I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher. I feel lucky and kind of privileged to have been given it. I’m now a fan. Marshall Thornton deftly paints a pair of relatable, likable and quirky characters struggling with themselves and each other, and Joel Leslie brings them charmingly to life.
The story is sweet and poignant and funny and maddening. It’s a simple light romance with not-so-simple characters and lots of twists and turns. Lionel is a very out gay man whose world is clothes, old movies, gossip, hook-ups, expensive cocktails and decorating. Dog is a closeted gay man who’s into sports and beer and hanging out with the team. "Lion"el is a big Cat and Dog is, well, a big Dog. They somehow end up drawn to each other. Can this possibly work? If so, how? And why? The book tries to answer that. I think it succeeds.
The chapters alternate POV characters. Thornton changed his style completely for the two very different characters — what concerns them, how they think and feel, even what kinds of words they use — and Leslie changed his reading to match. It was a real treat. The dialog, both internal and external, for both Dog and Lionel, is wonderful. I imagined Thornton spending a huge amount of time getting it just right and Leslie rehearsing over and over to do it justice.
I recommend Femme highly. From this example I suspect that anything written by Marshall Thornton or read by Joel Leslie is going to be really good, but this book with them together is very, very really good.