Semper Fi by Keira Andrews

Narrated by John Solo

Semper Fi is an historical romance set in the 1940s, which tells the story of two guys who become close friends during their time with the marines in WW2 and of how they make a life together afterwards. The romance is a gently moving slow burn, and the author has clearly done extensive research into the locations and military operations she describes, and also does a really good job of creating a strong sense of camaraderie among the characters and portraying the “hurry up and wait” nature of military life. (In her author’s note in the print edition of the book, she credits her late father and his extensive collection of books about WW2 for their help in her endeavours.) This is one of those stories that begins slowly and gradually draws you in via a combination of interesting background, engaging characters and poignant love story so that it becomes impossible to put down after a while; it’s not a short audiobook, clocking in at just under twelve hours, but it was well worth the time I spent with it.

It’s 1942, and recruits Jim Bennett and Cal Cunningham meet on the train as they, and hundreds of other men, are travelling to start basic training in the Marine Corps. Cal is instantly struck by the blonde, blue-eyed and wholesome farm-boy from upstate New York and they strike up a conversation, during which Jim tells Cal he’s married with a young daughter, Sophie, back home on the family apple orchard with his wife, Ann. Cal, who is queer, has joined the marines mostly to get away from his privileged, pushy family, and while can’t deny he’s a bit disappointed at that news, he pushes those feelings aside and over the following weeks and months, the two men become firm friends. Their friendship unfolds gradually, each chapter beginning with a foray into the past, showing them as they get through their training – their drill instructor decides Cal is to be his latest whipping-boy, but Cal is tough and stubborn, and never allows the man to break his spirit – and taking us with them and their unit when they’re deployed to the Pacific Islands. The conditions are horrible, they watch their friends and comrades die around them, but through it all, maintain a deep and abiding friendship which is, on Cal’s part at least, tinged with longing and the sadness that he’s fallen for a man who can never feel the same way.

After the war, Cal and Jim go their separate ways, Cal back to his city-slicker life working for his wealthy father’s business, Cal back to the family orchard, although the death of his father while he was deployed means the responsibility for the farm is now all his. The remainder of the story is set in 1948, and finds Jim a widower with two young children – Sophie, aged nine and three-year-old Adam – his wife having died in a car accident some months earlier. He has help around the house and with the kids in the form of the motherly Mrs. O’Brien, but his farm hand, Eddie, has left, leaving him badly in need of help with the coming harvest.

Desperate to get away from his overbearing father and socialite mother (who is pressing him to get married), Cal drops everything and heads upstate to Tivoli to help his friend. His first sight of Jim in three years brings back all the old feelings Cal had thought – hoped – were dead, and he wonders if he’s made a huge mistake in going there. Before long however, he and Jim settle into their familiar patterns of friendship, even though every moment they spend together only serve to strengthen Cal’s yearning for a man – and a life – he can’t have.

Cal and Jim’s friendship is wonderfully written, with a strong sense of loyalty, trust and companionship that is unshakeable at its core. There is never any question that these two feel deeply for one another and would do anything for each other and want to make the other happy; they love each other, and are perfectly suited, although only Cal knows he is in love which adds a tender poignancy to the whole thing. The romance develops slowly and in a way that feels absolutely right for both the time period and for the fact that the idea that he might be attracted to men – or to Cal, at least – has never once entered Jim’s head, which is why the thoughts he begins to have about Cal – sinful, perverted thoughts as he first thinks – are so unsettling. This is a time when homosexuality was illegal and widely regarded as unnatural and disgusting, and Jim’s gradual realisation that what he is feeling for Cal is something beyond friendship is hard for him to accept and articulate.

Narrator John Solo isn’t new-to-me, although I haven’t reviewed one of his performances before. He’s an experienced and popular narrator of m/m romance (in fact I have another of his narrations in my TBL), and he delivers a strong and expressive performance that captures the essence of the characters and conveys the often difficult emotional content of the story very well. His portrayal of both leads is excellent; Cal’s dialogue is read in a higher-pitch and quicker tempo than Jim’s which is deeper and more considered, which makes his rare, dry humour that much more of a surprise when it appears. The secondary characters are clearly differentiated using a variety of pitch, timbre an accent, from the drill instructor (who is almost always yelling) to Jim’s gravelly-toned, grouchy father-in-law to young Sophie and Rachel, the young woman Jim’s in-laws would like him to marry. On the negative side, Mrs. O’Brien’s Irish accent is non-existent, but my biggest issue with the narration as a whole is Mr. Solo’s tendency to slip into what I can only describe as “movie-trailer-voiceover-man” mode at certain points in the story. He doesn’t do it all the time by any means, but there are times – particularly during the sex scenes – when he exaggerates certain words or, more often, a certain syllable within a word, and that over-emphasis sounds … odd. It’s hard to describe in print; all I can say is that it screws with the natural speech rhythms and can make whatever he’s reading at that point sound artificial and overblown.

I enjoyed Semper Fi, which is quietly compelling with no unnecessary drama and which features a small group of well-drawn secondary characters in addition to the two leads. I’m not the biggest fan of children in romance novels, but Sophie is engaging and well-written; mischievous, petulant, inquisitive and loving, and she feels like a real character rather than a plot-moppet. Cal and Jim are considerate, decent men, Cal’s breezy good-humour a nice contrast to Jim’s quiet strength, and their romance is equally heart-breaking and heart-warming. The way things eventually work out feels perfectly right for the time, and there’s a lovely epilogue set ten years in the future (told from Sophie’s PoV) which gives listeners a glimpse of the life Cal and Jim have made together. In spite of my reservations about John Solo’s performance, the issues I’ve pointed out happened infrequently, and once I’d got used to them, didn’t spoil my overall enjoyment of the audiobook, which is strongly recommended.

Caz