say more?😌 The flow of the story is really nice and Walker writes setting like no one else. I do wish we got to see Davo as a character in a longer book or within a series because of how much I adore him. This is a super fast read that manages to pack so much heart and wisdom within it’s short page span. I adored the romance but Davo!!!!! He’s the best and has my whole heart.💜 This worked for me super well because it was everything I love about a Walker book without any of the things I’m not too keen on (like sooooooo much sweetness and sooooooo much constant humor). I feel like Goldilocks because this was just right. 👧🏼

[Carol [Goodreads Addict] · Rating 5 out of 5]

Davo is a stand alone, short, sweet little book by N.R. Walker. Even though a have a bunch of this author’s books on my to read list, it’s the first one I have actually gotten to. I think this is one of the sweetest, most wonderful books I’ve read. Every single thing about it made me happy.



Fergus Galloway is thirty one years old and is an academic researcher in Sydney. He needs to get out of the city for awhile after a bad break up so he takes a project in a tiny mining town in the far Western Australian outback, Pannalego. He is to conduct a study on the human aspects of the mining industry. Only he wasn’t quite prepared for just how remote it was, and for the blistering heat. Especially since he was a red headed, pale skinned man whose worst enemy was the sun. What had he gotten himself in for?



Davo is one of the residents of Pannalego. He is about the same age and is the most beautiful man Fergus has ever seen. He’s ripped, masculine, has the most beautiful blue eyes and a smile that melts his heart. And, he likes to wear skirts. Feminine, beautiful skirts that swish around his legs.



Davo and the other permanent residents of the camp have been there for ten years. They have formed a family. A family that supports each other, that works together to create a life they all love. Never did Fergus imagine that he would find this life, these people hidden away in the outback, that would make him feel like he belonged. Never did he think he would meet a man so beautiful that it blinded him, that showed him how life could really be. How beautiful the sunsets were, how many stars shone in the sky. Never did he think he would meet a man out here on what felt like the edge of the earth, that would make him never want to leave.



I loved every single thing about this book. There is no angst. Just happiness. The entire book is told from Fergus’s point of view. I really would have loved to hear from Davo to see what he was thinking. But it’s obvious from the start that he is just as smitten as Fergus is. It’s a quick book. So if you want something to pick up your spirits, to make you smile. To make you swoon, then this is it.

“We are but a speck of dust in the time of this place.”

For more about this book and so many others, come and visit me at Carol's Crazy Bookish World.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Carol...

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crying because I’ll never know what it’s like to bend a big beefy muscled-up mining man in a pretty skirt over and push or thrust myself inside him ya know..



(This was mad insta-attraction/insta-love, but like, it lowkey makes sense because Davo lives in an isolated town and a sexy af gay man comes to stay and wants to dick him down every night for 3 weeks, and loves the sight of him in his cute skirts???? Pretty sure I’d be insta-loved up to my eyeballs too. My main issue with this was actually how the story just kinda ended and then hit you with the epilogue. like the fuck? where did the rest of the story go?)

Horrible name for an MC though......
Screaming “Fergus” during sex… ain’t it 💀 (or Davo for that matter tbh🤭)

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fergus just arrived at a remote mining town where the heat is extreme and the people are friendly, but hardened. He is supposed to research what life in a mining town means for the people from a social point of view. He needs to spend the next four weeks chatting with them and following them through their daily lives - if he survives the stifling heat, that is.

He soon runs into engineering supervisor Davo, an openly gay surfer boy type of muscle hunk - who wears skirts.

And it's not a drag or crossdressing thing. He simply likes skirts. He even sews them himself.

And most importantly, Davo is a super sweet guy who carries his heart on his tongue.

I loved him so much and found it so easy to fall in love with him. We get a happy couple in nearly every romance book we read, but it's not always that you find two guys who are so clearly and perfectly meant to be together. I felt that there was a huge pull between those guys. Not even for a single second did I think that their romance would end after Fergus' four week assignment was over.

And the story resolved beautifully. It was an all around feel good read.

Of course, I always knew men in skirts are super sexy.



I mean, for me, a Scottish kilt is basically a skirt - sue me - and it's an ultra masculine thing. Davo wearing his skirts did not deter from his masculinity at all. It's just a statement showing that gender roles shouldn't define our lives. For me, it would be high heels. I find them beautiful and would love to wear them, but I'm not brave enough for that in public (and I'm too tall to wear them at home without running into every doorframe). In any case, I understand Davo's point perfectly and I applaud to him for not giving a damn about what people think.

