Outsider by Olivia Cunning

Narrated by Joe Arden & Mackenzie Cartwright

When I first started listening to Outsider I thought my ears were going to melt off my head the sex was so explicit. I can’t say that I hadn’t been expecting it however; I’ve listened to some of Olivia Cunning’s books before and she certainly knows how to write dirty. What I hadn’t appreciated is that Outsider is effectively the second book in the Trey, Reagan and Ethan triad story. I did check the first book in the Exodus End World Tour series to see whether this book followed the same characters – but I didn’t check the Sinners on Tour series where their first book actually is (Double Time), my bad. That said, the story wasn’t difficult to pick up and the only question I had which took a while to answer was what Ethan did for the tour (answer: he’s Reagan’s bodyguard).

Trey, guitarist for Sinners and Reagan, the stand-in guitarist (she won a competition to replace an injured band member for a year) for Exodus End, and Ethan, are happily in a polyamorous relationship. They each love each other and have a scorching sexual connection. But Ethan is in the closet about being bisexual and both he and Reagan are in the closet about their polyamory.

Trey feels the outsider because he is the only one entirely comfortable in his skin and not bothered at all about who knows it. Ethan feels the outsider because the public face of the relationship is between Trey and Reagan so they are free to express affection in public; not so Ethan. And Reagan feels the outsider because she secretly wonders if Trey would rather be with Ethan alone rather than both of them.

Additionally, Ethan is an outsider because he’s not a musician and Reagan is the outsider with Exodus End, trying to find her place in the band and within the broader music industry.

When a sleazy tabloid prints lies about Reagan cheating on Trey with Ethan, things get a lot worse before they eventually get better.

All of the various conflicts are sorted out in the book and as listeners can imagine, most of that sorting out doesn’t take place in the bedroom. Ethan, Trey and Reagan have a strong chemistry and certainly have interesting and creative hot sex but that is more the glue that holds them together in rough times rather than a way of working out their issues. I wasn’t complaining but I did enjoy the story more when it became deeper and more meaty (that wasn’t supposed to be a pun). It also made the sexual connection more meaningful to me as a listener. To be fair, I may have felt that connection from the start had I listened (or read) Double Time prior to Outsider.

I liked the exploration of “after the falling in love part” in a ménage. How were all three going to get their needs met? Where were the compromises and would they work in the long term? Ultimately I got a little less of the former than I’d hoped for but there was plenty of the latter. There is a definite journey over the course of the book and it takes time to work it out. Even the labels the trio give themselves are something of an evolution. Initially Ethan identified as gay (and this was accepted by both Trey and Reagan, notwithstanding he was sleeping with both of them) but they all, in their own time and via their own route, came to see him as bisexual and this was slowly an identity Ethan embraced. I had some hesitation about the label thing at first but I think it all made sense by the end of the story.

I liked the narration but there were some early problems. Mr. Arden initially gave Trey a very light voice which was not particularly masculine. He also mispronounced Sed’s (the lead singer from Sinners’) wife’s name as “Meerna” instead of Myrna. I say initially because both of those things changed part way through the listen. Trey started sounding much more masculine – quite close to Ethan’s voice but still different enough that I could tell them apart – and he started saying Myrna the right way. What was disappointing is that those things weren’t fixed for the whole listen in the editing stage.

Other than those two things however, both Joe Arden and Mackenzie Cartwright did a good job of the narration. I said earlier that the story surprised me with how deep it was; the narration certainly helped with this as the timing and pacing was very good, as was the emotional delivery of both narrators.

I was particularly impressed with Ms. Cartwright’s narration but I did not dislike Mr. Arden’s. I would happily listen to both of them again.

Kaetrin


Narration: B

Book Content: B

Steam Factor: For your burning ears only

Violence Rating: Minimal

Genre: Contemporary/Erotic Romance/MMF

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Outsider was provided to AudioGals by Tantor Audio for a review.

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