Review: Salt Magic, Skin Magic

Salt Magic, Skin Magic by Lee Welch and Joel Leslie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lord Thornby has been trapped on his father’s isolated Yorkshire estate for a year. There are no bars or chains; he simply can’t leave. His sanity is starting to fray. When industrial magician John Blake arrives to investigate a case of witchcraft, he finds the peculiar, arrogant Thornby as alarming as he is attractive. John soon finds himself caught up in a dark fairytale, where all the rules of magic—and love—are changed.

 
I listened with interest and was invested in finding out what was going on. The story stands up to a reread, too. I seldom choose paranormal stories and I enjoyed this world with hidden magic and creatures, where magic is not able to solve all problems.
The romance was underdeveloped. We are told they like each other and then they start having sex.
The narration was good. There should have been more characters with spoken text because I know JL can do so many voices he would have truly shined. I think he made this story more compelling with his performance.
 

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Review: The Barbarian's Vow

The Barbarian's Vow by Keira Andrews and Michael Ferraiuolo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Cador only married a pampered prince from a faraway land to save his people. He never expected he’d grow to respect Jem. He never expected to find comfort with him. Now Cador must secure his people’s future and win Jem’s heart. For without it, he has no future at all.

The Barbarian’s Vow is the second and final action-adventure romance in the Barbarian Duet. Wed to the Barbarian must be read first.

 

This was a great story and ending, not at all predictable. I liked all characters, their flaws, and their growth, and was captivated to find out what would happen next. The plot kept changing but never got incomprehensible. The narration was great.

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Review: Wed to the Barbarian

Wed to the Barbarian by Keira Andrews and Michael Ferraiuolo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sheltered in the palace with his books, Jem’s life is peaceful. Even if he’s lonely and yearning for romance, the big, strong men he wants don’t crave small, timid princes.
Then he’s forced to marry a mysterious barbarian. Jem must do his duty. Even if he must leave behind everything and everyone to journey to a forbidding island of ice and stone.


Wed to the Barbarian is the first action-adventure romance in the Barbarian Duet and must be read before The Barbarian’s Vow.

 
This was a nice surprise! I loved the flawed characters and their growth. This was not a sugarcoated fantasy and it kept me listening breathlessly. The only thing that bothered me, was Jem suddenly having a lot of physical strength. 

You can accept the happy-for-now ending of book #1 without listening to book #2, but then you miss out!
The narrator was great. Maybe, after a relisten, I change my rating to 5 stars.

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Review: Breaking Point

Breaking Point by N.R. Walker and Sean Crisden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As guilt plagues him, Matthew Elliott’s world begins to spiral out of control. The harder he holds on, the more it slips through his fingers, and he’s helpless to stop it.

Entering into the underground cage-fighting scene, he starts out fighting for what’s right. The deeper he gets, the more guilt consumes him – the more pain he takes for his penance, and he’s soon fighting for more than justice.

This novel can't be read without listening to book #1, where Matt and Kira find love. In this novel, the mandatory trouble in paradise occurs. Sometimes, hurt is what I want to read about, and this is a favorite go-to. The fight scenes are harsh, so I skip parts.
Narration is good.
 

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Review: Spring of the Wolf

Spring of the Wolf by Iris Foxglove and Kris Antham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In the cold spring air of Lukos, a man wraps a cloak of fur around his shoulders and transforms into a sleek white wolf, racing across the countryside...

Zephyr has always been cursed. The same fur that gives him the ability to shift between wolf and man allows others the power to control his will. Doomed to follow any order given by one who holds his cloak, Zephyr steals it from his tyrannical foster-father and takes off into the wilderness.
Dragan Wolf-Breaker has spent his life leading the people of Lukos and raising his daughter, Elena, as a single father. When the injured white wolf who collapsed on his door turns out to be a man mistreated by those who were supposed to protect him, Dragan slowly begins to earn Zephyr’s trust by showing him that his submission is a gift, not a curse. 

A compelling story and well-narrated. As in the first audiobook, a few things niggle at me when listening. Like, a hare digging a burrow. Or a tub big enough for a grown man to float in, that is ready in half an hour, while all the water has to be made warm with a kettle above a fire.
But what counts most is: the society and characters are lovely. The narration was beautiful.

I loved this novel and would have rushed to the next, but those are MMF.

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Review: An Unseen Attraction

An Unseen Attraction by K.J. Charles and Matthew Lloyd Davies
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lodging-house keeper Clem Talleyfer prefers a quiet life. He’s happy with his hobbies, his work—and especially with his lodger Rowley Green, who becomes a friend over their long fireside evenings together. If only neat, precise, irresistible Mr. Green were interested in more than friendship...

