Audiobook Review: Starting with the Unexpected by Andi Van

Zachary Blaise is having a weird week—even by his standards. Though he's gay, the radio personality has been dumped via text by a girl named Marian—and he's never even met her. On top of that, he's developed a massive crush on Marcus, the new waiter at his favorite diner. His best friend thinks the whole thing is hilarious.

Marcus’s week hasn’t been his best either. He's been betrayed by those closest to him, and although he isn't the guilty party, Marcus is the one getting harassed.

Impossibly, things are about to get even weirder. Marian has secrets, and those secrets are going to make some serious ripples in Zach's life. When he discovers that the girl called Marian is actually the man named Marcus, Zach stumbles down a rabbit hole of abusive ex-boyfriends, psychotic relatives, and revelations from his own past. If he can survive the chaos, the journey might prove worth the effort.

Narrator: Jonathan David
Listening Length: 4 hours and 51 minutes

Firstly I’d like to talk about the Cotton Candy Blue hair that Zach has. I need to speak about this because it was a major distraction for me during the entire book. I love people who have quirky ways of expressing themselves. I find it immensely sexy for people to be completely different. From macabre tattoos and clothes, to the more benign rainbow hair, I love it all. I admire people who can take that risk and completely work it. Confident in the knowledge that they give no fucks about what anyone says, and look amazing while saying Fuck you Society. I love it.

The author’s choice to give Zach cotton-candy blue hair. Not sexy, not an amazing leap in self expression. That colour doesn’t look good on anyone except grandmothers who can no longer hide that their hair is white, and decide to get their hair dyed Platinum which is actually cotton-candy blue. So this was what I had to fight the entire time I was listening to this book. The image of Zach with grandma hair and ridiculously pale skin that looked even more washed out with the crappy choice of hair dye. Just no.

Phew I’m glad I could get that out. I’m sorry (#notsorry) if this offends but I just couldn’t take it. I needed to purge. Thank you for allowing me to.

Getting on with the show. While I didn’t love the narrator for this audio version, he passed. I can be a bit picky, because as previously mentioned on this blog, my hearing is shite and certain pitches are either difficult to hear, or attack some sort of trigger in my brain and sound like, to others, fingernails on a chalkboard (strangely enough, this sound is also difficult for me to hear, and even when I do, it does nothing to me. The crinkly sound a plastic/foil bag sounds when someone is trying to discreetly open it, now that will send me into a murderous rage, but I digress). This narrator was close to irritating my ears, through no fault of his. This is just a quirk of mine, and I did need frequent breaks for this particular pitch. He was otherwise clear, concise and had a decent range. I can see why he was chosen for this story, and I think others will enjoy it.

The plot was fine enough. I enjoyed how this started, and the direction it was going. I liked that Zach wanted to be Marcus’ friend first. I enjoyed their time together, and the easy way Marcus was accepted into Zach’s life. Other than external drama, there was very little in the way of angst for this couple, which I appreciated.

I enjoyed Zach’s personality (too bad about his hair) and his relationship with those around him. I liked the comedic relief, and the strange things that happened to Zach on any given day. I would have liked to get to know Marcus a little more. It was almost there with the character development but there was something missing from Marcus that I needed from him.

The external drama; I’m still on the fence about it. On the one hand, it certainly pushed the story along, but I’m not sure it was necessary. I thought that there was enough weight for the story to not have as much drama as it did. The supporting characters were all very solid, and I enjoyed the interactions everyone had, from Marcus meeting Zach’s Dad, to Zach’s mother claiming all of Zach’s friends as her own, and Zach and Jordan’s strange friendship, I thought they were all very strong and added greatly to this novel.

So Zach’s hair, and the external drama aside, I did enjoy this story, and would recommend it for a light fluffy read, with a hint of serious adult content. *Spoiler alert* Triggers include stalking, violence, and destruction of property.

Check out on Dreamspinner Press or Goodreads!

