Category: LGBTQ Audio Books

A BJ Audiobook Review: Waiting for the Flood by Alexis Hall ~Narrated by Alexander Doddy

Rating:     3 out of 5 stars

Waiting for the Flood audioPeople come as well as go.

Twelve years ago, Edwin Tully came to Oxford and fell in love with a boy named Marius. He was brilliant. An artist. It was going to be forever.

Two years ago, it ended.

Now Edwin lives alone in the house they used to share. He tends to damaged books and faded memories, trying to a build a future from the fragments of the past.

Then the weather turns, and the river spills into Edwin’s quiet world, bringing with it Adam Dacre from the Environment Agency. An unlikely knight, this stranger with roughened hands and worn wellingtons, but he offers Edwin the hope of something he thought he would never have again.

As the two men grow closer in their struggle against the rising waters, Edwin learns he can’t protect himself from everything—and sometimes he doesn’t need to try.

This is my third book by this author. I adored For Real, abso-freaking-lutely loved it. But the other one I’d read not so much, so I wasn’t sure what to expect with a third one. Even after listening to it, I’m wasn’t sure and had to really think about it. There were parts that I found quite slow, where my attention drifted away and I had to struggle to make myself focus on the story. But then there were other parts that I found to be deep and poignant, that jerked at my heart in the way they felt so raw and real. The writing was lyrical, slow-paced, contemplative.

The premise of two men meeting during a storm/flood appealed to me, as I usually adore such stories. But there were many times that I was confused by the words and conversation, which may have been part of why my mind often wandered. I enjoyed Adam’s character quite a lot, but Edwin not so much. He seemed so very hung up on his old relationship even though a few years had past, that he let it influence him to the point that he cut himself off from life, and he very nearly let it get in the way of something good several times.

I’ve not listened to too many audios narrated with a UK accent, so it took me a tiny bit to get used to it. Not that it wasn’t lovely, as it certainly was, just that it was a little bit harder to understand for me at first until my ears got attuned to it. I felt that he did a stellar job at handling Edwin’s speech impediment.

Beautiful cover… I adore rain and these guys walking hand in hand in it totally did it for me.

Sales Links:  Riptide Publishing | Audible | Amazon


Book Details:

Audible Audio, 3 pages, Listening Length: 2 hours and 51 minutes
Published May 23rd 2016 by Riptide Publishing (first published February 21st 2015)
ASINB01FXZ0FX8
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesSpires Universe

A BJ Audiobook Review: Where Nerves End (Tucker Springs #1) by L.A. Witt ~ Narrated by Iggy Toma

 

Rating:     3.5 out of 5 stars

Where Nerves End audiobookJason Davis can handle a breakup. And an overwhelming mortgage. And a struggling business. And the excruciating pain that keeps him up at night thanks to a shoulder injury. But all of it at once? Not so much. When his shoulder finally pushes him to a breaking point, Jason takes a friend’s advice and gives acupuncture a try.

Acupuncturist Michael Whitman is a single dad struggling to make ends meet. When a mutual friend refers Jason as a patient, and Jason suggests a roommate arrangement to alleviate their respective financial strains, Michael jumps at the opportunity.

But Jason soon finds himself regretting it—he’s too damn attracted to Michael, and living with him is harder than he thought it’d be. In fact, the temptation to act on his feelings would almost be too much if not for the fact that Michael is straight. Or at least, that’s what their mutual friend claims.

This book began well for me. I liked Jason, felt for him and what he was going through, and was very eager to see him find the help he needed to get his life on track. When he met Michael and not only was he able to help him with his pain, but with his financial problems, that was working for me. I enjoyed Michael and his son for the healthy lifestyle and his caring. I felt the chemistry of Jason’s immediate attraction and his frustration at Michael being straight.  I also enjoyed all the stuff on the eastern medicine, acupuncture, cupping, etc. Very interesting.

Midway through I begin to not enjoy it quite as much. First the characters have a talk and Michael has the perfect opportunity to say something to Jason that he chooses not to reveal. The next thing we know, the whole story changed for me. I’m not a fan of misunderstandings, miscommunications, and of MC having sex with other people in my books. In this book, we get all three, I’m sad to say. And nope, I didn’t enjoy that part at all. Why did that have to happen? It left me pouting. Later, after he pursues Jason and they have an interlude, Michael does explain his reasoning, and it actually made sense a bit until the next thing he turns around and does is deny the whole thing and suddenly it makes no sense at all. Michael’s complete denial to everyone, even though he admitted he’d knew for years and years and even thought he’d grown up with a close gay friend who he never confided in bugged me as well.

