fan girl squeee

a wonderful and amazing listen - great story with lots of twists but oh such a great ending

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Fantastic Listen!

I have to give it to Z.A. Maxfield and Greg Boudreaux. When a story and narrator pull the feels from you to the point you don't want to stop listening, then they have done their jobs and done them beautifully. Not quite a 'gay for you' because Rory always had urges but never acted on them, yet in some ways close to it. Straight man Rory meets stunningly beautiful gay man Yamani, and angst ensues. Add in a psychopathic stalker, murder, being on the run, and the emotions run high.

Greg Boudreaux is one of my absolute favorite narrators. He never fails to bring the story to life. Thank you, Greg.

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M/M Romance and Suspense Thriller

Listen beyond the first chapter or two, the author tries to lead the reader astray with certain expectations about Rory. In fact believe the authoris playing with tropes and trying to gently parody them in a funny lighthearted way.

This novel is a thriller romance as the characters; Rory, a tall white Cajun Rory and Yamane, a petite Asian-American; travel from Long Beach to New Orleans try to escape a murderous stalker.

Suspend disbelief when reading to this story. Everything is dialled up to 11 - Rory is trying too hard to help save everyone, and his attitudes toward Yamane are often uncomfortable (eg not allowing him to smoke, or act with his own agency), & Amelia is too OTT to be believable, and the plot holes are there - a few things hinges on people not having access to cell phones when they need it. There are some lovely sexytimes, (but a couple of times I felt interfered with the flow of the action/pacing).

The narration was EXCELLENT, and when there were plenty of Louisiana voices they were still differentiated by Boudreaux.

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2 people found this helpful

Yaoi Soap Opera

This starts as a cheesy but cute romance when Rory, a country boy, goes to a convention to meet his favourite artist who he's romanticized into his dream girl. But when he comes face to face with the artist he realizes that they are, in fact, a very beautiful man. Feeling pity for his confused fan, Ran treats Rory to dinner where Rory starts to question how much, if at all, Ran being a man changes how he feels towards him.

And then suddenly the story becomes a thriller and a soap opera, when Ran's stalker re-emerges. She's described as having BPD (which feeds into the stereotype that neurodivegent people are violent) and somehow is untouchable no matter how publicly she lashes out. Here there are a lot of tropes that push the story forward, from police being completely incapable of doing anything to phones being absent in crucial situations to the main characters deciding to jump into situations themselves rather than get help. Ran is a sometimes insulting caricature of a gay man, being hauty and flamboyant and demanding luxury. Rory is often dismissive of Ran, calling him "Princess" and acting as though Ran is being dramatic when he's upset at someone for being homophobic and transphobic. Rory is a country boy, charming, and blessed by the story's macguffin to never lose at poker and be liked by everyone. At 5 hours in I realized I no longer cared how this ended and dropped the book.

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My favourite Maxfield book so far.

Loved the mix if heat, romance and plot. Storyline was engaging, the romance was so sweet, and the narration was excellent! a great listen.

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Give it a chance.

When discussing the 1999 movie The Movie, Roger Ebert put my thoughts about this book perfectly: "There is hardly a thing I can say in its favor, except that I was cheered by nearly every minute of it."

This book is INCREDIBLY PROBLEMATIC, melodramatic and unbelieveable, and at times just downright cringe inducing. But I serious cannot remember when I have last enjoyed a book more!!! The characters ridiculous stereotypes, but I loved them both so much that I didn't mind.

Greg Boudreaux is seriously one of the best in the industry. This book is silly and dated, but it was absolutely an enjoyable ride. Give it a whirl.

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A pulpy action romp with some hot hot sex

By the time I got to the end of this story and thought back to how it had originally started, I felt a bit of whiplash. The book changes from a somewhat cheesy romance concept to more of a summer blockbuster with mostly snappy pacing and an over the top villain.

The characters are what really sing in this story and they are written and performed beautifully. There's more than a couple sex scenes that seem to ramp up in intensity with each instance and it gives the relationship between the main couple a real sense of progression even if they do fall in love unrealistically fast.

My biggest problem with the book is that it seems to suffer from a jarring American callousness when it comes to themes of violence and death. When bodies start dropping like flies and none of the main characters takes a second to worry about having taken part in it, it feels a little weird. Nothing you wouldn't see in a movie starring The Rock or Vin Diesel but definitely a strange contrast to the soft, self-reflective moments that Rory and Yamane have together.

Sure it's got some problematic stuff in it but it's still miles more enjoyable than some of the squeaky clean, boring as hell M/M that's been coming out lately where every character is morally pure and the author pauses in the middle of a sex scene to lecture everyone on the importance of consent and using protection.

It's free! Check it out!

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Drawn in by Drawn Together

The story did draw me in and keep me engaged. But there was one scene where the character sexually assaulted his unconscious lover that entirely unnecessary and really took away from how good this book could have been.

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Thoroughly enjoyable

The story was unexpected and multifaceted, quite enjoyable. And the narrator was very good with his distinction of the different voices and intonations. I don’t know how one voice had me seeing distinct people in my mine. I will definitely seek out other things read by Greg Boudreaux.

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👍👍

Absolutely love this book you really don't know what's gonna happen next along the way I actually own this book on this book on an MP3 version that I purchased on Amazon a couple years ago But my DVD player stopped working so I wanted to listen to it again and didn't realize it was on here for free I really recommend this bug really recommend this Book it's very sweet sexy Jam packed with some action along the way

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