I’m not a huge fan of either Keira Andrews or Joel Leslie (thought I like them both), so I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this story, which immediately rocketed to the top tier of my audiobooks listened to this year. I really enjoyed every aspect of it, from how Ethan’s disability was handled, to Clay’s journey accepting his sexuality, to the sense of adventure and fun that infuses the first half of it during the tour where the two of them meet, melting into a shy, quiet sort of romance in the second half.
Ethan has just been dumped, on the night before his wedding day, by his frankly loathsome fiance, who was cheating on him with his best friend. Ethan, who is mostly deaf, decides to take his honeymoon trip anyway, where he meets the tour bus driver Clay, a divorced father of two. Clay is straight, or thinks he is, but they both find themselves drawn to the other. I like the way it takes Clay quite a few narrations to feel the attraction; it’s not a situation where two people instantly fall in love. After the tour, the two of them grow closer and earn their happy ending. It’s sweet, uncomplicated, and low angst, but not at all boring. Ethan and Clay just both seem so NICE, and yet so realistically depicted at the same time. Their age difference is remarked on, generally by other characters, but never turns into a huge deal.
This is not, it should be stressed, a “gay for you” story. Clay didn’t have much of a physical connection or romantic spark with his ex-wife, who he married young and was the only woman he had ever been with. Ethan awakens feelings Clay has repressed most of his life, for reasons that become clear. Everything develops believably and at a good pace. I like that Clay’s ex wife is neither demonized nor martyred; she’s just a woman who was trapped in a marriage that had become a friendship. She betrayed Clay’s trust, but there’s very little rancor or malice involved on either side. Even Ethan’s ex fiance, Michael, who I detested, got the chance to tell his side of the story, and isn’t just made into a knee-jerk villain.
The one part I could have done without, which was minor, was Ethan’s lectures to Clay about sexuality. I suppose it could be chalked up to millennial nonsense, but it felt a bit too much like the author was lecturing the reader. No thank you, I’ve been out of the closet for 20 years, I don’t need someone telling me about the gay community, thanks. This is something I’ve noticed happens frequently with this author; more so in recent releases. I wouldn’t even mind except Ethan’s lectures really go against the grain with my experience, starting with overlabeling Clay with fad words like “demisexual” (Clay leaves this one out when he describes himself late in the novel, thank god) and going straight on through to a treatise on the reclaiming of the word “queer,” which, at the very least, Ethan acknowledges some “older” gay men still find distasteful. Yes, I DO find the word distasteful, and I’m not that old, thank you very much.
Like I said, it’s only one or two short sections where this happens, but I found it irritating enough to knock the story rating down to four stars. Luckily, Joel Leslie’s excellent narration bumped the overall rating back up to five. Leslie is hit or miss with me, but he really did a stellar job here. I liked his voice for Ethan especially, soft and vulnerable but not unmasculine. And of course his Australian accent is fantastic, at least to my inexpert ears. He alternates between narrating chapters with an American accent and Australian depending on the point of view. It’s impressive.