So while I enjoyed how the story ultimately ended, the storyline itself lost its glow for me after that. However, Iggy Toma is a wonderful narrator and did a great job of keeping me engaged. He brought the characters to life and gave them dimension. I enjoyed the distinct voices he used, and the emotion he put into each scene. I’d give the narrator 4 stars and the story 3 stars for an average of 3.5.

The cover  by L.C. Chase ties in with the rest of the series and does an adequate job of representing the guys and the town although I didn’t find it sexy or particularly appealing.

Sales Links:  Riptide Publishing | Audible | Amazon | iTunes


Book Details:

Audible Audio, 7 pages, 6 hrs 55 mins
Published December 20th 2015 by Riptide Publishing (first published June 3rd 2012)
ASINB019NHFKC8
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesTucker Springs #1 settingTucker Springs, Colorado (United States

A Barb the Zany Old Lady Audiobook Review: Blueberry Boys by Vanessa North ~ Audiobook narrated by Tobias Silversmith

Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Blueberry Boys audioWhen Connor Graham returns to the town where his lived with his uncle, mom, and brother, the last thing he expects is to meet a man who attracts him like a magnet. His uncle has passed away and Connor and his brother have inherited the family blueberry farm that has a tenant farmer working the land. The farmer is Jed Jones—a very shy, very sexy man with a severe stutter, making speech difficult for him.

But Jed’s stutter makes no difference to Connor as the two get to know each other. And though the brothers are selling the farm, Jed’s place is secure for at least the next two years due to his lease, so the sale isn’t an impediment to their attraction. What is an obstacle is Jed’s religious upbringing, his firm place in the closet, and the distance between the farm and Connor’s job as a well-known fashion photographer who is based in New York City but travels the globe.

With Jed’s permission, Connor decides to use the farm as the backdrop for his next fashion shoot, buying the men more time to get to know one another. It’s time well invested, but there’s an expiration date, and as they reach the end, Jed breaks it off with Connor. He’s not the type for a long distance relationship, and though Connor tries to make him see reason, he eventually returns to New York.

Circumstances combine to allow Jed to come out to his family and to reconcile his church’s teachings with his homosexuality and life goes on. Jed and Connor ultimately get together, and it’s likely not in the way many readers would expect, but it does leave the men with their HEA.

I was disappointed in this story, the first I’ve read from this author. It was a sweet tale, but I didn’t feel the spark. The romance between the two men was more of a sexual chemistry and less of a bonding of two hearts. To be fair, I don’t have the book to go back to revisit some of the scenes I felt were choppy or where there was a disconnect between the guys, so I can’t get into detail. This is an audiobook review, and that is too difficult to do.

