I wouldn’t probably have chosen to leave a review on this book except I have a few content warnings that I wish I’d read before I started the book. Number 1: a massive warning for emetophobia, including seasickness and food poisoning. Additionally, a warning for extreme identity-motivated violence against a gay man and lots of LGBTQ trauma.
I expected this to be a lighthearted read and it ended up being not so light. There was fluff but also a lot of hard stuff that I didn’t expect. I guess I should have guessed from the description that there would be discussion of internalized homophobia and coming to terms with being gay. There was also a lot of time spent to teaching the reader about the hard of hearing community, which was interesting, but again, not what I expected from the book. It also read kind of like a tourist brochure for Australia, though I did enjoy the setting.
Joel Leslie did a great job narrating as always. It was fun to hear him do Australian accents!
In the end, I’m glad this wasn’t the first Keira Andrews book I read. It hasn’t put me off her books because I know I’ve enjoyed her other work, but based on this book I might not have continued. It makes me sad to write this review as I usually only post positive ones! But I did want to put content warnings in and to be honest about how I liked the book.