Of course, this catches the attention of a higher power, and Sam's pulled from the only world he knows to become an apprentice to the King's Wizard, Morgan of Shadows. When Sam is fourteen, he enters the Dark Woods and returns with Gary, the hornless gay unicorn, and a half-giant named Tiggy, earning the moniker Sam of Wilds.
At fifteen, Sam learns what love truly is when a new knight arrives at the castle. Sir Ryan Foxheart, the dreamiest dream to have ever been dreamed.
Naturally, it all goes to hell through the years when Ryan dates the reprehensible Prince Justin, Sam can't control his magic, a sexually aggressive dragon kidnaps the prince, and the King sends them on an epic quest to save Ryan's boyfriend, all while Sam falls more in love with someone he can never have.
Or so he thinks.
ALL of the hearts. Every fucking one of them.
I spend a lot of time in my car commuting. I hate it. I like my job, I love the people I work with, but again, my commute? I hate it sooooo hard. So, when the commute from hell started a few years ago I got started listening to audio books. What better way is there to sit in traffic than to listen to a man tell me a story and at some point or 10 talk dirty to me? There is no better way, just so you know. When the request came through for a review on The Lightning-Struck Heart I was ALL over that shit. I loved Michael Lesley’s narration of TJ’s Tell Me it’s Real so I was pretty happy. Then I started listening and I had so much fucking fun I was ecstatic!
If you’re a fan of TJ Klune when his manic humor is on high, then this book was written for you. Besides the absolute hilarity of his writing, he manages to sneak real feels in there giving the story and characters depth that sneak up on you like a tackle hug, make you happy in your heart and grin like a loon. This wasn’t just a story, it was an odyssey and it was ridiculously fun. I fell in love with every character, even the ones I should hate. I loved hating Tina at the fan club FFS.
As I said, I listened to the audiobook version and I do honestly believe that Michael Lesley IS the voice in TJ Klune’s head. I am truly amazed at how he managed to have a completely unique voice and tone for each character. You could take out every “he said”, “she said”, etc. and I would still have had no trouble distinguishing between who was talking at any given point. It was like being in the middle of a one man play that is so elaborate you forget you are only listening to one man. I laughed out loud so many times I’m going to have to listen to this one at least two more times to make sure I didn’t miss parts of the story for the LOL’s.
I was trying to figure out who my favorite character is and I gave up shortly into listening. Sam had me wrapped around his magical little finger and then Gary came along and I would follow his Unicornian buns anywhere. I was telling a friend about The Lightning-Struck Heart not long into listening. I walked into the office and he asked me what I was snortling about and I told him all about Sam and Ryan and Gary and Tiggy and etc. and etc. Now this friend is relatively new to the wonder that is the MM romance world. I’ve bought him some of my favorite books and steered him in the direction of authors I think he would like and he’s so damn happy about it all. He had no idea these stories and this world even existed. For me it’s amazing to have someone in my RL to talk books with on a daily basis!
Anywho, I babble. SO, I was telling him about this one and said, “Please, you have to listen to Gary for a second.” It was a scene where he and Sam were having a debate/discussion about Sam being fay fairy married and he looked at me with wide and happy eyes. I immediately went online and bought him a copy. We’ve been texting back and forth constantly ever since. He just met Kevin, I can’t wait to see what he has to say about Kevin. This is one of those treasures I’m going to keep in a safe place forever. It’s officially my Go-To, Feel-Good, Fuck-All-Y’all-I-Gotta-Fantasy-World-That-Needs-Me-To-Love-It-Right-Now Epics. And yes, all of that is capitalized because it’s a thing.
For more information on Lightning-Struck Heart check it out on Goodreads.
**a copy of this EPIC treasure was provided for an honest review**
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