Audiobook Review: The Mystery of the Curiosities (Snow & Winter #2) by C.S. Poe

Life has been pretty great for Sebastian Snow. The Emporium is thriving and his relationship with NYPD homicide detective, Calvin Winter, is everything he’s ever wanted. With Valentine’s Day around the corner, Sebastian’s only cause for concern is whether Calvin should be taken on a romantic date. It’s only when an unknown assailant smashes the Emporium’s window and leaves a peculiar note behind, that all plans get pushed aside in favor of another mystery.

Sebastian is quickly swept up in a series of grisly yet seemingly unrelated murders. The only connection tying the deaths together are curiosities from the lost museum of P.T. Barnum. Despite Calvin’s attempts to keep Sebastian out of the investigation, someone is forcing his hand, and it becomes apparent that the entire charade exists for Sebastian to solve. With each clue that’ll bring him closer to the killer, he’s led deeper into Calvin’s official cases.

It’s more than just Sebastian’s livelihood and relationship on the line—it’s his very life.

Listening Length: 7 hours and 15 minutes
Narrator: Derrick McClain

I’m a big fan of this series and my love boils down to the MC’s, namely one Detective Calvin Winter. And I do love me some Sebastian too, I really do. But Calvin is the one that took the spotlight for me in this installment. We learned more about his past and it wasn’t surprising, but it was heartbreaking. What Calvin had been through had been alluded to in book 1, but in Mysteries it became more personal and I had even more respect for him the more I learned.

The series is really a lot of fun and I liked the mystery in this one muchly. I love Sebastian’s dad and the secondary characters add the flair and some comic relief in amongst Sebastian’s shenanigans. And he does get up to the shenanigans. You kinda have to suspend belief a bit as there is now way Sebastian would get away with his meddling (he is the Scooby Doo definition of ‘meddling kids’) but you have to let that go and enjoy the ride. There is no doubt the man has the smarts and background to crack the codes, but like I said, not a real life thing.

I love the relationship that’s building between Calvin and Sebastian though. It’s not easy and the meddling shenanigans don’t make it any easier, but it’s obvious they love each other and are willing to be honest in order to move their bond forward.

Sebastian’s dry sense of humor and somewhat socially oblivious nature are very charming. I think the narrator did a good job of capturing the obliviousness well and while it took me a bit to warm up to his take on Sebastian’s humor, I did get there. I think I got more of the humor when I read the book versus when I listened, but I got more of Calvin when I listened versus when I read. A pretty decent trade-off if I do say so myself.

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

Audiobook Review: Open Road by M.J. O'Shea

Angus has been with the same guy for ten years. When his boyfriend breaks up with him the night of his thirtieth birthday party and announces his engagement to a twenty-two-year-old less than ten hours later, Angus is… a mess. To put it lightly. He spends days in bed, drinks himself into a stupor every night, and ends up losing his job and his apartment. His best and oldest friend, Reece, decides it’s time for an intervention. And a change of scenery.

Reece and Angus take off on a buddy trip across the US. They don’t have much of a plan; they just start driving. It takes Angus a couple of days to do much more than grunt when Reece talks to him, but slowly he opens up. They drive, talk, heal, shout, drink a bit too much sometimes, dance, meet new friends… and somewhere between Portland, Oregon, and Portland, Maine, they fall in love.

Which was the last thing in the world Angus expected.

Narrator: Ronnie D.
Listening Length: 6 hours and 4 minutes

Before I start, I'm gonna refer you to Lori and Sheziss' reviews on the book itself. My rating is for the audiobook edition only. The only reason I finished the audiobook was the story and I really wish I had read it.

Because, goddamn, this audiobook is a bit of hot mess and not in a “It’s a mess, but I’d still bang it” kind of way. I was really looking forward to listening to this slow burn, friends-to-lovers romance and I could tell when I was listening that I loved the story. The narration? Not at all.

I expect to hear affected speech patterns in skits or commercials, those mediums have a brief amount of time to make an impression so everything is cranked up to 11. Fair enough. This wasn’t a story told in minutes though, this was six freakin’ hours of too damn much. I’m fine with a little camp, a little campiness can be fun, but to have that one note for that long turns the characters into caricatures and these guys deserved better than that.

