Audiobook Review: Gideon by Lily Morton Narrated by Joel Leslie #Review #Giveaway

Title: Gideon

Series: Finding Home #3

Author: Lily Morton

Narrator: Joel Leslie

Length:  9 hours, 43 minutes

Publisher: Audible

Reviewed by Sammy

 Synopsis

Gideon Ramsay is so far in the closet he should be a talking faun.
A talented, mercurial, and often selfish man, Gideon has everything he should want in life. Fame, money, acting awards - he has it all. Everything but honesty. At the advice of his agent, Gideon has concealed his sexuality for years. But it’s starting to get harder to hide, and his increasingly wild behavior is threatening to destroy his career. Then, he’s laid low by a serious illness and into his life comes Eli Jones.
Eli is everything that Gideon can’t understand. He’s sunny tempered, friendly, and optimistic. Even worse, he’s unaffected by grumpiness and sarcasm, which forms 90 percent of Gideon’s body weight. And now, Gideon is trapped with him without any recourse to the drugs and alcohol that have previously eased his way through awkward situations.
However, as Gideon gets to know the other man, he finds himself wildly attracted to his lazy smiles and warm, scruffy charm that seem to fill a hole inside Gideon that’s been empty for a long time. Will he give in to this incomprehensible attraction when it could mean the end of everything that he’s worked for?
From the best-selling author of the Mixed Messages series comes a story about a man who needs to realize that being true to yourself is really just a form of finding home. This is the third book in the Finding Home series, but it can be listened to as a stand-alone.

Purchase Link

Review

Gideon is drunk—again--and happily enjoying watching his current hook-up and their third make out in the limo. Still feeling a bit washed out from being sick during his last filming, Gideon refuses to give in to going to the doctor like his brother would like and instead parties even harder. But just as he is about to join the twosome who have made their way to his hotel suite a coughing fit causes him to pass out and the next thing he knows he’s in hospital recovering from a near deadly bout of pneumonia. His brother has hired him a nurse, Eli, and booked them on a cruise for senior citizens and Gideon has nothing to say about it even though his snarky moth is still going a mile a minute.

For the first time Gideon begins to feel better—not only physically but also mentally. Eli calms and grounds him and they enjoy a smart banter between them. But Eli is a professional who refuses to get involved with a client—Gideon’s agent, Frank, and his threats about trying to hook up with Gideon notwithstanding. Eli is determined to be just friends while in Gideon’s employ. So even though both men feel the natural spark arise between them they don’t act on it. In fact, it will take a separation to really make Gideon see just how much he wants Eli in his life and it will take some real assurances from Eli to help Gideon see that the lies his agent has planted in his mind over the years don’t add up to him having little worth as an out and proud gay man.

Lily Morton completes her Finding Home Series with Gideon’s story now in audio. While Gideon can definitely be listened to as a standalone, those familiar with the series will see old characters crop up and remember Gideon for being a bit of a jerk from the previous novel. Needless to say little has changed in his personality and it is just this aspect of Gideon that the narrator, Joel Leslie, brings off brilliantly. This narrator’s ability to carry off a bored and snarky British accent allows him to completely embody the essence of Gideon. It is uncanny how Joel Leslie just brings this character to life with his vocal prowess—Gideon sounds just as you might imagine him to and honesty it’s wonderful.

Not only Gideon but the other characters in this story are done so well with just variations in pitch, pacing and certain affects. Happily the different voices never bleed into one another. They are each uniquely voiced and recognizable. The humor and romance that are present in this story are brought to life quite well. This story and Joel Leslie’s talents are a match made in heaven and honestly I can think of no other narrator who could pull it off with such aplomb.

Giveaway

Enter the monthly giveaway

Contest ends August 31st

thanks!

a Rafflecopter giveaway