A wonderful story that you really shouldn't miss out on <3

5 stars!

[Mariam, · Rating 4 out of 5]

[1st Reread: Aug 8, 2022] listening to their first time literally made me blush giddily.

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How? How does Nicole continually and utterly ravish every damn book of hers? because Christ. There's something about Walker's book that fucking makes you smile and feel so damn giddy. And Davo was bloody no damn different.

“We are but a speck of dust in the time of this place.”

This book is a bit short yes.
A bit (a lot) short on the spiceness 😩

But even with it, this short yet simple, SWEET book felt... fragile and beautiful and reaching the end of this book left me in awe. I feel like this book defines the POWER a book has. The power a story has and the damned author who fine-tunes it so magnificently. This book makes me thankful to be a reader. This book makes me wanna look up at the sky and smile, breathe in the breeze and just stop and take it all in, it makes me want to have my eyes all wide open and search for the next captivating luxury that is nature. This book was a love letter to Aussie's culture and to all nature, a reminder than nothing triumphs past the beauty of man kind.

I loved the way Fergus never failed to make Davo smile, laugh and stand just a little bit taller, give him the boost of confidence Davo didn't think he needed, the words Davo never thought he needed to hear and yet couldn't have needed it more after Ferg's presense.
→ Oh yes, there were times Ferg ticked me off the tiniest bit, small-barely there shit that just triggered my PMS so I'm not even going to mention it.

“You’re really very gorgeous, you know that?”
A smile formed on his lips, but he never pulled his cap up.
“You can be manly as hell. Like right now, all masculine, no shirt, footy shorts, unshaven. Then you can wear a skirt with such confidence, it leaves me speechless.”
His smile pulled up on one side and he moved his cap back so he could see me. “Which do you prefer?”
“Both. Equally. I’ve told you before. I find both equally attractive. Both turn me on. But you carry yourself a little different when you wear a skirt. Not out in public but at home. You sway a little like you feel sexy, and that, you feeling good about yourself, is the sexiest thing.”

And damn, I feel like the highlight of this book is Davo's smile. His shy smile when he twirls for Ferg, how he smiles beneath his lashes when he looks up at Ferg; when he shows him his newest skirt design. Davo's confidence made me so happy, so proud to see it, but the moments of his shy nature, when he seemed just a little bit more vulnerable, just a little bit more unguarded and shy... in moments like those, it felt like I read art. It warmed my heart, it made me giddy and it just felt.... perfect.

Fergus and Davo was cuteness overload. Heart-melting galore. So damn giddy it made my cheeks ache. I had a stomach ache, a blinding headache and sore ass throat reading this, and yet the entire time this book made me forget reality existed.

“We are but a speck of dust in the time of this place.”
“It’s hard to get your head around, isn’t it?” he added. “Geologists have dated the zircon found in this part of Australia back three billion years. Three billion. I can’t even fathom that length of time or imagine what the earth looked like.”
Three billion years? “Way too early for dinosaurs.”
“Earth would have been nothing but a fiery, volcanic planet, rivers of lava, that kind of thing.” He sighed. “And now here we are, three billion years later, and I’m lucky enough to exist at the same time as you.”

Read this book friends and experience it for yourself how beautiful Davo is when he wears his skirt.

I tried to get him out of my mind—the boots, the smirk, the tight shirt, the pretty skirt.
God, the skirt. He had the body of a footballer, grease-stained hands, work boots, and a pretty skirt.
It was an Achilles heel I didn’t know I had.

///

After the catastrophe that was Code Blue, I kinda felt lost from Walker and was redefining if she even was one of my favorite authors of all time, and yet, she created such a magic that was Fergus and Davo and damn, I'm in love with her books yet again.

initial reactions This book.... wow. Wow. Damn was it perfect.

“How?” I asked. “How does anything live in direct sun at these temperatures?” I mean, surely, it was forty-seven degrees today.
“Some things thrive out here.” He watched the sunset, the brilliant display of colour across the sky. “They adapt and find a way.”




