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.

Follow my reviews at http://HemmelM.blogspot.com

View all my reviews

Review: Mister Bridesmaid

Mister Bridesmaid by Ivy Oliver and Stephen Dexter, Noah Michael Levine
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I haven’t seen him in six years… now we’re married.

When my best friend asked me to serve as her Man of Honor, of course I said yes. A trip to Vegas for the week before her wedding and then on to the Florida Keys for the nuptials was an added bonus. The icing on the cake was her brother, Colt.
 

I liked it but was not overwhelmed. It was a bit slow, sometimes and several spoken sentences sounded unreal. I mean, who is screaming mad and comes up with an insult of 6 adjectives? About adjectives, regularly giving a list of characteristics is not the prettiest way of storytelling. And repeating several times "Something is wrong but I don't know what" needs a few examples to give the reader a feeling of suspension.
The light and patient tone Stephen Dexter chose, often got a bit sleepy. He performed a lot slower than the other narrator, which made me constantly tweak the speed. Noah M Levine tended to gloss over a lot of emotions as directed by the text.

View all my reviews

Review: Behind the Curtain

Behind the Curtain by Amy Lane and Hugh Bradley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

 

Dawson Barnes recognizes his world is very small and very charmed. Running his community college theater like a petty god, he and his best friend, Benji know they'll succeed as stage techs after graduation. His father adores him, Benji would die for him, and Dawson never doubted the safety net of his family, even when life hit him below the belt. But nothing prepared him for falling on Jared Emory's head. Aloof dance superstar Jared is a sweet, vulnerable man and Dawson's life suits him like a fitted ballet slipper. They forge a long-distance romance from their love of the theater and the magic of Denny's. At first it's perfect: Dawson gets periodic visits and nookie from a gorgeous man who “gets” him—and Jared gets respite from the ultra-competitive world of dancing that almost consumed him.

There was nothing wrong with this audiobook. All characters were nice, even the immature Dawson,  and the only trouble in the relationship was Jared always leaving and risking injury. And that was not enough. You can't write hundreds of pages just letting the question hang out there, without tweaking the tension. The narration was so good it kept me listening.

View all my reviews

Review: Christmas Kitsch

Christmas Kitsch by Amy Lane and Nick J. Russo
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rusty Baker is a blond, rich, entitled football player in a high school full of them—just the type of oblivious jock all the bullied kids hate. And he might have stayed that way, except he develops a friendship with out-and-proud Oliver Campbell from the wrong side of the tracks. Rusty thinks the friendship is just pity—Oliver is very bright, and Rusty is very not.
Oliver Campbell is the best thing that’s ever happened to him. Rusty’s parents disagree, and Rusty finds himself homeless for the holidays. Oliver may not have much money, but he’s got something Rusty has never known: true family.

 

Because of the title I always thought this was a holiday story, but I would disagree. It spans 6 months and ends with Christmas. The focus is on starting to live on yourself.

Rusty has to be perfect for his parents and because he is not bookish enough for college, he tends to call himself stupid all the time. He is the only point of view.
Oliver is in love with Rusty and is patiently waiting until Rusty is ready to come out and have sex and move in together. It is Oliver who makes me love this novel.

The narration was very good.

View all my reviews

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.
 

View all my reviews

Review: Point of No Return

Point of No Return by N.R. Walker and Sean Crisden
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

 

Matthew Elliot is one of LA's best detectives. He's been labelled the golden boy of the Fab Four; a team of four detectives who've closed down drug-rings all over the city.
Enter Kira Takeo Franco, the new boxing coach at the gym. Matthew can't deny his immediate attraction to the man his fellow cops know as Frankie. But in allowing himself to fall in love with a man known to his colleagues, Matthew risks outing them both.

This is a favorite re-listen, as is the very different book #2. I love this audiobook because it focuses on Kira and Matt being in love. Warm fuzzy feelings and well-developed protagonists and secondary characters for more than half of the story. After that, suddenly the crime plot explodes, which in my opinion could have been better balanced throughout the story.
The narration is marvelous. Sean Crisden has the right voice for this and he chose to perform this as a stream of consciousness.
 

View all my reviews

Review: Mistletoe at Midnight

Mistletoe at Midnight by L.B. Gregg and ~
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

 

(Part of His For The Holidays Anthology)

Owen McKenzie has traveled to Vermont to spend an old-fashioned Christmas with his family when he finds himself staying at the same inn as his first love.
Caleb is ready for a second chance with Owen and gets it when fate and the matchmaking McKenzies conspire to strand the two men in a rustic cabin during a snowstorm on Christmas Eve.

Mistletoe at Midnight was a run-of-the-mill, straightforward gay romance with a big family presence. The mother, unrealistic to me but a stereotype in American dime novels, often made me want to skip the rest of the story. The narrator was good but tended to lick his lips during pauses in the text. I noticed it every single time.