It wasn’t just the overly effusive speech I had a problem with, it was the consistency. Both Angus and Reece had about three different voices for each and when it was just the two of them speaking it felt like there were a half dozen people in the room. Poor Angus was stuck in a permanent whine and varied between falsetto, breathy old woman to VERY falsetto, breathy small child. It is a slow burn romance which worked perfectly for the story, so when the sexy times happened, all I could do was cringe and wince. I should never cringe and wince during a hard won boning. Not ever. Then there’s Reece; sometimes he sounds like a normal dude (not often) but otherwise he vacillates between Tad, the entitled frat douche and Thurston Howell III. Every time he called Angus “Babe” I was transported to the island via a three hour tour. A threeeee hour tooooour.

This story could, and should, have made an amazing audiobook. There was a lot of great dialog and a lot of those ‘moments’ that readers love. The road trip was epic and made me want to load up the car and head out. A few pronunciations threw me repeatedly, please stop calling a mojito a mo-jee-toe, for instance. I digress into bitching again, my apologies. It was just frustrating as a listener because again, this is the perfect book to be transported into audio format, but the execution failed for me.

My nit-picks could very well just be my own, but I would highly recommend listening to the sample first and most definitely read the book.

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

Review: Something Like Rain (Something Like #8) by Jay Bell

Nice guys finish last, but that doesn’t mean they give up the fight. Sometimes it’s necessary to keep trudging through the rain in the hopes of finding a break in the clouds.

William Townson is a good person. He’s kind, considerate, and the last thing he ever wanted was to hurt anyone. Accidents happen though, and when they do, all that can be done is to pick up the pieces. For William, this means trying to hold together a stagnant relationship while resisting the temptation of Jason Grant, a young man with eyes just as intense as his love. Only the future can promise redemption for mistakes of the past, forcing William to choose between the Coast Guard and the needs of his heart. Can he find his way through the downpour to somewhere warm and dry?

I have a love hate relationship with Jay Bell - or to be more precise, with his words. I love and adore his writing style, his characterisation is faultless and once I start I am so fully emotionally invested in his writing I have to tear myself away to do mundane things like go to work, or sleep, and so on and so forth. And this is where the hate part comes in, because I know I'm not in for an easy read, whatever the outcome of the story the road there is going to pummel my poor little heart and I really have to be in the right frame of mind to cope with it. Yes, I am aware they are only books but, as any bibliophile knows, only books is a misnomer.

Authors have the ability to take us readers into worlds far from our own. My grey English autumn has been a hot and sunny Austin for the last few days. William and Jason and Kelly and Ben and Tim have been as alive to me as my real life friends and family. Rightly or wrongly I don't know, but what I do know is that this is a power that an author has, and Jay Bell has it in spades, so I NEVER go into reading a story of his that starts Something Like... lightly. When I start, I know I'm in it for the entire emotional storm I'm about to encounter, and I make sure I'm ready first. This probably says more about me than anything else, but I have faith that at least some of you understand where I'm coming from.

For those of you new to the Something Like... series let me explain how they work. Each story focuses on one main character's POV, usually from when they are teens through to mid-adulthood. The stories' characters will appear in many - if not all - of the other books, sometimes in a minor role, sometimes in a more major way. Time-lines and story-lines are like a bowl of spaghetti, turning and tangling together even though each strand is able to be untwisted if required. Each book shows another side to a storyline we already thought we had completely figured out. We see well rounded, utterly human, characters make mistakes and fall in and out of love and... it's so complex and yet so simple. It's life, I suppose. Life in print in all its complex glory. In the same way that Game of Thrones (bear with me here) has a million characters and story-lines going on, so does the Something Like... stories... except each character only has a main main role in one book - and it's set in our world and there's not so much (any) raping and pillaging and wall defending going on. So, really it's nothing like Game of Thrones whilst managing to remind me of it at the same time. Confused yet? Yeah, me too so let's move swiftly on...

