At Attention by Annabeth Albert

Narrated by Cooper North

At Attention is one of my favourite books in Annabeth Albert’s Out of Uniform series, and is a regular re-listen. For some reason though, I’ve never written a review of it, so, as I listened to it again recently and enjoyed it just as much as the first time (and other times) I decided to rectify that omission.

Lieutenant Apollo Floros has been a widower and single dad to his young daughters Chloe and Sophia since the sudden death of his beloved husband Neal. In the two years since it happened, Apollo has closed himself off to anything that doesn’t relate to his girls or his job, running his life – and his home – with military precision, planning each week’s meals and activities in advance and generally creating a well-established routine to ensure everything runs smoothly with as few deviations as possible. He adores his girls, he enjoys his job as part of the SEAL tactical training team; his mother and in-laws help with childcare, and he’s… fine. He’s not interested in falling in love again (in fact, it seems like he’s determined not to) – unwilling to risk his heart or open it up to the agony of grief again.

When the story begins, Apollo is at the grocery store picking up some stuff for the barbeque he’s hosting later that day when he notices a gorgeous guy standing in the bakery aisle – and can’t look away. It’s been a long time since he’s looked at another man and felt the least bit attracted, but this one is just… stunning. Still, he’s conflicted – even when Neal was alive they joked about ‘just looking’, but now, it feels… disloyal somehow. Before Apollo can reach any conclusions, the guy looks over and catches him staring – and gives him a saucy wink. Apollo quickly scurries off to the next aisle.

Dylan Strauss is the younger brother of Dustin, one of Apollo’s friends and former teammates, and he’s in San Diego for an interview for a job at the kids’ summer day camp. He had a massive crush on Apollo when he was fifteen and is quick to recognise the hot, dark-haired guy checking him out at the grocery store – although it seems the recognition isn’t mutual. Still, he’ll get to see him again soon enough; he’s meeting Dustin at the barbeque later on.

While Apollo is getting everything set up, Dustin tells him that Dylan is going to be around for the summer and suggests he could help Apollo out with childcare while his mother is away on a two-month long trip to Greece. Apollo remembers a “gangly teen with bad skin and crazy hair” and doesn’t see how having another kid around the place will help; Dustin points out that not only is Dylan not a kid – he’s twenty-three – he’s also got a degree in early childhood education and would be the ideal solution to Apollo’s childcare problem. Once Dylan arrives and Apollo realises he’s the guy from the grocery store, he’s doubly certain that having him live with him over the summer is a bad idea – until he overhears another friend and colleague, Ben Tovey (a total manwhore since his divorce), offering to put Dylan up at his place if Apollo doesn’t have room at his. Almost without thinking, Apollo immediately shuts that down by saying Dylan’s staying with him. It’ll be fine. It’s not like anything is going to happen between them, especially as Dylan is Dustin’s little brother and thus firmly and definitely off limits, even if Apollo wanted to go there. Which he doesn’t.

Dylan very soon makes himself pretty much indispensable in Apollo’s life – not that Apollo would ever admit it. He’s great with the girls, doesn’t let Apollo ride roughshod over him and takes care of him in lots of small ways – like cleaning up after dinner and making sure he eats. He’s a real force of nature – funny, charming and full of life, an absolute sweetheart without being one of those too perfect characters who end up grating on the nerves.

By contrast, Apollo is, frankly, a bit of an arse to start with. He’s attracted to Dylan before he even realises who he is, and steadfastly refuses to admit it, struggling with feelings of guilt, anger and grief that have him tightly wound and lead to his often being curt to the point of rudeness. But he can’t maintain that façade of cool indifference in the face of the care and attention Dylan shows him day after day, the way he feels alive for the first time in years in Dylan’s presence – but he has trouble getting out of his own way, and his blow hot/blow cold attitude towards Dylan doesn’t paint him in a very good light.

That said, Ms. Albert handles his internal conflict very well and doesn’t overdo it or draw it out interminably. He’s obviously never really processed his grief and is so eaten up by guilt and anger because something inside him is telling him it’s time to move on, that he fights it every step of the way. Fortunately for him, Dylan has more than an inkling of all this – but even though Dylan is sure he wants to be with Apollo, he’s not prepared to wait around forever while the other man makes up his mind or compromise on what he knows he wants and deserves in a partner.

Eventually of course, having Dylan so close becomes too much for Apollo to resist, and as their mutual attraction only grows stronger with each passing day, they agree on a no-strings fling that will end when Dylan returns to Oregon at the end of the summer.

I liked just about everything about this book. The romance is it’s sexy, fun and sometimes adorably sweet – and although I’m not a big fan of children in romance novels, the little girls are well-written and they act and speak like actual five-year-olds rather than precocious mini-adults who dole out relationship advice. I admit that Apollo’s stubbornness does get a bit wearing, but the author does a great job in his PoV of showing how his fears – of losing Dylan and being hurt again – are driving him to behave the way he does.

I think this might have been the first audiobook I ever heard Cooper North narrate, and I’m pretty sure I immediately went out and searched for more of his work. I don’t think I found much at the time, but thankfully, I’ve since been able to add quite a few of his narrations to my audio library and he’s now a firm favourite. His performance in At Attention is certainly one of the things that brings me back to it so often; he imbues the story with such real emotion and nuance, and his portrayals of the two leads is perfect. Apollo is all deep and gruff-with-a-touch-of-stern with an unexpected softness underneath, but the undoubted star of the show is Dylan, whose warmth, good humour, kindness and sheer likeability really shine through. Their chemistry and the strength of their emotional connection is expertly communicated and special mention must be made of the way Mr. North performs the two girls, which has to be some of the best interpretations of little kids I’ve heard by any narrator.

This review is a few years late (!) but I reckon it’s never too late to shout about audiobooks like this one – a beautifully developed romance featuring complex, well-rounded characters you can’t help but root for wrapped up in an intelligent performance that takes the story to another level. If you haven’t listened to At Attention yet, then go and grab a copy. You can thank me later :)

Caz

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