View all my reviews

Review: The Locker Room

The Locker Room by Amy Lane and Sean Crisden
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Xander Karcek has only wanted two things in his life: Christian Edwards and basketball—the man he loves and the game that let him escape a childhood he’d rather forget. His two obsessions have served him well. He and Chris beat the odds and stayed together through high school, college, and right on to the NBA.

But life under fame’s microscope isn’t easy, especially when two men are pretending to be frat-buddies so the world doesn’t know they’re the next best thing to married. 

I listened to this gay romance over twenty times, and before that, it was one of my favorite e-books. The sound quality, though, is not good. It sounds like I hear it through a wall. The narration and story are marvelous together, but several stretches are monotonous. This audiobook would be better with a second pause between paragraphs. Or noise reduction in the musical intermezzos.

But the story wasn't less because of the audio. I wish Amy Lane always reaches this level. She wrote some of my favorites but is not an auto-buy writer to me.
What I love is the obvious attraction and care between the two well-developed main characters. This story spans fifteen years, which makes it varied and adds enough moments of drama.


View all my reviews

Review: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz and Lil-Manuel Miranda
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Dante can swim. Ari can't. Dante is articulate and self-assured. Ari has a hard time with words and suffers from self-doubt. Dante gets lost in poetry and art. Ari gets lost in thoughts of his older brother who is in prison. Dante is fair skinned. Ari's features are much darker. It seems that a boy like Dante, with his open and unique perspective on life, would be the last person to break down the walls that Ari has built around himself.

But against all odds, when Ari and Dante meet, they develop a special bond that will teach them the most important truths of their lives, and help define the people they want to be.

Book 1 of 2.

Perfectly narrated and a compelling story about two gay boys. Nice young men, nice parents, some drama. Not a romance, for that is book 2. I noticed the language was beautiful and the characters wel developed and kind. But to me, it was a boring audiobook.

View all my reviews

Review: Renegades

Renegades by E.M. Lindsey and Zachary Zaba
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Soren Green is a good man. An ex-MMA fighter, single father, and a lawyer helping to better the lives of LGBT teens. But his life isn’t as simple as it seems, and things get turned a little upside down when he stumbles on a troubled man on the side of the road, making his way through a snowstorm. Soren knows one of his biggest problems is his bleeding heart, but how can he turn away when he was once that man out in the cold?

Kane Winters once had it easy. Rich parents, silver spoon, everything at his disposal. But Kane was never a lucky man, and nothing is proof of that more than his abusive boyfriend dying in a freak accident, and his uncontrollable anger sending him into a tailspin. He returned to Fairfield with a chip on his shoulder, felony on his record, and no hope of recovering himself as the man he once was. Renegades is the first book in the series, Breaking the Rules- an Irons and Works spin-off.

 
Nice audiobook, nothing special. It's a bit strange that in a small village 90 percent of the population is gay men. Two of Kane's partners run under a car and both Kane and S have abusive exes, although Tim was emotional abusive.
Further, a lot of unnecessary info was dropped. Why do I have to know everybody's name, his husband's name, and how they met?

The noise reduction was very low quality.

View all my reviews

Review: This Way Out

This Way Out by Tufayel Ahmed and Rohan Rakhit
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Amar can’t wait to tell everyone his wonderful news: he’s found The One, and he’s getting married. But it turns out announcing his engagement on a group chat might not have been the best way to let his strict Muslim Bangladeshi family know that his happy-ever-after partner is a man—and a white man at that.

Amar expected a reaction from his four siblings, but his bombshell sends shockwaves throughout the community and begins to fracture their family unit, already fragile from the death of their mother. Suddenly Amar is questioning everything he once believed in: his faith, his culture, his family, his mother’s love—and even his relationship with Joshua. Amar was sure he knew what love meant, but was he just plain wrong?

 
Did not finish this audiobook at 20%.
I listened for 2 hours to give this romance a fair chance. It is not for me. I have no patience for long discussions about being LGTBQ is not a choice. And the very limited mentioning of the fiancé makes me fear this story is not about a relationship but one long inner monolog.
The narrator is no performer but a reader. I have major issues with his pauses between sentences. Pauses for up to three seconds or more. You have to listen closely: if the next word is a conjecture you know it is still the same paragraph.

View all my reviews

Review: In Step

In Step by Jay Hogan and Gary Furlong
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Karma. You reap what you sow, and KANE MARTIN isn’t looking for forgiveness. But the arrival of ABE TYLER in Painted Bay has Kane dreaming of the impossible. The sexy, silver fox choreographer is determined to pull Kane out from the shadows.
But life’s dance can make for unexpected partners, and learning to trust and keep up with the footwork is the name of the game.

I was underwhelmed, the first time I listened to this audiobook, because I could not tell the voices apart and had no sense of the characters. Something made me restart the recording and it was great. So many details I did not pick up the first time! I was fascinated by Kane. Abe was less developed. 

When paying attention you can notice the voices are slightly different. Abe has an amused tone.
I love this M/M romance!

View all my reviews

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.

View all my reviews