Narrated by Glen Lloyd
I enjoyed the story in Imago by N.R. Walker recently but the narration not so much, so I was happy to try another book from this author, this time with an Australian narrator. Different in tone completely to Imago, Throwing Hearts is a conflict-free fluffy romance, perfect for someone who wants a no-stress experience and lots of warm fuzzy feelings.
I admit I could have used a little more tension than Throwing Hearts had but it was nevertheless a very sweet romance with enough heat to the sex scenes to keep things interesting.
Leo Secomb is a 27-year-old gay Brisbane man who works as a store manager in a clothing chain store. Every Friday he visits his friend Clyde, a 71-year-old gay man whom he met at Arcus, a community organisation for older LGBTQ folks. Leo is part of the “Bridging the Gap” program – think “Big Brother/Big Sister” but with queer people, and seniors instead of kids. Over the 2 years Leo has been involved with Arcus, he and Clyde have become firm friends. Clyde is delightfully grumpy – he was my favourite character; a real scene-stealer.
The latest Arcus program for LGBTQ seniors has a group of participants and their younger buddies doing a four-week pottery course at a local ceramics shop. 28-year-old gay man, Merrick Bowman owns and operates Kil’n Time where the group of eight Arcus people will do their classes for a couple of hours every Friday.
The attraction between Leo and Merrick is immediate and over the course of the four weeks of classes they begin to date and fall in love. There is really little more to it than that. Perhaps with a bit too much detail about the minutiae of their lives and their decision-making, it read like a real-life romance without any drama, as they get to know one another and find their feet in the relationship. Sometimes I felt the pair came across as younger than they actually were, particularly when they were each stressing about “does he like me?”
Merrick has a gay uncle, Donny, and after the first Arcus class, he convinces Donny to join too. Clyde and Donny immediately hit it off so Throwing Hearts is a twofer. Donny and Clyde are a wonderful pair – I could easily have listened to a whole book about them. I won’t spoil their story here but there is a coming out aspect to their tale which I really appreciated and thought very well done.
Throwing Hearts had the advantage of an Australian narrator in Glen Lloyd. It was my first experience with this work. There were many things to like but some aspects of the narration grated. The main issue I had was with some of the pronunciation. Instead of “Bowman” (as in bow and arrow) which is how I would say it, Merrick’s surname was pronounced as in taking a bow or the bow of a ship. Leo’s name was even more puzzling. Secomb is pronounced, I believe, “seekum” but Mr. Lloyd said it “seh-comb” (as in the thing you do to your hair and with a very short first syllable, almost “s’comb” suggesting Leo was of Italian heritage maybe? – he was not). At one point in the story, there was a reference to the singer Sade and he called her “Sadie”. *cries”. There were other things but they were the ones I noticed the most.
There was mostly a very subtle (and sometimes indistinguishable) difference between the voices Mr. Lloyd used for Leo and Merrick but generally Leo sounded more sunshine-y happy and Merrick was a little more serious. The best voice was used for Clyde. It was authentic grumpy old man Australian and it was perfect for him. A couple of times the pitch slipped but mostly it was fantastic. Donny’s voice was softer and very slightly accented denoting his part-Japanese heritage. The older female characters had some definition to their tones which felt authentic, but the younger girls sounded very much like Leo and Merrick which was a little disappointing.
The emotion and pacing were very good however and I can’t tell you how much I appreciated the Australian accent being consistently (and authentically) used for the entire book.
There was one instance where a sentence was repeated and obviously not picked up in editing but otherwise, technically the audiobook was well done.
I enjoyed finding a bit out about pottery – I was nearly inspired to do a class myself until I remembered my skill level is a lot more Leo than Clyde or Donny – and I had a chuckle at the rampant innuendo inherent in throwing clay. Expect some references to Ghost and Patrick Swayze, including a little scene re-enactment if you know what I mean. Ahem.
Throwing Hearts lacked tension but it didn’t lack for charm. If a listener is in the mood for something laid back and fluffy, this audiobook may well do the trick.
Kaetrin
Buy Throwing Hearts by N.R. Walker on Amazon
