Strip Me by Margay Leah Justice

Narrated by Kale Williams and Sebastian York

I’m far more likely to take a chance on a new or new-to-me author in audio than I am in print, especially if their book is performed by someone I enjoy listening to. So, when Margay Leah Justice’s Strip Me came up for review with two very familiar names attached, I decided to give it a try. Kale Williams is an experienced narrator I’ve enjoyed listening to on several occasions and Sebastian York is… well, Sebastian York! If nothing else, the narration should be good, right? And it is.

But the story? There are a couple of good ideas here, but overall, it’s a bit of a mess, the characterisation is fairly superficial, and the writing is distinctly amateurish in places. Gay-For-You stories are tricky to do well at the best of times and I’ve read and listened to far better examples of the trope than this one.

Strip Me opens with workaholic Sam Richmond rather reluctantly visiting a strip club with friends on his birthday. It’s not really his thing, but what his friends haven’t told him is that the club employs male and female dancers on alternate nights – and that this is one of the nights when the dancers are men. Okay, so Sam isn’t freaked out; he’s not bothered at all really, until he notices one dancer in particular – and for some reason can’t take his eyes off him.

Sam’s friends – and I was already asking myself “with friends like these, who needs enemies?” – have another surprise in store for him, which is how he ends up in one of the private rooms in the back, blindfolded, with his hands tied (loosely) to the sofa. When he hears the door open, he just knows it’s the guy he’d been watching.

By strange co-incidence (!) it’s Rico McIntyre’s thirtieth birthday that night and although he, like Sam, identifies as straight, he can’t deny that being the sole focus of the hot guy in the suit had been one helluva turn-on. He thinks his colleagues must have decided to give him a birthday present… and he might as well enjoy it.

An intense make-out session follows – actually, it’s more than making out, but I guess if you’re straight, exchanging blow-jobs, rubbing off and rimming don’t count as having sex. (*/irony*) Somebody please correct me if I’m wrong. Whatever, the guys have a wild night and part hours later, assuming they’ll never cross paths again. Except… Sam can’t stop thinking about Rico and the incredible (not) sex they’d had, but more than that, he’d felt a connection with him like nothing he’s felt with anyone else. He ends up going back to the club – and Rico – that weekend, and then again a few more times, until finally, scared at what it might all mean, he legs it to New York where he spends the next three months shagging as many women as possible in order to try to get Rico out of his system. (Clearly, Sam hasn’t read enough romance novels to know that NEVER works.)

No, unluckily for Sam, fate has other ideas. The story now veers into “OMG, the hottie I hooked up with last night is my boss/business rival” territory, because the next time Sam and Rico see each other, is in Sam’s office.

Stop rolling your eyes so hard – you’ll do yourself an injury!

After this, Sam and Rico, blindsided by their mutual attraction and the fact that they’re feeling more than just attraction, decide it’s something worth exploring, and that they should try dating. Rico says they should take sex out of the equation so they can make sure whatever is going on between them isn’t just based on physical attraction, and neither wants to risk coming out if whatever this is isn’t going anywhere. Sam’s dad is on at him to settle down and get married for the sake of the company (?!), so Sam says he’ll probably have to go out with some women for appearance’s sake – oh, and he might sleep with one or two of them if he needs to scratch any itches because Rico won’t be putting out. What a prince.

All this happens in the first few chapters, and I quickly lost count of all the inconsistencies and implausibilities, but here are a few of the ones that kept nagging at me. It was difficult to accept that two men who have never so much as looked at another man in a sexual way (well, we’re later told that Rico thought about it once or twice in college) would hook up without any real qualms, but let’s move on: Rico is thirty and seems to have a good day job, but still works three nights a week at a strip club. (Reasons are given, but they’re pretty flimsy.) Although part of the plot hinges around the fact that the company Sam works for – incidentally, owned by his obnoxious father – is poised to buy out the firm Rico works for, we never know what either of them does for a living. This company we’re told Sam works so hard for and which his father neglects his family for… I have no idea what it was or did. And then, when Rico’s company goes down and Sam offers him a job, he’ll report directly to Sam, but of course, that won’t affect their personal relationship in any way. Um… this sort of thing has always been a huge no-no in most workplace romances, and I suspect that if Rico had been a woman, we’d all be saying “no way!” There’s some dumb last-minute drama and Rico’s Big Secret is revealed (which raised yet more issues I won’t go into because – spoilers). But the real kicker is this – the WTF? mid-scene ending. There’s no mention of a cliffhanger in the blurb, and I can (at time of writing) find no mention of a sequel. Way to piss off your audience, Ms. Justice.

It will come as no surprise that the only thing that kept me from ripping out my earbuds and stomping on them was the narration, which was as engaging and polished as I’d expect from two such experienced performers. It’s probably down to their portrayals that I found Sam and Rico to be as likeable as I did, because some of the things they say and do are naïve/dumb/ridiculous/All of The Above. Sebastian York narrates the chapters told from Rico’s PoV, and his gorgeous, deep baritone contrasts nicely with Kale Williams’ slightly higher pitch and softer timbre, so listeners always know whose head they’re in at any given point. Both do a good job of portraying the other lead, Mr. Williams adopting a lower, slightly gruffer tone when Rico is speaking, and Mr. York using a lighter tone and timbre for Sam, and all the other technical issues – pacing, enunciation and character differentiation – are perfectly fine. There are a few female secondary characters in the story – Rico’s mother and sister, and Sam’s sister – and they’re clearly differentiated, although differently realised by each narrator. They do an excellent job with the sex (or not) scenes, which again, is no surprise considering they’re both well-versed in the genre, and don’t hesitate to pull out the stops in the few more intense, emotional moments.

I can’t say that the expert narration elevated the story in Strip Me, because I was all too conscious of its shortcomings, but I can say that Mr. Williams and Mr. York managed to convey a degree of emotional connection between the protagonists and made me want to find out what happened to them. I can’t recommend this audio if you’re looking for a well put-together story of sexual awakening and discovery, but if, however, listening to Sebastian York narrating a male/male romance is on your bucket list… you pays your money and you takes your choice.

Caz