Audiobook Review: Live for Love (All Cocks #5) by T.M. Smith

Beauregard Boudreaux is a native of New Orleans Louisiana, born and raised there, he never thought he would ever stray far from home. The untimely death of his first love left Beau lost, adrift, looking for a place as far away from the pain as possible. Initially, he came to New York to visit a friend, the city growing on him, so he decided to stay. His law degree comes in handy at the LGBT Center he runs, but his bar is his baby.

William Richards grew up in Chicago, his family oddly normal and very accepting of his sexuality. Modeling paid the bills, gigs across the country as a model, male entertainer and a personal trainer giving him the opportunity to see the world. He hasn’t experienced loss or pain as Beau has, the common denominator between them is the loneliness. As All Cocks big, brooding bottom Connor, William has found friendship, family and an outlet for his craving to be more submissive than men of his size and stature usually are.

The two men are perfect for each other, their tastes and lives align and the writing seems to be on the wall. But Beau has a secret he shares with a choice few, a secret that not only threatens to keep them apart, it’s deadly. Determined to keep a wall between himself and William, Beau fights the attraction, pushes William away every time he steps closer. Can one man’s determination and strength be enough to tear down a wall that holds back decades of pain and darkness? And if he can, will either of them survive the flood?

Disclaimer: This book is the fictional story of a man living with HIV. I have put a lot of time and effort into presenting this story as true to fact as possible, without going into gory or gruesome detail. If this subject is a trigger for you, you may want to skip this read. But my hope is that you give Beau a chance to capture your heart as he has mine, and William’s.

Listening Length: 5 hours and 26 minutes
Narrator: Joel Leslie

Reviewer: Shee Reader

Well, I just finished listening to this joyous book, and now I have to try and tell you how good it was? Spoiler alert: it was awesome!

I’ve read and listened to all of the previous books in the series, and though it was great to touch base with characters, couples (and the thruples) from previous tales, it would work perfectly as a stand alone. Beau is a lovely quiet, stoic character who successfully pushed people away after losing the love of his life. As such, I was pleased that he was seeing a therapist (who we met earlier in the series and who is successfully living in a polyamorous relationship). Beau had such strength and sadness that I was rooting for him from the outset. That said, I still wanted to kick his ass for almost losing William due to his pig-headedness! Beau’s self enforced isolation was no match for the ever tenacious William. William is a low angst character, who worked as an All Cocks model/performer in order to give himself what he needed. I loved his character, and the fact that he relentlessly pursued Beau even when he was being a jackass!

Their pairing is perfect. William’s strength and resolve were so inspiring, and Beau was a hero to many of the young people at the LGBT youth centre. Again, as in previous stories, the strength of relationships amongst the supporting characters gave Beau and William the family they chose for themselves. The book is quite delightful from start to finish, and didn’t shy away from the harsh reality of life for an HIV positive man, the subject was dealt with beautifully by the author: no over dramatisation, and all the accurate facts. The realism was almost choking at times.

As always, the performance by Joel Leslie was legendary! Awesome voice characterisation, outstanding versatility and all the passion and joy I have come to expect from Joel.

All in all, this is a must listen!

I was given a free copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
 

Review: Cemeteries by Moonlight (States of Love) by Hunter Frost

When a serious bout of writer’s block threatens to delay mystery author Drew Daniels’s newest book, his aunt offers her New Orleans apartment in the heart of the French Quarter as a writing retreat. She neglects to mention that it’s occupied by the enigmatic and sexy Finn Murphy, a cemetery tour guide with a penchant for Victorian attire and a Cajun accent.

A body discovered in an open crypt forces reclusive Drew to deal with Finn’s eccentric group of friends and his underlying attraction to the hot Cajun—despite warnings about Finn’s violent past. Drew might write this stuff, but he’s never had to solve a real-life murder. With a deadline looming and a killer on the loose, this retreat is proving to be anything but helpful for Drew’s novel. Drew can only hope he won’t end up a tragic tale for the Ghostly Legends & Lore, Inc. haunted tour.

There was a lot for me to love in this tale and being that the theme of this series is centered on the state where the story takes place, I was completely jazzed (see what I did there?) to grab on to Cemeteries by Moonlight based in NOLA.

Drew is a murder mystery writer suffering from writers block and his aunt offers up a change of scenery to see if that will help him out. She conveniently “forgets” that she already has her apartment in New Orleans rented out and thus we have the set up between Drew and his new roomie Finn. I fell hard for Finn from the get go, just like Drew did. He’s a hot tattooed Cajun with a French-Cajun accent and charm to spare. He works as a tour guide for Ghostly Legends and Lore, Inc. so he knows the town inside and out. It was really the perfect setup to make the location into another character. The author was able to weave the history of the locale seamlessly into Finn’s storytelling and Finn’s ability to make the history relatable was a huge attractor for Drew, as they were both storytellers after all.

For a bit Drew assumes that Finn is straight and he doesn’t usually let himself get too close to others in general and other men in particular. He’s got Tourette’s syndrome and has not had the best luck in his past meeting people who he was able to be himself with, he’d been judged and treated harshly so he has no desire to open himself up to that again. Finn isn’t just your average dude though and Drew has trouble keeping his distance from that sexy accent and those kind eyes; the way the author described Finn, I can’t blame Drew one bit!