Rowley just wants to be left alone—at least until he meets Clem, with his odd, charming ways and his glorious eyes. Then the brutally murdered corpse of another lodger is dumped on their doorstep and their peaceful life is shattered.

 
Book 1 of 3.

KJ Charles knows how to write about Victorian England and her characters are well-developed. I liked both protagonists in this historical gay fiction and how they were careful not to move to quickly into a relationship. The professions of both men were original. I never came across a male lodging-house keeper nor a 'stuffer', before. The narration of this audiobook was marvelous. Because of the narration, this novel is a relisten option for me. I just have to stop myself from grabbing book #2 every time, because this one ends with a bang and I find the next book boring.

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Review: Winter Knights

Winter Knights by Harper Fox and ~
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Historian Gavin Lowden is in Northumberland on Christmas Eve for two reasons: to find evidence of a romantic bond between Arthur and Lancelot, and to finally tell his partner Piers that he loves him. Piers has promised to come clean with his conservative family and join Gavin for their first holiday as a couple, but at the last minute, he bails. Devastated, Gavin heads out onto the moors alone, just as snow begins to fall…

Gavin stumbles into an underground chamber, where strange happenings cause him to question what is real and what is fantasy. 

Beautiful gay holiday story and marvelous narration. I mostly avoid paranormal stories as well as Christmas stories but in this case, both are only a tiny element of the story. So listen to this audiobook any time you want: you are in for a nice, immersive novella.

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Review: The Endgame

The Endgame by Riley Hart and Iggy Toma
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Weston
When I left home, I swore I'd never hide anything about myself again. From college, to law school, to the United States Senate representing California, I've done it all as an out gay man. So, when I'm in DC and see a beautiful guy at the hotel bar, I don't hesitate to proposition him...right before he runs out on me, leaving his sunglasses behind like my very own Cinderfella.

Anson
I've always known I'm gay, but never acted on it. Pretending isn't easy, but it means I can keep playing football. No one has ever guessed my secret until the gorgeous man at a bar in DC. At least he doesn't know who I am--the best tight end in the NFL, playing for the Atlanta Lightning. Though my identity doesn't stay a secret from him for long.
Between texts and late-night phone calls, we get to know each other. The odds are stacked against us, but if there's one thing I know, it's how to win. He's the endgame in the biggest challenge of my life, the one I'm banking my future happiness on.

I love audiobooks focusing on the relationship. Don't expect any football. We skip through 4 years of meeting up and both men expressing love and longing. The narration was good but the last chapters sounded a lot like summarizing.

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Review: The Endless Road to Sunshine

The Endless Road to Sunshine by Nicky James and Nick J. Russo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My name is Jason Atkinson, and I married a serial killer.
The life I knew, the man I loved, and the world I believed in was nothing but a lie. He stole my trust, my happiness, and my faith in humanity, and I’m not sure how to move on. 
With my mental health hanging by a thread and a media circus following me everywhere I go, escape seems like the only answer.
But Skylar Dawson, a student almost twenty years my junior, has a different plan.

If this audiobook was a paperback, I would call it a pageturner because Jason allows all kinds of weirdo's in his life, including Skylar, and I was constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. The writing and characters were good, except at the end when the story turned into clichés.
Narration was good, but sometimes he lost my focus and couldn't I determine which point of view I was hearing.

Edit to add: one annoyance was the millennial Skylar wanting to research newspapers and not going online but filing through actual newspapers. Even the author has never done this before, because she believes you can research 18 months of papers in 2 hours tops.

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Review: The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by K.J. Charles and Martyn Swain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Abandoned by his father as a small child, Sir Gareth Inglis has grown up prickly, cold, and well-used to disappointment. Even so, he longs for a connection, falling headfirst into a passionate anonymous affair that's over almost as quickly as it began. Bitter at the sudden rejection, Gareth has little time to lick his wounds: his father has died, leaving him the family title, a rambling manor on the remote Romney Marsh...and the den of cutthroats and thieves that make its intricate waterways their home.

Joss Doomsday has run the Doomsday smuggling clan since he was a boy. His family is his life...which is why when the all-too-familiar new baronet testifies against Joss's sister for a hanging offense, Joss acts fast, blackmailing Gareth with the secret of their relationship to force him to recant. Their reunion is anything but happy and the path forward everything but smooth.

Who thought to employ a narrator who pauses after every three words was a good idea? I tried a few chapters and then the M/M romance grasped me. It is doable. I loved the action, the side characters, the villains and the rival smuggling gang. The Marsh in my head turned from grey and desolate to lively, colorful and social the longer I listened. It brought to mind Daphne de Maurier's work, which makes it not original but breathtaking none the less.

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