Something like Rain is William's story. It's about his relationship with Kelly then Jason. About the million confusing thoughts and difficult decisions made everyday especially in young and new relationships. William has always longed to join the coastguard, this is complicated by the fact that he is gay and DADT is still in force when he signs up. Doing what he had always dreamt of meant hiding who he was and this was an issue long before he joined up. It affected relationships past, present and future. It defined many of his actions, interactions and reactions. It is integral to how the story pans out, the what if game could be traced back to William's desire to join the coastguard and DADT.

I have to admit that William is not my favourite character, though I did love seeing his POV. I'm not quite sure what it is that I found hard to take to with William. He's nice guy which I usually love, I think there are far too few nice guys in books, edged out for sexy and bad and another million stereotypes. William was nice - he was polite and respectful and hard-working. He always tried his hardest and took crap he didn't deserve (but felt he did) without complaint. He was brave. He... well, on paper he is a nice guy, everyone liked him, everyone respected him but he irked me because sometimes I just felt he was too judgmental of others, whilst still not being as perfect as everyone believed.

And yet, this is also the very thing that I appreciate about Jay's writing and characterisation because it is exactly what makes him human and not a cloned hero that could be transplanted to any and every other book. I guess what it comes down to is that I am not going to love every person I meet IRL - therefore I am not going to love every person I meet in the pages of a story. I certainly didn't hate him, I just liked Kelly and Jason more. But understanding William, and William's perspective, helps me understand Kelly and Jason even better.

For those initiated into the Something Like... universe, I don't have to try and sell this story to you, you know what you're getting, right? To those who have yet to enter the magic of Jay Bell's writing... yes, it is every bit as complicated as it sounds. Yes, it is every bit as emotionally draining as it sounds. Yes, YES, it is every bit as worth taking a trip into this world as soon as possible. Even though you know it's gonna hurt a little along the way, it is worth the emotional angst.

One last thing - the BEAUtiful covers are done by Andreas Bell, the author's husband, and are, IMO, perfect for the stories.


Something like Rain is the latest installment of the Something Like… series, bringing shape to another character’s life while checking in with those from previous books.

The Something Like... series:
Book 1: Something Like Summer
Book 2: Something Like Winter
Book 3: Something Like Autumn
Book 4: Something Like Spring
Book 5: Something Like Lightning
Book 6: Something Like Thunder
Book 7: Something Like Stories – Volume One
Book 8: Something Like Rain

A copy of this book was given in exchange for an honest review.
For more information see Goodreads.

Review: Snowed In by Teodora Kostova

Be careful what you wish for...

Nate has been in love with Quinn, his brother’s best friend, for as long as he can remember. But when he finally gets the chance to show Quinn how he feels, his heart gets broken in the most unexpected way.

Second chances come when you least expect them...

Quinn doesn’t believe in miracles, especially not Christmas ones. When he decides to win Nate back he knows it won’t be easy. The last thing he expects is a health scare, a road trip and a vicious snow storm to work in his favor.

In the end, a cabin in the woods turns out to be not only the shelter they desperately need, but also Quinn's very own Christmas miracle.

Sometimes, to forgive, you need to get snowed in...

Maybe kinda spoilerish...

Falling in love with your brothers best friend ***sigh***

Snowy cabin in the woods ***SIGH***

High-tailing it outta there for a couple of years with NO COMMUNICATION... ***sound of book slamming shut*** (Metaphorically as I read it on an e-reader...)

Actually, I'm being a tad unfair, mainly because I felt quite let down. I absolutely loved the first part of this book, it was ticking boxes left, right and centre and I had the stupidest, dreamiest smile on my face and then... then it went downhill. Not the writing, the writing was good, but the reasoning didn't stand up for me. I could see exactly what the author was trying to do, I just don't think it worked and this made me sad because I wanted to like this book.

I could understand the reason Quinn left, but I couldn't understand how is leaving was so absolute. How there was no communication at all; it just felt too manufactured. It was there for the sake of drama and that pissed me off. It's the 21st century; texting, messaging, emailing are things. Hell a like on a popular social networking site is better than sweet FA.The story could have worked without a two year disappearance. It would have worked differently, but it would have worked better. For me, at least, and unfortunately that is the memory I take of this book; not the sweet romance that was there at the start and end, but the needless drama and angst in the middle. Which is a shame.

