Top Secret by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy

Narrated by Teddy Hamilton and Christian Fox

Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy’s Him is one of the most beloved novels in the m/m genre so when the authors announced their first collaboration in three years, expectations were naturally very high. Reactions to the book have been mixed, but once I saw that Teddy Hamilton was on board for the audio, and had been paired once again with Christian Fox (they were excellent in Ms. Bowen’s The Understatement of the Year), I knew that whatever the story’s faults, the narration was bound to be superb. And it was.

Top Secret starts out with a Shop Around the Corner vibe, as two people who dislike each other in real life start to fall for one another when they start chatting anonymously via a hook-up app. Keaton Hayworth III has it all – good looks, money and a hot girlfriend he’s been dating since high school. Life would be perfect if it wasn’t for the fact that his father, who runs a large pharmaceutical company, wants him to go into the family business after graduation, while Keaton – who is studying biology – wants to move into research and continue into post-graduate study, and is dreading the day when he’s going to have to tell his father the truth.

Economics student Luke Bailey is at Derby College on a scholarship which pays for his tuition but nothing else, so he has to work his butt off in order to pay the rent and other living expenses. He keeps himself very much to himself; nobody knows about his shitty family or what he does to earn money and he wants to keep it that way. He’s prickly and defensive, and he’s determined to better himself and leave his crappy upbringing behind, but his default position is distrust and he finds it really difficult to open up to anyone.

When he discovers that the president of the fraternity gets free accommodation, he decides to throw his hat into the ring. Not having to pay rent will mean he won’t have to work so much, will have more time to study and that he won’t be so tired all the time. The fly in the ointment however is that his opponent for the presidency is everybody’s favourite golden boy Keaton Hayward III – the rich, stuck-up arsehole with whom Luke shares a suite but who has never given Luke the time of day.

When Keaton’s girlfriend Annika tells him she wants a threesome for her birthday, he’s thrown for a loop. But okay, if that’s what she wants, then that’s what she’ll get; he signs up with an app called Kink and fairly quickly receives a message from someone called SinnerThree, who seems open and approachable, and talks LobsterShorts – as Keaton has dubbed himself – through some of the dos and don’ts of threesomes. Over the following days and weeks, the two men chat frequently, their exchanges a terrific mix of funny and flirty, serious and geeky (flatworm penis fencing anyone?) – but for reasons he doesn’t question too closely, Keaton doesn’t tell Annika he’s found someone to make her birthday wish come true. He also finds himself thinking more about his own sexuality; he’s always been the type of guy who’ll try anything once, and he’s definitely open to experimentation – but is taken by surprise at the attraction he’s feeling towards SinnerThree and the eagerness with which he greets each incoming message from the other man.

Of course, nothing remains a secret forever. The night of Annika’s birthday arrives, and with it the revelation we’ve known is coming – but now Luke and Keaton have got to know each other for real, it’s just not possible for them to go back to the way things were before. A relationship between them shouldn’t work… yet in spite of the difference in their backgrounds and personalities – it does.

I’ll admit that I wasn’t all that interested in the fraternity election plotline; I’m not at all familiar with the concept of fraternities and that whole dude-bro-y vibe doesn’t interest me, so I sort of glazed over when those parts of the story went on for too long. But I liked Keaton and Luke and the way their relationship evolved, even though I felt it took a bit too long for Luke to really accept that Keaton loved him and to finally stop himself from holding back emotionally. And while it’s perhaps a small thing, I did like that Annika isn’t a bitch and ends up becoming Keaton’s friend and confidante. One word of caution though – LobsterShorts and SinnerThree are texting and sexting while Keaton and Annika are still a couple and I know that some will regard that as cheating. It didn’t worry me, but YMMV. While the story didn’t quite reach the emotional heights of Him and Us, the narration in Top Secret was absolute perfection and the performances by Teddy Hamilton and Christian Fox elevated it to a considerable degree. Both narrators really nailed their characters; Luke is delightfully snarky and deliciously naughty and every facet of his personality is present in Teddy Hamilton’s voice, the charm he rarely shows and the deeply buried vulnerability he tries never to admit to. Christian Fox is every bit as good, bringing real depth and truth to Keaton’s curiosity about his sexuality, his nervousness and his growing feelings for Luke. The pacing is spot on, the character differentiation is good throughout and both performances are satisfying on every level. Not every dual narration works so well, but this one is a delight, and I’m sure I’ll be re-listening to Top Secret in the not too distant future.

Caz