I shook my head. “No, I haven’t.”
“It’s so much better than any food you can get at 3:00am. You need to feed the soul too.”
I was smiling at him again. “But that’s just it. It’s my whole point. You find beauty in the world around you. My first day here, I thought I was going to die, and you were like, ‘But look how pretty the sunset is, isn’t it worth it?’ and that’s an extraordinary perspective. Folks here value community and people over material possessions.”

[Meags · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

1000 stars for the most Australian title ever and a 1000 more for the spectacular cover art… which is a moment so perfectly captured within the book, I teared up.

The characters, the romance, the sense of community, and the incredible imagery of the Pilbara region of Western Australia, all came together to make one of Walker’s most visceral reading experiences yet.

I may be late to the Davo book party, but better late than never! This one made my heart happy and helped me tick another item off my reading prep list for this week’s #RARE23Melbourne event!

[~✡~Dαni(ela) ♥ ♂♂ love & semi-colons~✡~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

~3.5~

My favorite thing about this story: the tiny mining town where 47 C (116 F) heat is not uncommon and its permanent inhabitants, especially Hooker the bird whose favorite word is "fuck" spoken loudly and frequently.

Fergus and Davo are both endearing characters. Fergus is a little awkward and has the nerdy professor vibe going on. He's kind and accepting, and comes to see the red-dusted little town as home.

Davo is a burly macho dude who works on big machines with dirt-stained finger. He also likes to wear frilly skirts. And no one bats an eye.

I love the cover! It perfectly captures the spirit of the book.

My complaint is that the romance isn't terribly exciting. There's no push/pull, no UST, no longing. It's all very sweet and easy.

Most of the sexy scenes fade to black, which is a big pet peeve of mine.

I needed another ten or so chapters to flesh out the story. The epilogue though - SO ROMANTIC.

[Isabella. R · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Perhaps I Am Inclined Stars ⭐

There is something magical as to how this author brings every day people and places to life. I mean Davo is set in outback Australia and I feel like she effortlessly nailed it. There was a lot to like about the mining town of Pannalego and the locals that made it prosperous and habitable. And one must mention, Hooker the foul mouthed cockatoo...

He was the most beautiful juxtaposition I’d ever seen.

In a place where people work hard and creature comforts are scarce, love seems the furthest from one's mind. Yet with a glance, Fergus felt hit in the solar plexus. Because when he accepted this temporary position in one of the remotest places in the country, he was not prepared for Davo.

I tried to get him out of my mind—the boots, the smirk, the tight shirt, the pretty skirt. God, the skirt. He had the body of a footballer, grease-stained hands, work boots, and a pretty skirt.

It was an Achilles heel I didn’t know I had, apparently.

How could you not love Davo. A masculine bloke with a huge fondness for skirts. He may be out, proud and accepted, but he had his own vulnerabilities. It was wonderful to see an awkward Fergus and this sweetheart click. They certainly brought colour to the entire story.

This was a beautiful, simple story of unexpected love. And don't get me wrong, it was a pleasure to read, except the story kind of flatlined around the middle and the sex scenes were a little bland. I guess it was just good.

BR with darling Rain who is always one step ahead and has an uncanny way of predicting the outcome!

[Papie]

DNF at 68%
This was instalove. It was cute. Sweet. Sexy. Exotic.

But boring. 🤷‍♀️

[Gustaf · Rating 5 out of 5]

If there's something N.R. Walker knows how to do it's to write pure fluff. This was adorably fluffy and I loved every page of it.

[patrícia · Rating 5 out of 5]

✨Davo by N.R. Walker 4.5 ✨

My face hurts from smiling so much.
Insta love for them and me.
Such a magical, different, beautiful and simple story.
I loved Fergus and Davo with all my heart.
I wish this was longer.

PS:Those skirts that he makes *swoon*

[Eugenia · Rating 4 out of 5]

AUDIOBOOK - 1 October 23: Such a LOVELY STORY. Feel good fluff and fantastic narration!

EBOOK - May 22:
I Want A Davo!!

Short, cute, & sexy!
Novella
Single POV (not Davo)
One Anthropologist
One Engineer
One HOT AF desert
Many skirts
Two hot and needy sexy times
One cussing parrot
A nosy town
And one HEA

This isn’t Walker’s best work, but it’s worth the read to get to know our hunky hero who loves to wear skirts!

