Narrated by Joel Leslie
Risk Taker is book three in Lily Morton’s Mixed Messages series, and in it, the author turns her focus to Henry Ashworth, who is Gabe’s (Rule Breaker) former college roommate and closest friend. Handsome, witty, clever Henry has appeared in both the previous books, coming across as someone who’s got his shit together – although his ability to offer wryly insightful relationship advice when his friends need a little nudge in the right direction is rather at odds with his penchant for casual sex in nightclub toilets. For years, he’s been content with a series of NSA hook-ups, but has lately started to realise that lifestyle isn’t working for him anymore and, having watched his close friends fall in love and settle down, decides it’s time he started looking for something a bit more long-term.
I’m going to find someone who wants me: Henry, the family lawyer who loves his dog, works hard and sometimes comes home late and knackered. Someone who will embrace the life I yearn for. Monogamy and a true partnership that works because the couple love each other.
The problem is that for years, there’s something – or rather, someone – that’s been holding him back from looking for someone to share his life with; Ivo Robinson, his very best friend and former step-brother (his mother was briefly married to Henry’s father) and the man Henry has been secretly in love with since he was fifteen. He might not have realised back then what he was feeling, but he knows it now – and knows it’s hopeless. Ivo is a wanderer, a photojournalist who reports from some of the world’s most dangerous places, coming home to England rarely and not sticking around for long before he’s off on another potentially life-threatening assignment. Henry tries hard not to think about that whenever Ivo leaves, but the danger Ivo faces on a regular basis is brought home strongly to him when he arrives home late one night to find Ivo slumped over on his doorstep and bleeding from a bullet wound sustained a few days earlier.
Once he’s over the shock, Henry is delighted to have Ivo home and safe, and is even more pleased when Ivo tells him that he’s been temporarily benched and is going to be home for several months while he recovers, physically and mentally. (As a side note, I was pleased that Ivo was encouraged to visit a therapist and that he was sensible and mature enough to actually go to his sessions.) But being around each other every day makes it harder and harder for Henry to keep his long-suppressed feelings for Ivo locked away; knowing Ivo will be off again as soon as he can and is never going to give Henry what he wants, he decides to continue with his plans to start looking for a proper relationship and lets Dylan fix him up on a few dates. (Of course, hilarity, awkwardness and disaster ensue!)
OMG, the pining is strong in this one! It becomes quickly apparent that Ivo is every bit as far gone for Henry as Henry is for Ivo, and that they are pretty much the only two people on the planet who can’t see it. Their connection is so strong as to be palpable, but both men have their reasons for being wary of moving their friendship to another level. After sharing a passionate kiss when they were eighteen, Ivo made it clear to Henry that while he would always be the most important person in Ivo’s life, he didn’t want to risk the relationship they had, and Henry decided it was better to be Ivo’s dearest friend than push for more and end up with nothing. He’s been careful to stay in the ‘friend zone’ ever since. And Ivo is still trying to live by his late father’s (also a globetrotting journalist) mantra of “no ties” and “people make you weak”. He thinks he’ll be able to deal with watching Henry fall in love and settle down with someone else – he won’t like it and it’ll hurt, but Henry deserves to be with someone who will love him as he should be loved. Being confronted with the reality of Henry actually dating however… well, that’s a different matter entirely.
Risk Taker is perhaps a little different in tone to the previous books in the series, but it’s still full of terrific dialogue, warmth and humour. The snippets of the letters that Henry and Ivo wrote to each other when they were at school which introduce each chapter are frequently hilarious, and the friendship that evolves between them is incredibly well conveyed; there’s never any question but that these two know and understand each other in ways that nobody else ever can or will, and that they share a soul-deep, forever kind of affection.
“When I die, I’ll have your name on my lips, and my last thought will be of you.”
And while there were definitely times I wanted to bang their heads together – the not talking about things in the latter part of the book went on for a bit too long – the author also made it easy to understand where they were coming from, and I adored them both.
In fact, there was only one thing about the book that really didn’t work for me, and that was
I loved the way in which Henry quietly encourages Ivo to pursue his talent as a painter; there’s something so romantic about knowing another person so well that you can tell exactly what they need when even they can’t and know how to get them there. There are also some great scenes in which Henry and Ivo spend time with the couples from the previous books, most notably one in which Gabe and Ivo find Dylan and Henry drunk and stoned on the patio;
“Gabe,” Dylan says happily. “I’m looking at the stars. They’re up there in the sky.”
“Where else would they be? Under the rug in the lounge?”
“That’s a good question,” Dylan says lazily, and then sighs contentedly and goes back to looking at the sky.
“Another good question is why your feet are in a flowerpot,” Gabe says snippily.
Dylan smiles lazily. “So I don’t get cold.”
Joel Leslie’s performance here – and in the other books in the series – is superb. He really is the perfect narrator for these stories, and he’s at the top of his game. His pacing is perfect, his comic timing is spot on and he hits every emotional cue, pulling listeners in as he expertly communicates the longing and the myriad of conflicting emotions Henry and Ivo are experiencing. His interpretation of Henry has just the right amount of snarky-primness, and his differentiation is excellent, his portrayals of Gabe, Dylan, Asa and Jude consistent with the way they were voiced in the previous books. He does a terrific job in sustaining Ivo’s French accent (Ivo is half French) in both dialogue and narrative, switching between accented and non-accented English without breaking a sweat and also adopts a convincing Italian accent to portray Ivo’s step-father; he and Ivo only have one scene together, but Mr. Leslie makes clear distinctions between them (accents) without either one ending up sounding like “multi-purpose European”!
In spite of my minor niggles, I enjoyed this story of two people who have been in love for over half their lives finally realising that love is worth taking a risk for. Funny and sexy, frustrating and heart-breaking, Risk Taker is a thoroughly entertaining listening experience, and it rounds out the Mixed Messages series in a highly satisfying way. Lily Morton and Joel Leslie have quickly become one of my favourite author/narrator teams. Long may their association continue!
Caz
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