His Compass by Con Riley

Narrated by Cornell Collins

Con Riley’s His trilogy continues with His Compass, a May/December, forced proximity romance between a forty-something charter-hire skipper and his younger crewmate. The characters are beautifully drawn and their romance is nuanced and emotional; I loved the book when I read it back in 2021 and was only too pleased to be able to experience it all over again in audio.

Tom Kershaw has spent most of his life at sea, and now works as a skipper on a luxury charter yacht. He appeared briefly in the previous book (His Horizon) when he made an unscheduled stop at Porthperrin in Cornwall in order to return his deckhand Jude home to deal with a family emergency. Tom thought highly of Jude and was fond of him, but sadly, Jude’s replacement was something of a disaster; lazy, messy and unreliable, Nick might have been sociable and great with the guests, but he never finished a task he was given and his claims of growing up around boats and crewing from a young age were clearly lies, as he couldn’t do any of the jobs Tom needed him to. Then one day, he just up and left without a word, leaving Tom in the lurch.

Tom found a decent replacement to finish out the season and has returned to port, summoned to a meeting with Keir Brodie, one of the company big-wigs. Tom is half expecting to be fired or told he’s being put out to pasture along with his yacht, but instead, he’s offered the chance to sea-trial a brand spanking new vessel and to make a hefty bonus – money he badly needs – but there’s a catch. Tom can’t pick his own crew for the voyage – and his heart sinks when he sees the last person he’d ever want to sail with again waiting for him at the dock.

Tom is on the verge of walking away, but Nick pleads to be allowed to stay and promises to do better this time around. Reluctantly, Tom agrees, but on two conditions. Firstly, Nick has to be completely honest about what he does and doesn’t know how to do, and secondly, he has to stop spinning stories about his sailing experience. Tom doesn’t want to hear any more lies.

During the days they spend preparing the yacht for the trial, Tom starts to see a different Nick to the one who’d sailed with him before. He’s trying hard to do better and Tom comes to see that he’s actually very capable provided things are thoroughly explained. He also realises that the strong pull of attraction he’d felt towards Nick – annoying as he was! – hasn’t gone away. He’s always stuck to his rule of never sleeping with the crew and has no intention of changing that now… until Nick, who is clearly equally smitten, quite sensibly points out that he’s not officially “crew” until the trial starts, so there’s nothing to stop them having a little fun before they get underway. They agree to a short-lived fling that will end when the trial starts – but even the small amount of time they spend together outside of their roles of skipper and crew only serve to show Tom how much he longs to have someone to share his life with. They stick to their agreement when the trial begins, but it’s not easy for either of them, the brief taste of what they could have, what they could be to each other, making them both long for more.

During the month-long sea trial, Tom is very pleasantly surprised by Nick’s progress. Far from being lazy and incompetent, he’s bright, committed and enthusiastic; it seems that all he really needed was for someone to encourage and believe in him. He’s never in his life been expected to amount to anything – as he says early on, Tom is the only person ever to have expected anything from him – and he’s grown used to hiding his low self-esteem by employing a mixture of charm and insouciance, maintaining an appearance of carelessness to mask what he sees as his deficiencies. Tom’s confidence in Nick and his abilities is a really big deal for Nick and is exactly what he needs in order for him to fulfil his potential. He grows so much as a character in this story and I loved watching his confidence and self-belief develop – but also loved that he remains very much himself even as he’s coming into his own. And as Tom is giving Nick the encouragement and support he needs, so Nick is doing the same for Tom, helping him to see that he doesn’t have to shoulder his burdens alone any more and that it’s not weak or wrong to ask for help when needed. Tom and Nick’s romance is just lovely, with lots of chemistry, steam and genuine emotion, and they make a great couple, Nick’s liveliness and outgoing nature balancing Tom’s reserve. I loved their openness and willingness to be vulnerable with and learn from each other.

The only thing about the story that didn’t really work for me is the set up for what could be regarded as a Big Mis when Tom refuses to listen to what Nick tries to tell him about his background. Tom insists on honesty but believes Nick is lying to him and so just bans all mention of the subject. In fairness, Tom saw the ‘evidence’ that Nick was bullshitting him when they sailed together the first time in his inability to do all the jobs he claimed he could do, and doesn’t want to re-hash the past – and the strength of the romance and the rest of the story makes it worth getting past that particular plot-point if you can.

Cornell Collins is a highly experienced narrator and one I listen to a lot, although I’ve listened to him mostly in historical rather than contemporary romances. He delivers a well-paced, clearly differentiated and expressive performance, and he’s very good as Tom, the natural hint of gravel in his voice working well to depict Tom’s strength of character and slight world-weariness, but I was less enamoured of his portrayal of Nick. He gives him a slight “all-purpose-European” accent – which I confess I hadn’t expected; mention is made of the fact that Nick has a “non-specific accent, not unusual in the Med where so many nationalities mingled.” – so it works and it’s consistent throughout, but Nick’s essential vibrancy and cheekiness are missing , especially in the earlier part of the story; and without those, he can come across as rather timid, which didn’t fit with my reading of the character at all. Also, Nick is twenty-five, and while I don’t expect narrators to be the same age as the characters they portray, there’s no getting away from the fact that Mr. Collins sounds quite a bit older than that. However, the portrayal grew on me, and Mr. Collins does a good job of reflecting Nick’s character growth as he begins to gain confidence and become a support for Tom. The small secondary cast is appropriately voiced – especially Mitch (the specialist nurse who cares for Tom’s younger brother at The Haven, a facility for people with severe brain injuries), whose big, larger-than-life personality is echoed in his booming voice and unflappable manner.

His Compass is a beautiful and moving romance featuring complex, likeable characters who are perfect for each other and easy to foot for. Although the narration didn’t quite hit the spot for me, I still enjoyed the listen overall and am happy to offer a recommendation.

Caz

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Buy His Compass by Con Riley on Amazon