[Ariana (mostly offline) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just what I’d expect from NR Walker:

.) Davo and Fergus are two very likeable MCs
.) a cute, but not too sweet romance, but I’m not sure if the whole idea with Davo liking skirts really worked.
.) a very interesting setting – learning about this remote and very hostile area in Australia was eye-opening and fascinating. Love the described community spirit, although it would drive me personally insane if everyone knows everything about everybody all the time.

What I missed:

.) a somewhat more reasonable timeframe. Two weeks before ILYs is simply too short (and it wasn’t even that much because Davo is not there for 3 out of those 14 days)
.) something a little … deeper, some kind of conflict? If you love totally angst-free romance, then this is definitely for you.
.) while the guys are lovely to read, the sizzle was low, and their bond simply did not make my heart ache.

A nice Sunday afternoon read, but maybe a little the 'same old' by this author?

[D.L. Howe · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶🌶🌶
🎧🎧🎧🎧

Well that was pretty freaking adorable!

Fergus has arrived in a tiny desert town in the western outback of Australia to study the anthropology of the people in this mining town.

The town may be small but it’s got lots of big characters. The stand out is a cockatoo with a filthy mouth and a bad attitude.

But all Fergus can see is this handsome masculine man who’s wearing a skirt, Davo.

They have a whirlwind romance in a short few weeks in which they both fall madly in love.

It’s a short, easy read with lots of steam and cute interludes.

[Rin (indefinite hiatus) · Rating 2 out of 5]

potential that fell flat

This story relied on two things:

Davo being built like a footballer who likes to wear skirts and no one in their super remote town cares and…

Big city guy coming to remote town and learning how endearing the townsfolk are and falling in love.

Unfortunately, those things did not create the book I expected. The build up in the beginning had me excited for a slow burn and they fell into bed together the first night and it was so uninspired. After that it just kind of fell apart for me. I felt no bond. I didn’t feel that new love shininess that I crave from stories like this.

This had SO MUCH potential. But it fell flat for me HARD.

Also, I 100% cannot stand fade to black sex in this genre. I feel like Walker is really inconsistent when it comes to that. We either get high steam or no steam from her. This was just a let down in that department. And I don’t always have to have high steam but that means the story has to make up for the lack of steam and this one didn’t.

There were some really sweet scenes that really tried to be epic, and the end conflict tried to be epic… but after a lackluster character design and story, it just didn’t work.

The epilogue was 5 years later and again, it just felt like a cheap tie up. This is one of those instances where a big author writes something that really doesn’t fit with their typical style and I feel like they use a ghost writer. Honestly, I’m losing a lot of faith in the big writers because of the inconsistencies.

I’m glad some of my friends liked this, but it was a huge disappointment for me.

[Grace · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh man. I *wanted* to love this one, but it just fell flat for me. The concept was super interesting (though I do feel like the skirt-wearing aspect felt a little forced into the narrative) but the pacing was just way off. The whole book takes place over less than two weeks and it just felt so rushed that I couldn't let myself enjoy the story because it didn't quite ring authentically organic. There was also something about the writing here that felt a little clunky for me--I've noticed this occasionally in Walker's books, and it's difficult to articulate my exact issue, but there's just something here that didn't flow quite right. I really loved the potential of this remote mining town, but I think this needed to be a full-length novel, taking place over a longer period of time, to fully reach the potential and develop the story into something more well paced.

[Barbara➰ · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, so sweet. Cavity forming sweet even, but worth it. You can't help but love all the characters. It was just a sweet, swoon-worthy love story. Just what I needed.

And that cover? *sigh*

[Rain · Rating 3 out of 5]

"We are but a speck of dust in the time of this place."

I liked it, but it didn't flow as well as some of Walker's other stories, possibly because of the novella format?

What I liked:
The overall acceptance of Davo
The nick-names for everyone
The small town feel, the community
The cursing bird that likes Bach
Davo, Davo, Davo and his magical smile

What bothered me:
The story is centered around mining

I found it odd that the author didn't touch (even lightly) upon the hazards of mining. Maybe it's not as controversial in Australia like it is in the US and Canada? The town is there because of mining. Most of the townspeople are miners. The entire reason Fergus is there is because he's doing a study on the "human aspects of the mining industry." This doesn't diminish the overall story, but felt like a glaring omission.

The Australian desert is such a great backdrop for a story. I loved the Red Dirt Heart series with a similar setting, but it's cowboys instead of miners.