Teodora Kostova knows how to write though and I'm not letting my experience with this book put me off from reading other books by this author. This is only my opinion, my feelings - check out Goodreads for some five star reviews and see what others thought.

A copy of this book was given in exchange for an honest review.
For more information see Goodreads.

Review: Return to Me by James Oliver French

What would you do if the man you loved vanished without a trace? Kyle and Todd meet at a party in their freshman year at college. They fall in lust at first sight, then deep in love. In spite of Kyle’s melancholy past, their future together looks bright. Then Kyle disappears, leaving Todd heartbroken and alone, and their dreams in ruins. Fifteen years later, Todd is a successful but lonely psychiatrist. He still hasn’t come to terms with the loss of his first love. When a dangerous amnesiac arrives at the hospital, Todd is forced to confront the past, and is driven to find answers to the questions that have haunted him all these years.

My update on Goodreads when I first finished reading this book was:

"Oh fuck. I don't know if I love this or hate it....I do know I want to bawl my eyes out. Rating may change. Review when I can think straight at BMBR. Someone direct me to some fluffy happiness quick smart."

A couple of weeks down the line...and I still don't know exactly how I feel. Ugh. This book KILLED me. I just can't work out if it was in a good way or not. Bear with me while I try and pull my thoughts into some sort of cohesive review.... The writing style was a big plus for me. it flowed well and there was great characterisation. The author is a natural storyteller and I was caught up in this story , always wanting to solve the mystery and find out what happened to Kyle. He has the knack of pulling the reader into the story and giving just enough information to keep us wanting more. 

 The story is told in two parts. The first part is when Todd and Kyle meet and we see them fall in love. I loved the first section of the book, I was completely caught up in the love story. Then Kyle disappears. Okay, I know this is in the blurb and, yes, I had read the blurb....but I'd read the blurb when the book first came through as a requested read, agreed to read it and then forgot what the story was about. I didn't re-read the blurb when the book came through, I just dove straight into the story. When Kyle disappeared wow - well this was my Goodreads update

"Oh. My. God. There goes my early night..".

Yeah, I was only going to read a little bit.... I was enthralled I couldn't read fast enough and NEEDED to know what happened.

 So why am I dithering about what rating I should give it? I'm going to try and explain...without any spoilers. The mystery deepens, fifteen years later Todd is getting on with his life. He's a respected psychiatrist and has just met someone new who he's developing feelings for - and this is a big move for Todd because he'd never gotten over Kyle. He loved that man with all his heart and for him to just disappear broke him. Then, of course life happens and Todd finds himself in the middle of the mystery all over again. And it's at this point, during the resurfacing of this mystery that I became...not disillusioned...not angry...maybe upset? Purely because I wanted the resolution to go one way and the author wrote it a different way. It's not that Todd didn't get an HEA (or an HFN that the epilogue suggest is going to be an HEA).

It's not that the mystery etc wasn't solved...it just wasn't solved the way I wanted it to be. But it's not my story, I'm only along for the ride and James Oliver French is the one in charge of how this story ends. I just wanted it to end differently. My heart ached - it still aches - for Todd. I wanted to take the last quarter of the book and re-write it. A lot of it I'd have kept the same, but one thing I most certainly would have changed. I suppose the conclusion is that my hopes for the character didn't match up with the authors but that doesn't make this a badly written story or me a bad reader...it's just the way it is sometimes. For a debut novel, this is amazing.

 Otherwise, there are some English to American phrases that didn't quite translate, mostly I didn't notice as I am English (though when I do notice these things it really BUGS me) but I know some American readers have. I also know that the author is making sure it gets a re-edit before it's published to fix this. And I have to say I LOVE the front cover, I would probably have chosen this book to read on the cover alone if the blurb hadn't drawn me in.

 All in all a good read and one I'd recommend...but gird your loins if you're soft hearted like me!

A copy of this book was given in exchange for an honest review.