There are a host of quirky characters and when one of their own is murdered, the junior sleuthing is on. Drew’s dad is a detective and also his beta reader so he’s not unfamiliar in the ways of investigation, that little bit made his involvement more believable. He’s having trouble being completely objective though because his heart is getting pretty attached to Drew and vice versa. Of course, as Drew gets to know the characters more he ends up questioning his own objectivity which makes complete sense, he doesn’t really know these people but he’s gotten himself pretty invested now and is determined to see it through.

There’s a bit of conclusion jumping that throws a wrench at Drew and Finn and it was logical considering what each knew of the other, but when everything came to a head and the mystery got closer to being solved, they figured it all out right quick. The confessions reminded me of old –timey classic murder mysteries with the villain reveling in some monologue-ing attention and while it made the ultimate revelations a little convenient it was still kinda fun to read in a nostalgic way.

The author managed to pack a lot of story and history into just over 100 pages and while I would have loved more of Drew and Finn together the balance was still completely satisfying. And I wanted more Drew and Finn, not because anything was missing, but just because I wanted more Drew and Finn. They were both unique characters and reading their banter as they got to know one another was in turn fun, sweet and hot. Cemeteries by Moonlight makes me want to read more from this series and more from this author.

Also, if Dreamspinner and Hunter Frost decide to make this one into an Audiobook, then this Peach would be damn grateful. Damn grateful.

**a copy of this story was provided for an honest review**

Review: Devil's Food at Dusk by M.J. O'Shea & Anna Martin (audiobook)

Joe Fitzgerald hates New Orleans, but he's stuck there until he convinces one stubborn local family to sell Lumière, the crumbling French Quarter restaurant they've owned for generations. The place is a wreck, and it's hemorrhaging money. Joe figures he's their best chance for survival.

Remy Babineaux despises Pineapple Joe's and everything the chain stands for. He refuses to let Lumière become some tacky corporate tourist trap. Theme drinks and plastic beads in his restaurant? Yeah, right. Over his dead, rotting corpse. The last thing Remy wants is a meeting with the restaurant chain's representative, but his father agreed to at least listen to the proposal. There's nothing Remy can do about it.

Remy figures an anonymous hookup is exactly what he needs to decompress. When he ends up across the table from his fling the next morning, real sparks fly. Joe refuses to give up his prime location; Remy refuses to give up his legacy. It's war, and they're both determined to win at any cost. Neither of them counted on falling in love.

Listening Length: 8 hours and 1 minute
Narrator: John-Paul Barrel

This book was my first audiobook experience and I have to admit I was hoping for more. I've read several reviews of audiobooks and was stumped by the notion that the narrator could ruin a book. It's the same book, isn't it? The words didn't change, right? 

Oh ho ho! WRONG.

So wrong, in fact, that I apologize for ever even thinking those words because right from the get go this narrator began the ruination. When I read the words Remy + Cajun this guy popped into my brain...

Proper Cajun!

AND there isn't a lick of Cajun accent to be heard anywhere in this book! As a matter of fact, he turned the younger brother, Andre, who's STILL CAJUN into a California surfer dude! Look, I know it's a common misconception that Southern people talk reeeaaaaaaaallllll slow and while that may be true in some cases by and large we don't! That's why all those Gs get dropped and words get condensed into "gonna", "hafta" and "finnta". There is no way on God's Green Earth that any self-respecting Southerner would ever EVER enunciate bougainvillea into 27 syllables! It ain't happening. We got no time for that. We have iced tea to drink while driving a dooley and car karaoking sad country songs with our cousins on our way to the KFC to pick up the Family Sized bucket o'chicken for dinner all while barefoot, of course. #multitasking

So not even a hint of a Cajun accent and grating enunciation not even speeding up the narration could mitigate left me unenthused. Also, I was thinking there would be more "acting" in the narration. If the character is crying or sighing or whatever then shouldn't the narrator reflect that? Like I said, this is my first rodeo so I'm not sure if that's commonplace or not, but it was all kinds of disappointing.

So, yes, the narration was a HUGE obstacle to my enjoyment not to mention distracting.

When I wasn't cringing the story of Remy and Joe going from enemies to lovers was mostly fluffy with a fair amount of mouthwatering chefing going on. I now need to finagle a trip to The Big Easy so there is that.

Remy is head chef of the family restaurant with his brother Andre serving as his sous chef. Remy is hot tempered, loyal to his family and fighting to keep Lumière afloat. He one night stands with Joe only to discover Joe's the hot shot trying to buy the restaurant the next day. Awkward. He then hatches a plan to win Joe over by demonstrating how much New Orleans and Lumière mean to him. Along the way they fall for each other.

It's cute and fairly predictable with them being at cross purposes, though I felt the secret got stretched to the limit and it wore me down. The sex is nothing to write home about which was disappointing considering I was hoping for some eargasms. It seemed to bog down in the daily minutiae of running a restaurant more often than not. There's only so many trips to the farmers market I can take.

I'm sure reading it would've resulted in a different response and I'm bummed my first audiobook experience was a dud but life's a game of chance.  

A review copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.


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