???
Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.
Wouldn’t you like to get away?
Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name,
and they’re always glad you came.
???
Don’t you love the comfortable appeal of your neighborhood pub? In this group of tales that place is Hamburger Mary’s and the denizens aren’t necessarily locals but the patrons of this restaurant/bar and the family of friends that they’ve formed there. BTW… Hamburger Mary’s is a real franchise restaurant with about 15 gay-friendly locations across the USA including the Denver one featured in these tales. I’ve only been to the now closed Tampa (Ybor City), Florida location so I can’t attest to the hunkiness of the wait-staff first hand but they ARE friendly folks.
The first tale, Nachos & Hash, involves Cody and Darwin, both small-town midwestern boys who’ve relocated the the “big city” of Denver, but one as blue-collar as the other is white collar. Can they overcome the difference in the size of their dreams? This story is pretty timeless as there will always be drama around country guys coming to “the big city” to be freer than they were allowed to be in their small-minded small towns.
The second tale. Vodka & Handcuffs is particularly timely given the recent increase in police violence and bigotry in the USA and the increased attention to the Black Lives Matter movement. Here we have a black semi-closeted cop saddled with a bigoted and small-minded partner, falling for a man of Indian heritage. I kept wondering while hearing this what the current governor of Colorado (an openly gay Jewish man) would think.
The third tale, Mascara & Bandages should carry a trigger warning as it centers on a gay bashing incident that’s described in some detail. When the young drag queen who was the target of the attack gets involved with the ER doctor of Asian heritage we have yet another sweetly romantic tale and get to live yet another kind of relationship a bit vicariously.
The fourth and final tale, Deeds & Confetti is centered on the owner/manager of the bar and a much younger guy that is finally able to act on an attraction he’s fostered for quite some time. Again, likable guys and a sappy sweet romance (even if under kinda weird circumstances)
Gerrod Larkin does a generally great job as the narrator and, despite the mostly midwestern setting, brings a few regional accents to the various boys we meet. However, he needs to work on his women’s voices. The mother’s voice in Vodka & Handcuffs was one of the most annoying examples of what NOT to do to that I’ve encountered. Fortunately women’s voices are very infrequent in these tales. And that was the only one that was truly jarring. More importantly, his voice acting and narration was good overall and particularly so when voicing the younger male characters (of which there are several) and the speeding inner monologue of Ryan was charming.
*** Note: I received a free copy of this audio-book in hopes of an honest and impartial review. ***