The narrator, Tobias Silversmith, was a fast reader; so much so, that at times I had difficulty catching what he said. The story felt rushed, and I don’t know if it was the story as written, or if the speed was set by the pace of the narrator. But it wasn’t appealing. I didn’t hurry to get back to the story when I was occupied with other tasks, and I didn’t look forward to what the characters would do next. They were just waiting there for me to get back to them. I felt like there was not much happening in their lives anyway, so why not wait? Needless to say, I don’t recommend this in audiobook format.

~~~~

I loved the bright, colorful cover art by LC Chase that prominently features a spilled bucket of blueberries superimposed on a background of a farm field with two young men holding hands.

Sales Links:  Riptide Publishing | Audible |Amazon

Audiobook Details:

Audible Audio, 5 pages, 4 hrs 22 mins
Published May 20th 2016 by Riptide Publishing (first published November 28th 2015)
Original TitleBlueberry Boys
ASINB01FWBX0PS
Edition LanguageEnglish

A BJ Review: Covet Thy Neighbor (Tucker Springs #4) by L.A. Witt and Narrated by Charlie David

 

Rating:    3.75 out of 5 stars

CovetThyNeighbor_AudiobookTattoo artist Seth Wheeler thinks he’s struck gold when Darren Romero rents the apartment across the hall. The new guy is gorgeous, witty, and single, plus he’s just the right blend of bold and flirtatious. Perfect.

Except then Darren reveals that he moved to Tucker Springs to take a job as the youth pastor at the New Light Church. Seth is not only an atheist, but was thrown out by his ultra-religious family when he came out. He tends to avoid believers, not out of judgment but out of self-preservation.

But Darren doesn’t give up easily, and he steadily chips away at Seth’s defenses. Darren is everything Seth wants in a man . . . except for that one massive detail he just can’t overlook. Is Darren’s religion the real problem, or is it just a convenient smokescreen to keep him from facing deeper fears? It’s either see the light, or risk pushing Darren away forever.

First off I have to say that after listening to other books in the series read by a different narrator, it was a bit jarring to get used to having this one read by someone else. While I enjoyed Charlie David’s voice tones, I missed Iggy. The two main character’s voices actually sounded pretty much the same to me. I really prefer when there are noticeably different voices since in an audio, there are no things like line breaks and stuff to give us a clue when the speaker changes. Sometimes I even got a bit lost as to which character was speaking.

As for the story itself, the physical relationship between these guys was nearly instant, which took me by surprise considering that one is a minister. Given what I knew about Seth’s past and the fact that Darren was up front about his career before they hit the sack, that surprised me. I found it strange that both of them would have so little control and not just once, but repeatedly especially when they kept regretting it the mornings after and feeling so strained around each other. I wished there had been more relationship development up front but it came across to me as based mostly on sex for a long while. So the middle part rather lost me for a while.

During the whole middle of the story, I had trouble liking Seth. It seemed like he was being so judgmental and unaccepting, which was supposed the exact thing he was disliking Darren for. But Darren was not that. I liked Darren from the start, and as it wore on though, I quite embraced his take on religion. How he strives to live a life based on the New Testament, leaving behind the Old Testament makes sense. There are so very many laws and rules in the Old Testament which modern day Christians break on a daily basis, so where to draw the line on what to dismiss and what to continue to hold as doctrine is very much ambiguous.

Personally, I wished this had been a dual POV. Darren’s character was my favorite of the two and would have loved to be in his head and see more depth to him. The things Seth said to him and then finding out his past and thus knowing how they must have hurt, damn. That kicked the story up an extra half star for me right there. And if not for what Seth had done at the LGBT youth center, I probably would have really hated him at that point.

Enjoyed revisiting with Michael and Jason, and meeting Seth’s cat Stanley. Wish that the ending had been a bit more. While I liked it well enough, it just seemed to wrap up a bit too easily.

This cover by L.C. Chase is my fav from the series so far as both halves really represented the characters and their life well.

Sales Links:  Riptide Publishing | Audible | Amazon | iTunes


Book Details:

Published April 5th 2016 by Riptide Publishing

A Barb the Zany Old Lady Audiobook Review: Helping Hand by Jay Northcote ~ Narrated by Mark Steadman

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

Helping Hand audiobookAbout a year ago, I had the pleasure of reading this story by Jay Northcote. I enjoyed it, primarily because it was about two guys, Jez and Mac, who discover that their friendship with benefits could grow to be so much more.

It starts out as Jez giving Mac a helping hand one night after spending quite a few weekends in a row studying. Both second year university students, and young men with active libidos, they decide to watch porn one night after finishing their studies. One thing leads to another, and Jez, who spends more time looking at Mac’s package than at the movie, decides to offer a hand job.

Both are amazed at how good it feels, so Jez takes the next available opportunity to offer to give Mac a blowjob. Mac doesn’t resist, and the guys move to a new stage in their relationship. Further stages occur as they discover mutual hand jobs, kissing, frottage, and finally full penetration. Jez realizes, however, that it’s not casual for him anymore. He’s in way over his head because his feelings are involved, and he’s unsure of Mac because he has always claimed he’s not gay. And that’s exactly when they are discovered, and everything begins to fall apart.

Jez doesn’t want to be Mac’s “dirty little secret” for life, but can’t find a way to tell him that. What happens makes the conclusion of this story not only interesting, but heartwarming as well.

What I loved most about the audiobook version is the narrator. Mark Steadman gave the story the British authenticity it was missing when I was just reading the e-book. His accent and his ability to provide variety in the main and secondary characters’ voices made it perfect. Add to that, the story had just the right amount of sweetness and angst, stirred together with some great, hot and sexy scenes.

I recommend the audiobook version if you’re thinking of picking this one up. It’s terrific!

~~~~~~~~~~

Cover art by Garrett Leigh is a black-and-white photo showing the bare upper torso of a reclining, dark-haired man with the right amount of five o’clock shadow and looking ready for anything or anyone who comes along.

Sales Link: Audible.com | Audible.co.uk | Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Apple

Audiobook Details:

Audiobook
Published May 13th 2016 by Jaybird Press (first published June 24th 2015)
Original TitleHelping Hand
ASINB01FL0YXO2
Edition LanguageEnglish
SeriesHousemates #1 settingPlymouth, England (United Kingdom)