Bring Me Home by Annabeth Albert

Narrated by David Lee Garver & Lance West

Annabeth Albert’s books have been narrated by some of the very best m/m romance narrators out there – Greg Boudreaux, Iggy Toma, Cooper North, Kirt Graves, Sean Crisden among them – but unfortunately, that winning streak comes to a crashing halt with Bring Me Home, the first book in her Safe Harbor series. I’d normally begin an audiobook review by talking about the story, but the narration for this one is so awful that it’s my strongest memory of the listen. Although I should clarify – Lance West’s performance is fine, but David Lee Garver sounds bored and as though he’d rather be doing anything other than narrating a romance novel. I listened to about a third of the audiobook, and then switched to listening to Knox’s chapters and (re)reading Monroe’s because the latter were so painful to listen to. I made it about half-way through that way, but switching from one to the other was too inconvenient for me to continue (I can’t read when I’m driving!) so I have to put this down as one of my very rare audiobook DNFs.

The story itself is an enjoyable one, though. Monroe, a retired Navy lieutenant and NCIS investigator, returns to his home town of Safe Harbor in order to get the house he’s inherited from his great aunt fixed up so he can sell it before he moves to San Francisco to take up a job offer. His friend, Rob, (Safe Harbor’s chief of police) asks if Monroe can house his son, Knox, in return for his help on the remodelling; Rob and his wife already have triplets and are expecting again, and there just isn’t room for him at their place. It’ll only be for the summer anyway, as Knox will be off to grad school in the autumn.

Monroe is at a friend’s bachelor party in Portland when he notices a gorgeous guy across the room and can’t look away. It seems his interest is returned; the man – who is somewhat younger than Monroe normally goes for – approaches him and they strike up a flirty, fun conversation that leads to dancing in a dark corner, some passionate kissing and an invitation back to Monroe’s hotel room. Unfortunately, they’re interrupted and the guy has to leave – there’s no time to exchange numbers.

Next day, Knox arrives at Rob’s and is stunned when the door is opened by none other than the guy with whom he’d shared the hottest kisses of his life. Well, shit. Rob will kill him if he finds out, and worrying about that causes Monroe to put his foot firmly in his mouth when he tells Knox what they did was a mistake. Knox had been delighted to see last night’s mystery hottie – but his delight is short-lived when he sees how uncomfortable Monroe is, and he guesses his summer gig is off. Fortunately, Monroe manages not to be a complete dick – he starts talking about clearing out a room for Knox (and his cat) and quietly apologises for saying what he said. But he makes it clear that roomies is it – there will be no more kissing or making out or anything else.

Knox is disappointed, but he’s chill – he isn’t going to push Monroe into anything he doesn’t want to do, and tells him so; he’s strongly attracted to the older man and would love to pick up where they left off and see where things go, but sure, they can work on the house together and be friends and housemates and have that be that.

Monroe is relieved. (Not disappointed, of course, no way!) Becoming involved with the twenty-three-year-old son of one of his oldest friends (Monroe is forty-one) is a no-no, so this is for the best. No matter how attractive he finds Knox – and he’s strongly attracted to him; not just for his looks but for his confidence, his thoughtfulness and his sunny disposition – it’s not worth ruining a twenty-year friendship for something that can only be temporary.

We all know how things are going to turn out, but it’s all about the journey. Spending time together, discussing projects, doing the work, sharing space and sharing meals brings about a new closeness, and they both find themselves talking about their hopes and plans and telling each other things they haven’t told anyone else. Monroe realises he can’t fight the attraction any more, and the pair agrees to a secret summer fling; there’s an inbuilt expiry date because both of them have plans that don’t include staying in Safe Harbor.

I realise that large age gaps are a dealbreaker for some, but I like them when they’re handled well, and Annabeth Albert is an author I trust to do that. Despite the eighteen years between Monroe and Knox, there’s never any sense of a power imbalance; they’re both givers, people who are used to putting the needs of others before their own, and both of them need to learn that it’s okay to put themselves first sometimes, to let themselves be taken care of and be vulnerable to another person. The author develops their growing trust really well, clearly showing why they’re such a good fit for each other and how they each provide a safe space for the other to communicate their wants and needs.

There’s a plot thread that runs through all three books in the series, relating to the disappearance of a woman some two decades earlier. While in town, Monroe has been helping Rob with some cold cases, and this is one; the woman – the mother of one of their oldest friends – is presumed to have been murdered by her husband, although without a body, nothing could be proven. Monroe quickly realises the investigation was bungled and decides to look into it – no conclusions are reached here, but information is found which leads to an important discovery, and this plotline continues in Make Me Stay, the next book in the series.

Bring Me Home is a sexy, low-angst story in which the conflict – Monroe’s worry about Rob’s reaction aside – is internal. Both he and Knox have plans for their futures which aren’t compatible with a future together – so they both have a lot of thinking to do. I liked them both a lot – they’re good people who are natural caretakers, their chemistry crackles, and they’re a perfect fit. The ILYs do happen quite fast, but this gives the author plenty of time for Monroe and Knox to work out what they really want and what their HEA is going to look like.

I began this review by talking about the narration, and I’m going to end it that way. First, the positives. Lance West’s performance is well-paced and expressive, with some good character voices and clear differentiation between the leads and the secondary characters. He portrays Knox well, using a higher pitch for him than for Monroe, and does a good job of conveying his good humour, his kindness and upbeat nature. Unfortunately however, the much lower pitch he adopts for Monroe sounds a bit fake. One thing that does work well is that both narrators do a pretty good job of sounding like the ‘other’ character – Monroe sounds like Monroe in Knox’s (Lance West) chapters, and Knox sounds like Knox in Monroe’s (David Lee Garver). But the good isn’t enough to outweigh the bad, which is so bad that it made most of this audiobook impossible to listen to. (The dual narration was completely unnecessary – Lance West could easily have carried the book alone.) I was going to say that David Lee Garver sounds like he’s channeling Eeyore, but that would be unkind to Eeyore; his narration is slow, monotonous, and almost entirely lacking in expression, and the same is true of Monroe’s dialogue. Yet he has a good variety of character voices, and when he’s performing other characters, he’s much more animated, which was odd. The sex scenes in Monroe’s chapters are excruciatingly bad – there’s no sense of excitement, no passion… he could have been reading a shopping list or a bus timetable. I pretty much gave up after the scene in which he refers to Monroe’s “prostrate” – did this audiobook actually have a proofer?

I’m leaving it there. Listening to Bring Me Home was not only a disappointment it was a chore, and if the same narrators are used, I won’t be listening to the other books in the series.

Caz

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