Audiobook Review: Ace by Jack Byrne

Jake Tanner is a gay asexual man who finds peace on his small Australian farm and is content to lead a quiet life taking care of his animals. Then a random act of kindness on his part sets in motion a complex series of events that results in him playing the piano in a local pub and meeting Damien Jamieson, a sexy gay biker with a penchant for leather. Damien finds Jake instantly irresistible, but that could be the worst thing for their budding relationship, as Damien is determined to bed the reluctant Jake. However, Jake has no intention of going along with his plan. If there’s a chance for anything between them, Damien will have to figure out how to turn Jake on without scaring him off.

Listening Length: 5 hrs and 37 min
Narrator: Jonathan David

I was somewhat disappointed by the choice of narrator for this audiobook. Not because Jonathan David doesn’t have a pleasing voice, he does. Great pitch, great range. But not Aussie. I’m an Aussie, so I get super excited about my fellow country men and women publishing books I’m interested in reading. This was definitely a story I was interested in, but I felt a bit cheated by the American accent. I spoke (whinged) to my American partner about it, and he said it was smart. Apparently he won’t listen to anything by british narrators because he doesn’t like the accent, but dubbing it over with American accent and he will give it a try. This makes no sense to me, but meh, whatever. I didn’t like it. I love accents. All accents. I find them interesting, and sexy, and pleasing to my ears. But I wanted Aussie for this. So I’m pouting a bit over it and it may have influenced my enjoyment of the story a little.

The story I thought was really good. I liked the way this was about the struggle with someone who doesn’t know there is a label for his disinterest in sex, and his relationship with someone who loves sex all of the time. It was painful at times the way they miscommunicated because one person feels that sex is part of a loving relationship, and the other thinks that emotional, and non-sexual physical togetherness is how to express love.

At times I could not see how these two men would work it out, and have a functioning relationship. Sex just took up so much of the conversation, and they didn’t seem to get anywhere. Did I say painful? Agonising! At times I was screaming inside “You’re not listening, Damien!”.

It was hard to see the relationship development because it was so slow. One step forward, two steps back in a few places. But I did see that they were both committed to trying, and that made me happy. I was also pleased when there were breakthroughs. It was tough going, but there was a light at the end of the tunnel.

A couple of nitpicking parts that irritated me. I’ve mentioned I’m Aussie. I may have even mentioned that I like authenticity. So when an author chooses to use the old english measuring system in books set in metric using countries, I’m not happy. We are metric, baby! We don’t say miles. Our odometers are metric! 100 Kilometres per hour!!! 60 Metre rock!!!! When you read the book, you’ll know what I’m referring to. Maybe it’s a sales thing, or an outback thing (I can probably forgive the use of feet as measurement, but not the speed)? I just wish I didn’t have to do conversions in my head when reading an Australian author, because I have to do so much with all the other books I read.

I thought that maybe Jake compromised a little too much. Damian just couldn’t seem to grasp that Jake was not rejecting him as a person. And so Jake seemed to fold a little.

I liked the visit to Brisbane (Shout-out from Brisbane, baby!), and the general landscape for the country town. I liked the side characters, and enjoyed these two men as a couple. The dialogue was smooth, and the general feel of the town worked well.

**Minor Spoiler**

I also had to suspend disbelief with the adoption thing, simply because adoption laws in Australia are pretty archaic and not at all in favour of single people. It may be possible in New South Wales, or Victoria, but definitely not in Queensland (where the story is mostly set), and it would have cost a lot of money, money that a homeless eighteen year old wouldn’t have had. So that part of the story didn’t really work for me, but it is a nice dream, and maybe one day these things won’t be almost impossible.

This story is a little angsty (and I don’t mean that in a bad way) so if you’re not in that kind of mood, then best to leave it until you are. But I thought this was worth my time, and I would read other stories by Jack Byrne. He is a solid storyteller, and I would recommend this to everyone who enjoys hard-won romance. If you don’t think you can listen to this as audio, definitely give the print novel a try. But if you’re like my partner, and you’re fine with American narrator for an Aussie story, then go ahead and listen to Jonathan David. He really does have a lovely voice.

Dreamspinner Press

Goodreads