Narrated by Greg Boudreaux
It’s no secret around here that I’ll listen to Greg Boudreaux read just about anything. He’s the main reason I picked up Limelight (the fifteenth book in the multi-authored Vino and Veritas series) – and having listened to and read several of the other books in the set, I believed the story in this one should at least be fairly decent. Oh, how wrong I was. Limelight is six-and-a-half hours of no story, ridiculously contrived (minimal) conflict, overblown and sentimental dialogue and instalove – and if I hadn’t been listening to it for review, I’d have DNF’d well before the halfway mark.
The story – such as it is – is this. Some years before it begins, Tag Campbell – aka the artist formerly known as Titus Taylor – was a member of a world famous, hugely successful rock band. But when creative differences led to his bandmates forcing him out (in a very public, unprofessional and hurtful way), he ran away to Vermont, changed his name, kept his head down, and for the past few years, has run a small farm near Burlington where he keeps bees and makes mead which he sells to, among other places, the Vino and Veritas wine bar. He’s just made a delivery there one evening and is about to head out when his eye is caught by a head of bright blond curls and the young man they belong to as he steps up to the microphone on stage.
Shy, geeky Caleb Holt is an accountant and would-be poet who has plucked up the courage to read some of his poetry at an open mic night at the V&V – but when it comes to it, he’s a bundle of nerves and almost gives up before he’s even begun. But then he sees the man in the crowd who seems to have eyes for nobody but him, and whose calm gaze helps him to shed his nerves and to make it through his spot.
There’s an instant attraction between the two – which I have no problem with, as that’s how attraction often works – and after the reading, they have a drink, they talk and enjoy each other’s company, and then make plans to meet up again soon. I liked that they don’t faff about here, they admit they like each other and want to see each other again – also all to the good. What isn’t good, though, is that after this, it’s just more of the same – cutesy dates in which two men in their mid-to-late twenties come off as two young teens in the throes of their first crush – and the incredibly saccharine sentiment that overflows right from the start made me feel as though I was being fed sugar coated in syrup dipped in honey. And don’t get me started on the horribly cheesy dialogue… (The combination of cheese and sugar isn’t a good one.)
Caleb is sweet and cute, the baby of a large family which can be a bit overbearing but who have his best interests at heart. Like Tag, he’s lonely and would like to find someone to spend his life with, so basically, they’re a match made in heaven and when they’re not together, are mooning over each other and thinking about how soon they can see each other again. They’re in luuurve before the week is out, (Caleb even says something along the lines of knowing Tag was The One the moment they met) but there’s no relationship development and they have zero chemistry, so nope, I wasn’t buying it. The book also includes “sex-scenes-by-numbers” in that they happen in a prescribed order; kissing and making out, individual jerk-off sessions while thinking about the other person, hand jobs, blow jobs, anal – oh, and Caleb is a virgin at the beginning, so there’s deflowering, too, all of it accompanied by more overly sentimental, sugary prose.
The conflict in the story is minimal, and is basically to do with the fact that Tag doesn’t tell Caleb the truth about who he is/used to be straight away, and of course, Caleb finds out by accident and is extremely upset by it. I wondered what the hell he was making such a fuss about; Tag is a decent guy, he makes a good living, he’s kind and considerate and obviously thinks the world of Caleb. Okay, maybe he should have said, “oh, by the way I used to be a rock star and trashed a few hotel rooms” – but he and Caleb have known each other for less than a week!, and it’s not exactly the sort of thing one might bring up on a first (or second) date. Plus, Tag has put the past behind him and wants to leave it there; he didn’t feel he was living his best or most authentic life back then, and worried about what people might think if they knew the truth, so he kept it quiet. I mean, it’s not as though he used to be a serial killer! And on top of Caleb’s outrage at the fact Tag LIED (he didn’t, not really), he goes on to assume something so utterly ridiculous that I could only roll my eyes at the dumbness of it.
Greg Boudreaux gives it his all, as he always does, providing distinct vocal characterisations for the two leads, differentiating clearly between all the characters in the story, and doing his utmost to breathe life into a couple of fairly flat principals and create a convincing connection between them. He manages the first pretty well – Tag’s deep, rich voice clearly marks him as a solid, dependable guy, Caleb’s higher-pitched, softer tones provide a nice contrast (and I appreciated that his lisp isn’t overdone) – but in the second he’s constantly hampered by the sickly-sweet, creaky dialogue and internal monologuing. And by the fact that the author hasn’t created one (a connection), either. His vocal acting is top-notch, and the emotions in the story are superbly realised; but even he can’t turn this one into anything other than it is – a weak story with bland principals and wince-inducing syrupy dialogue. Limelight is the weakest by far of the Vino and Veritas books I’ve read, and unless you’re on a mission to listen to absolutely everything Greg Boudreaux has ever recorded, I’d give it a very wide berth.
Caz
Buy Limelight by E. Davies on Amazon
Excellent review, Caz. I’ll give this one a miss!
Such a shame. A good example of a book that can’t be saved by an excellent narrator. Also, a cautionary tale of when not to buy a book purely on the basis of a promising premise and a favourite narrator.
Exactly. Such a disappointment.
I’ll give this a pass in print and audio. This series has been a mixed bag for me. The nice thing about it is it’s given me some exposure to authors I’d never read before. Some worked, some didn’t, but it’s been helpful.
I’ve listened to a couple of books by this author (I reviewed one here if you want to search for it – Nick J. Russo narrated) and they were in the B range, which is another reason I picked this up.
I found that most of the V&V books by the more well known authors were decent (L.A. WItt, Jay Hogan, Garrett Leigh, Eden Finley etc.) and as you say, it did at least afford the chance to read/listen to some less familiar ones. There are a couple more audios to come I think, with good narrators, so I might try another one.
Sadness!
Indeed. I think you and I are both pretty good at finding audiobooks that at least fall into the B range for the story, but I suppose it’s inevitable that we’ll find some duds, too!