I’m not an overly huge fan of audio book in that, if given a choice, I’d rather read a book that listen. That being said, there are times that I can’t read so I’d rather listen than miss the experience altogether.
Driving is one of those times. I work in varying locations with different length commutes. But usually I’m driving 30-60 mins each way a few times a week. So this can be 6 hours of ‘reading’ time.
Some audio books I’ve loved, others I’ve enjoyed, a couple I’ve hated. Sometimes it’s the story and sometimes it’s the narration and sometimes it’s hard to separate the two.
A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to win a copy of Family Unit by Z.A. Maxfield. (Thanks Zam!) It made my weekly commute an absolute pleasure!
The narration was good. I liked the accents, inflections and the general voicing of the characters. At parts it was a little slow but I think that’s more a factor of the level of description in a book that sometime just doesn’t translate perfectly into a slower narration – when you speed read, it doesn’t slow things down, but it can when listening to a book being narrated at a nice, even pace.
Anyway, the overall narration was good and didn’t detract from the story. I liked the interpretation of the characters and could picture them in my head. They sounded just like I thought they should.
But what really stood out for me was the story itself. And the highlight? It was the older characters – Richard was a grandfather (admittedly a young one). 🙂
I loved to see an older man who’d maybe made some mistakes in his youth and eventually sacrificed so much of his own life, get his own man. His man is hot – ex-military and a wonderful guy. Together – perfect!
These guys are so realistic. They aren’t necessarily toned and terrific. They show the signs of their age and the life they’ve lead. They make mistakes, they argue a bit – they are real.
And the age adds a lovely touch of humour. Such as the scene where Richard and Logan are struggling with the condom wrapper – it’s hard for two middle age guys to read that tiny print of the expiry date and Richard’s worried when he grabs his reading glasses to take a closer look that it’s not too sexy!
I would highly recommend this lovely story – great characters, not the usual sexy, young things but real men plus a cute kid (and yes he was cute not annoying, some interesting secondary characters and a nice touch of drama. Oh, and the sex of course!
Enjoy!
Leave a Reply