Heat Stroke by Tessa Bailey

Narrated by Kas Vadim & Kale Williams

Tessa Bailey’s Heat Stroke is the middle book in her Beach Kingdom trilogy from 2018-19, about the three Prince brothers, who run a bar in Long Beach. (Books one and three are m/f romances.) I admit that I picked it up primarily because Kale Williams is one of the narrators, but also because I know Tessa Bailey is a popular author of contemporary romance and I’ve never read or listened to her before, so this was a good opportunity to do that.

Jamie Prince teaches Economics at a private school in Brooklyn but comes home to Long Beach in the summers to help out with the family business, tending bar at the Castle Gate pub and moonlighting as a lifeguard at the beach. For the last three summers, Marcus O’Shaughnessy – aka Diesel – has been a constant fixture, both on the beach and at the bar (where he works as a bouncer), and for the past three summers he’s driven Jamie nuts; he’s like a big, lumbering puppy who insists on staying close, always taking the chair next to his on their lifeguarding shifts, chatting to him amiably about everything and nothing, and is kind of impossible to shake off. He’s appointed himself Jamie’s friend, which Jamie doesn’t really mind – he likes Marcus – although it would be easier on him if Marcus wasn’t so gorgeous or so straight. Or trying so hard to convince himself he’s straight, anyway.

Marcus is a cross-fit enthusiast and a bit of a gym rat. He knows he has a great body and isn’t averse to flaunting it – and his brother and the guys he meets at the gym are always ribbing him about women, expecting him to be picking up a different one each night and to regale them with the dirty details afterwards, but that’s not his style. He makes up stuff to get them off his back, and even arrives for his first lifeguarding shift of the season with a new tattoo – of a naked woman – on his arm, but deep down he’s confused. He doesn’t think about women much at all – but he thinks about Jamie Prince all the time. Which is… fine. They’re best friends and they work together, so it’s perfectly natural. Right?

Heat Stroke is an enjoyable listen, but I couldn’t help feeling like I’d missed something, because by the time we meet Marcus and Jamie, they’ve known each other for three years, so they already have a history and connection. But we don’t get to see that relationship building; when the book begins, they’re already very much attracted to each other but Marcus is oblivious and Jamie is suppressing it, so it feels more like a story of self-realisation and self-acceptance than a romance. (It may be that some of this build-up takes place in the first book Mouth to Mouth, which I haven’t read.) With that said however, the author does bring a real sense of the genuine affection they share to the relationship, and handles the coming-out story and all its attendant conflicts very well, so while I would ideally have liked to have had more development of the romance in its initial stages, what we do get is nicely done, and the chemistry between the two leads is sizzling.

Marcus has been saving every penny so he can open a business – a juice bar – right opposite the gym, and has finally got to the point where everything is moving forward, but while he’s done a great job on the menu, he’s less confident with the business side of things and asks Jamie to help him out. Some of the things he says clue Jamie in to the fact that Marcus doesn’t think very highly of himself in the brains department; he comes from a family of big, macho men who have always thought and acted a certain way and who have always teased him for being dumb, which irritates Jamie no end. Of course, Jamie agrees to help, and before long, they’re spending time together outside of work, getting the place smartened up for the opening, and testing Marcus’ recipes.

Jamie and Marcus are likeable characters who are easy to root for, and the conflicts they face in the story are well articulated. Marcus is so completely smitten with Jamie and so endearing in his cluelessness about his attraction to him; he recognises that what he’s feeling is unlike anything he’s experienced before, but his upbringing makes it hard for him even to consider what that might mean. Jamie has been attracted to Marcus for almost as long as they’ve known each other and he recognises what Marcus is going through, but he’s not going down that road again, of becoming involved with someone who is confused or experimenting and closeted. He did that once before, only to be badly beaten up by a group of guys who accused him of coming on to their friend – and his younger brother Ryan was sent to prison when he jumped in to stop them. There’s no way Jamie is ever going to risk that happening again. Except… he can’t seem to keep Marcus at a distance. Maybe this time, everything will work out.

The dual narration by Kale Williams and Kas Vadim (who I quickly realised is actually a very well-known narrator working under a pseudonym) is excellent, with good pacing, strong vocal characterisations and clear differentiation. Mr. Williams reads the chapters from Marcus’ PoV, giving him a bit of a New York/Brooklyn (to my English ears!) accent, and a lot of swagger – which works well to depict him as physically imposing and a bit cocky – but he conveys the vulnerability and innate kindness that lie behind it, too. Mr. Vadim does an equally good job with Jamie, bringing out his dry humour as well as the sense that he’s someone who is holding back a lot of the time, mostly around Marcus, but around his brothers, too, because he’s trying to keep the status quo and not cause any more trouble for them. There were a few places in both performances where the accents or vocal pitches slipped when portraying the ‘other’ character, but it didn’t happen too often and didn’t cause any confusion. The secondary characters are well delineated with some good female voices and a clear distinction between the brothers. The only other real criticism I have is that I noticed several long pauses here and there in Mr. Vadim’s sections that could maybe have been edited down. Finally – Tessa Bailey is known for her ability to write great dirty talk and scorching sex scenes – she doesn’t disappoint and neither do the narrators, who get right into the swing of things without going over the top. In fact, I think the sex scenes in this book are some of the best-narrated I’ve heard recently. *wink*.

While the development of the romance is a bit lacking and the ending is somewhat rushed, I enjoyed listening to Heat Stroke, and raced through it in two or three sittings. The sex is hot, the conflict is organic, Marcus is adorable and he and Jamie make a great couple – which all adds up to a recommendation for this seven hours of sexy fun.

Caz