Superb narration enhances this romantic and steamy gay love story. What an impressive narrator! Joel Leslie is going on my list of my favorite narrators ever. The Birmingham, England, and Afghan accents of the main characters were perfect and sexy. Evidently, Birmingham is only 80 miles away from Liverpool and this accent sounded like he was Beatle, which I think is very sexy. He was also very good at pacing, conveying emotion, and love scenes. In addition, Joel Leslie was really good at woman’s voices. Hugh’s mother’s voice was perfectly adorable.
I love this romance! It was both sweet in the emotional department and spicy in the bedroom, while still being a realistic contemporary love story. Captain Hugh Wilkes in the British Army has been deployed with his team to a remote part of Afghanistan for 6 months at a time when the British Army is slowly leaving the country. Wilkes’ new Afghan interpreter is a pleasant, competent fellow named Ruston Balki. Over the next few months, a friendship slowly grows between them, and these two closeted gay men eventually reveal that they are very attracted to each other. The scene where this happens is so wonderful; it makes me smile just thinking of it.
“Desert Heat” and “Native Tongue” are a pair of either long short stories or short novellas. I am so glad that they were placed together for this audiobook because listening to these two stories together feels like a complete, satisfying romance. The entire audiobook is told in third person perspective only from the view of Captain Wilkes. I think that this perspective choice turned out well because Balki was very vocal with his feelings, and I did not feel like I missed out on what he was thinking. This pair of wonderful guys had great dialogue and just the right amount of it. I love how they were sometimes scared to tell their feelings but they did it anyway. Before they ever had sex the first time they professed that they really liked each other, so the love scenes in this audiobook were not just sex but also filled with intimacy and respect. It was really sweet. Although Hugh and Balki had obstacles with their relationship with both work and society, they forged through their obstacles and grew as people as they grew closer to each other. Aside from having a lot of great steamy sex, this was a fulfilling, beautiful romance with a lovely ending. This is the first book that I have read by Lucy Felthouse, and I was highly impressed by the high quality of the writing and by the expert narration. I will definitely buy books from Lucy Felthouse very soon.
I received a free copy of this audiobook in return for an honest review. All opinions are my own, and I was not paid for my review.