Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5
Two years of living with his controlling boyfriend left Chico worn down long before that boyfriend revealed he’d been seeing someone else. With no other choice, Chico moves in above his cousin’s garage in a small town in the redwoods, where he merely goes through the motions. To get him out of the house, his cousin pushes him to volunteer at a local dance studio to help with their annual show.
He’s not expecting to end up in a dance class, or to start feeling alive again in the arms of his dance instructor. Rafael is the studio owners’ son and was once a well-known dancer in his own right, but now enjoys being a teacher. Although Chico likes him, he’s afraid of taking a chance. But Rafael is determined, and it only takes one dance for Chico to start to realize he might still have something to learn.
From the beginning, the narration on this left me cold. There was very little nuance of characters, emotions, or variations. The reading seemed flat, not like a performance to me, but like an average person reading a book out loud, which isn’t really what I hope for when buying an audio. I found it hard to get into the story and as it went on hard to keep track as the voice and inflections tended to annoy me and pulled me out of it. I found this audio very hard to listen to.
Since I also own but had not read the ebook of this, I decided to try reading a bit of it to compare the experience to listening to the audio, and can say that this is a case of the book being better than the audio delivery of it. The writing style didn’t mesh well with for me, parts read as confusing and left me trying to figure things out as they weren’t clear, just didn’t flow for me sequentially or something, especially when it came to dialogue. I had to re-read some bits a few times to figure out what was going on… it was as if there was a communication gap between the author and myself that I had a hard time breeching.
Although the story wasn’t long, it still felt really slow for me at some parts. However, there were some things I really enjoyed about the story, although at times I felt Chico was a bit over the top with things like “silly Chico,” I could relate to how someone can feel so down on themselves due to the ways others have treated them. How sometimes the relationships we live with can change us drastically, until we lose who we once were along with our confidence. And how we are surprised by the most basic decent treatment from others, by their appreciation or attraction. That part was very poignant and real to me. Except that for him to have gotten to that point, it would seem to me that it would have either taken longer or been more predominate than just how one person had treated him. I did also want to mention, that it bugged me when Chico turned around and later said “silly Raf” in a scene
Overall, this is a sweet story with lots of UST, some heat, and a few memorable moments.
I wish that I had chosen to read this entirely as an ebook rather than listen on audio. From trying it for a part that way, I am sure I would have enjoyed it more in that format. Perhaps I will indeed go back and read again once I have let some time pass. For now, I need to rate it as an audiobook though… I rate the story as a 3 star, although I might have rated it higher if it was read rather than listened to, I’m not sure. But I rate the narration as a 2, and for me that is being generous as I really did not connect at all with this narrator, and because of that, feel that I didn’t connect with the story.
I like the cover by Catt Ford and can picture a particular scene when I see it, however it doesn’t give a feel of the book as related to dancing or costume design, etc.
Sales Links: Dreamspinner Press | Amazon | Audible | iTunes
Audiobook Details:
5 hrs 17 mins
Published May 25th 2016 by Dreamspinner Press
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 