Dreamspinner Presents: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3526&osCsid=pe06ins86vgbqor5le91ve7s91
Blurb
After Quinn O’Malley loses his partner of ten years, Aaron, to cancer, he withdraws from everything. In a single tragic moment, he goes from an artist with a loving partner and a future to an uninspired comic book store owner who barely exists. He hides behind a shield of grief, refusing to let Aaron go. He feels guilty for even trying to imagine a life apart from what he’d had.
The charming party planner Quinn’s best friend insists he meet on a blind date isn’t someone he’s ready for. Brady Banner walks into Quinn’s small frozen world and turns everything upside down. For years, Quinn has focused on endings, but as Brady begins to thaw his existence, Quinn realizes that one moment can do more than stop a life – it can also start a new one.
Morgan’s Review
Both book and audiobook
Quinn was in love with Aaron. Aaron got cancer and died two years ago. Quinn is very, very sad about this. He finally agrees to go out on a blind date set up by his BFF and meets Brady.
Brady is a saint.
Really, he is.
Brady listens, understands, and even fights for Quinn, despite the constant pressure of Aaron’s figurative ghost in the room. (No, this isn’t a paranormal story!)
I both really loved and really didn’t love this book. Especially in audio format. There were times when if felt like HOURS of internal dialog about how much Quinn missed Aaron and how unfair it was to Brady and how much he missed Aaron and how unfair that was to Brady… you get the idea. These bouts of doubt were interspersed with Brady first just getting through to Quinn then their relationship slowly growing. But it was a little, one step forward, two steps back, for awhile.
At the mid point we finally got some momentum and the relationship began to get its legs under itself and move forward. The couple had some nice smexy times and I really started to enjoy things much more.
The narrator did a nice job, though sometimes his intonations felt a little “soap opera” in the laying on the drama too thick.
I think that I would give the book a 4 of 5 hearts, because I really, really liked the story, the characters and the happy place it ended. But, it needed a lot of editing and in book form you can skim a heck of a lot easier than in audio form.
Because the narration was good, but not great and the inability to skim very well, I’d knock the narration down to 3.5 of 5 hearts.
So, overall, as a listening experience I’d give it 3.75 hearts, but really, I’d recommend reading this over listening. It’s just too long and the story is great, but you might want to skim the first half to get to the really nice second half.
