Narrated by Gary Furlong and Iggy Toma
Unguarded is my favourite (and the best so far) of the Vino and Veritas series – a warm, sexy and emotionally satisfying romance between a small-town veterinary surgeon and a snarky ex-pat Kiwi in which Jay Hogan once again demonstrates her talent for creating complex, relatable characters and finding the right balance between light and dark elements in her stories. It’s only been a couple of months since I read the book, but having two of my all-time favourite narrators on board for the audio meant I wasn’t going to waste any time before experiencing it again.
The book opens with Tai Samuels freezing his butt off as he’s trying to sleep in his crappy car, when he’s seen by the local police and told to move on. After catching his long-term boyfriend cheating on him with a pair of twinks earlier that evening, Tai stormed out with nothing but the clothes on his back and a few hundred dollars in his wallet, and drove. It’s not the first time his ex has cheated on him – and Tai curses himself for his stupidity in having forgiven him – but enough is enough and he got in his car and left Boston behind as fast as he could. Which is how he’s ended up in Vermont in clothes more suitable for clubbing than a New England winter.
The next day, looking for somewhere warm to regroup, Tai spends a few hours in the Vino and Veritas bookstore nursing a couple of coffees and chatting with the clerk, Briar, who gives him some useful advice and information. After he’s been there a while, Tai sees an attractive but harried-looking man carrying a cat carrier rush into the store, disappear out back and then emerge with a carrier full of angry moggy – and is surprised when the man, who introduces himself as the local vet Emmett Moore, asks him to keep an eye on the cat while he goes to the bathroom.
Emmett, a widower with a ten-year-old son, has never really managed to get things back on an even keel since the death of his wife four years earlier, and is run ragged trying to divide his attention between his veterinary business and bringing up his son Leo. The clinic receptionist has just quit, making things even more disorganised than usual, so the last thing he should be doing is mentally drooling over the gorgeous guy he met in the bookstore – but he can’t get him out of his mind. Emmett has only just returned to the clinic with his newest feline patient when he picks up a message from Briar saying he’s sending someone his way who might be able to help out at the clinic for a few days, and when his colleague Ivy tells him there’s someone out front to see him – a good looking guy with a cute accent – Emmett is stunned and terrified all at once. Because having the hot guy from the bookshop around would be way too dangerous for his peace of mind. He should just tell him thanks but no thanks…
Well, of course he doesn’t. ;)
There’s an immediate spark of attraction between Emmett and Tai, but exploring it is out of the question. Tai only plans to be in town for a few days and has just got out of an emotionally abusive relationship, while Emmett is a single dad and his life is… complicated. He’s bisexual and has always known it, but he’s not out; he loved his late wife (who was one of the few people who knew about his sexuality) wholeheartedly and never wanted anyone else, so coming out was never really an issue. He’s never had a relationship with a man – and even if he wanted to start something with Tai, he’s too boring, too repressed and too closeted for someone so vibrant and gorgeous. Besides, Leo has to be his number one priority.
But life has a habit of taking unintended directions, and as Tai and Emmett spend time together – working, chatting, getting to know about each other – the attraction between them grows until they can’t ignore it any longer. They agree that acting on that attraction would be a very bad idea, but no matter that they really try to keep their distance from one another (and their hands off each other) – that just isn’t happening.
Tai is one of those force-of-nature personalities who seems to be able to handle whatever life throws at him, where Emmett is quieter and more considered, yet they’re exactly what the other needs. For most of his life Tai has felt as though he never measured up, that he was just a pretty face and not much else, but Emmett sees past the looks, charm and snark to the kind, bright, thoughtful man beyond, and I loved the way Emmett’s support and belief in him enables Tai to start to repair his dented self-esteem and to move towards realising his true potential. And Tai brings colour, love and vitality back into Emmett’s life, showing him it’s okay to want more in it than his job and the son he adores, that he’s entitled to happiness, to be himself and be proud of who he is.
Their opposites-attract romance progresses quite quickly, but it develops organically and never feels rushed. I particularly liked the way Emmett is so sure of who he is and what he wants. He might not have had a relationship with a man before, but he knows what it feels like to fall hard for someone, and once he does, he’s all in. Tai is more cautious for obvious reasons, and is determined to stand on his own two feet in the relationship – which causes a little bit of friction between the pair – but they take a mature approach, and I appreciated that the author doesn’t throw in a silly misunderstanding just to create unnecessary drama.
Gary Furlong has been doing great work in Jay Hogan’s Auckland Med. series, so I was delighted to see that he’d signed on to narrate Unguarded as well. His interpretation of Tai is terrific; he captures the warmth of his personality and the vulnerability that lies beneath the snark very well, and all the secondary characters are portrayed appropriately and distinctly. His version of Emmett is great, too – softly spoken and a bit shy – and Leo sounds like a total sweetheart. I have to admit though, that while I was delighted to see Iggy Toma’s name also attached to this one, I did wonder how he’d do with Tai’s Kiwi accent. I’ve heard him do English accents – and I think an Australian one? – before, and they’ve been … okay, and to be fair, a New Zealand accent is probably not the easiest one to adopt, especially for an American. (Kaetrin and I had a brief conversation about this, and agreed it’s probably easier for British people to be able to speak in Australian/New Zealand accents than it is for Americans – I would happily discuss this further with anyone out there with more detailed knowledge of this!). In Mr. Toma’s favour, it’s obvious that he’s done some research and work on it because he uses certain typical vowel sounds and intonations in Tai’s speech, but the end result is… inconsistent. It’s not horrible and – I’m just going to come out and say this – it may well be that American listeners won’t have the same issues with it as I did. (Sorry!) In every OTHER respect however, Mr. Toma’s performance is excellent; well-paced and clearly differentiated – plus I loved his version of the feisty Ivy, and his Emmett is dreamy.
Unguarded is funny, poignant and sexy, boasting a wonderfully crafted romance and likeable, well-rounded characters. It’s a superb addition to the Vino and Veritas series and, like all the other books, it works perfectly well as a standalone. And despite the reservations I’ve expressed about the narration, I enjoyed the audio experience overall, so it earns a recommendation.
Caz
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