As always, I enjoyed this BR with the sweet Isabella, who so kindly put up with my mining chatter.

[Agla · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was ok but a bit bland and rushed. The relationship development was WAY too fast and I didn't like the noisy neighbors/relatives (they are not real relatives but they feel like it). the setting reminded me of Walker's Red Hart series and that's not good thing. Davo wears skirts but that felt forced to me. I really don't feel I know Davo and I didn't love Fergus. He is ok but a bit bland. What's up with authors this year, none of the releases have been clear winners.

[Em’sBookNook · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so stinking cute. NR just really nails these settings in some of her books and makes me want to go to Australia even though I’m scared of all the animals that might kill me.

Really sweet story, no real angst just good vibes all around.

[Cadiva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely adored this book

OMG that was just what I needed - a light hearted romance with no angst, a bit of steam and an unusual setting.

I fell for Davo just as hard as Fraser did, along with all the other wonderful people who made up the permanent residents in this teeny Aussie mining town.

[Kaity · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread/Relisten: December 2024

Wow it’s been 2 years since I’ve read this book?? Idk how but I loved it as much as when I initially picked this up! It was so cute and I loved Davo!!

Original Read/Listen: May 2022
4.5-5 stars

this book was sunshine and happiness rolled in to one. this was a short, low to no relationship angst book.

Davo what a sweetheart and Fergus you cutie.

this book gave me Red Dirt Heart vibes which is one of my all time favorite book series so reading this was just bringing me back and i loved it!

i hope she writes more about the Australian outback and red dirt!

[Vanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Loved it Stars!! ❤️❤️
Loved both Fergus and Davo…. and the quirky little small mining town in the Australian Outback ❤️ I don’t know where NRW finds these unique locations, unique set of people who become so endearing to us readers so fast. The plot was so simple and yet so heartwarming and sweet.
I loved it and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a sweet, low-angst M/M romance with lovable MCs, a bunch of quirky characters and a foul-mouthed cockatoo 😍

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet & cute fluff.

[Bookish Meag &#x1fa75; · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Davo by N.R. Walker is an truly aspiring story. This MM romance has once in a lifetime feels. This was so purely sweet and funny. I loved all the good feelings it had.

This story flowed nicely and all the characters were wonderful. I loved Junie and Bill, besides Davo and Fergus. I truly enjoyed reading this. It was like a simple sweet love story and was good after all the darker books I’ve read lately. This felt like a warm hug and I was not ready to put it down.

The love and acceptance from this book made my heart sing with joy. ♥️

[Notagingerninja · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audiobook 🎧
Narrator Glen Lloyd

Having lived in Port Hedland myself for 11 years, this book reminded me of the dry heat that burnt your throat with every breath, and the relentless red dust that covered everything, and also the lifelong friendships made.

Davo and Fergus were couple goals. They both complemented each other beautifully, and their story was so heartwarming it had you smiling from start to finish. Such an enjoyable read.

[Jess Brady · Rating 5 out of 5]

Happy. That is what this book made me feel.

I can't remember the last time I read a book that just gave me nothing but happy feelings without having to go through some kind of trauma to get there or in the very least some kind of huge climax.

N.R. Walker has become a one-click author for me. Davo was Walker at her finest with laughter, love and the perfect amount of feels to be swoony but not teary eyed.

Fergus was entirely sweet for Davo from the moment they met. He was quite literally the one thing he never saw coming. Davo was just perfection. Seriously he was. A sweet man who loved wearing dresses and didn't give one care about who liked it or not. The tender moments were there as well as the laughter I've come to expect from Walker.

I was going to go with four stars because it is a short read that was fairly straight to the point but the more, I think about it Davo is going to stick with me far longer than I expected so five stars for Davo, Fergus and finding love in a red dirt town.

[BWT · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pure sunshine.

N.R. Walker has a knack for writing romances that make me sigh with wistful happiness, hoping one day I'll meet my own Davo. She's one of my automatic go-to's for an unputdownable romance, sprinkled with humor, and the happy ending I need and crave. I enjoyed this from start to finish and can't wait to see who ends up narrating it.

4.5 stars

[Trio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely sweet! I really enjoyed this adorable romance. The audio version is beautifully performed by Glen Lloyd.