• Love Comes Silently

  • Senses Series
  • By: Andrew Grey
  • Narrated by: Max Lehnen
  • Length: 6 hrs
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (287 ratings)

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Love Comes Silently  By  cover art

Love Comes Silently

By: Andrew Grey
Narrated by: Max Lehnen
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Publisher's summary

Caring for a loved one with cancer is tough. Doing it alone is overwhelming - especially when that loved one is a child. But ever since Ken Brighton's partner left him, Ken has spent his days at the hospital with his daughter, Hanna, hoping for a miracle. Maybe the mysterious care packages that appear for Hanna don't qualify, but they bring a spark of hope into his and Hanna's tired life - and so does Ken's neighbor, former singer Patrick Flaherty.

For two years Patrick hasn't been able to focus on anything but the life he should have had. An injury robbed him of his voice, and the idea of introducing himself to new people intimidates him. But over the past months, he's watched as his neighbor nursed his sick child, and once he meets Ken, Patrick starts to crave a life with him-a life he isn't sure he can have.

Ken doesn't realize he's fallen in love until the doctors send Hanna home, saying there's nothing more they can do: Hanna will either recover or succumb. Ken's heart is set on a new beginning - with both Patrick and Hanna. But Patrick's silence leaves Ken wondering what Patrick wants.

©2012 Andrew Grey (P)2013 Dreamspinner Press

What listeners say about Love Comes Silently

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    145
  • 4 Stars
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Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

One of my least favorite narrators

**2.5 stars**

Audiobooks are extremely subjective. When you read a book yourself, you have your own idea of how the character sounds, but when you have an audiobook, the will of the narrator is forced upon you. This can be hit or miss, and I have really visceral reactions to some narrators. A few narrators have made books that might have been mediocre into absolutely fabulous reads. I have also had the opposite experience. This is one of those.

I kept trying to place the age of the narrator of this book as he was reading. I even attempted to look him up online mid-book to see what I could find out about him. I finally guessed his age to be around 65, though I never got confirmation. The narrator has that ever so slightly wobble to his voice and kind of a formal accent that gives his voice an elderly feel. That is not a good nuance for this book. The narrator read this book more like a children's book than an adult M/M romance and I actually cringed at the sex scenes. It felt like watching my grandparents have sex. It really took away from the story for me.

Now, the story itself was cute, if a bit melodramatic. I thought that the romance was sweet and I love a character with a disability. I had some issues with the pacing of the story (it felt very slow, but that might be an issue with the narrator again) and the lack of a story arc. I also had some slight issues with the character of the child, but I am pickier than most on that because I have a daughter about the same age and I know exactly how a kid that age acts. In addition, the way Mark was kind of forgotten about towards the end of the book bothered me (what happened with him??).

Though this book is a big hit with all of my friends, I just wasn't feeling it. I think it had potential, but whether it was the narrator or the content, it just missed the mark.

**Copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review**

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

My new favorite Andrew Grey

What made the experience of listening to Love Comes Silently the most enjoyable?

I have read or listened to a LOT of Andrew Grey titles. I love that so many of his are available for audio. He is a go to comfort listen or read for me because his characters are real, they deal with adversity in a mature way, and they are relatively low-angst, while still offering a complete and rich story. Love Comes Silently is no different.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Patrick, of course. I love that he silently (hah!) does so many good things for Ken and Hannah. I love how he is with Hannah. I love how he is with Ken. My heart breaks for him as he thinks he isn't good enough for Ken to want.

Have you listened to any of Max Lehnen’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This was my second one. I like it even better than the first. I listen to enough audiobooks that I have favorite narrators. I was a little disappointed when In Search of a Story was not by one of my favorites. Max Lehnen was an unknown but I quickly discovered his style is perfect for the story. Unlike many narrators, his voice is not distinctive and so he melts into the background and the story becomes the focus. That opinion was reinforced as I listened to Silently.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Cry of course. It is an emotional story.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Needs a different narrator...

If you could sum up Love Comes Silently in three words, what would they be?

Short, sweet, satisfying

What was one of the most memorable moments of Love Comes Silently?

When Patrick writes his story for Ken

Did Max Lehnen do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Not really - I've listened to several audiobooks performed by him, and there are certain qualities in his voice that make him one of my least favorite narrators. The inflections he uses are often unsuitable to what he's saying, and his tone is pretty uniform throughout.

Who was the most memorable character of Love Comes Silently and why?

Patrick. He's a very strong person to have overcome what he has, and have the courage to go on.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

ok

I never fully connected with the romance. It felt like being outside looking in. I only kept going because I was in a slump and I was not paying close attention after a while. The story is focused around a sick child which is a hard sell from the jump. It does a good job trying to balance parenting a child with urgent additional needs with being an adult with separate adult needs.

But I felt like we got bare sketches of the characters for too long. We start with a gap in the timeline and a move, and a breakup with an ex that we know is coming because of how blank the ex is. Patrick does a lot of giving but doesn’t do much to resolve his own issues. Ken is mostly tired. Hannah is always grateful or compliant and is prettily sad, never tantrum-y sad.

The very best parts of the book were Patrick setting up off-season holiday celebrations for Hannah. He made it look to Hannah that other people just happened to be having a party that she was also invited to, rather than making it obvious the party was for/because of her. I could even see the town continuing to do early Halloween. Those scenes were great. But how does someone as hermit like as Patrick get such a significant community gathering to happen? We only see him interact with a few people in any significant way, while he barely tolerated being with other people.

I also had issues with the unspoken communication. While I get that even 2 years into a significant disability, one can still be in denial about how to cope, the resistance to even trying to sign was odd and felt a little insulting. Add to that, when Patrick did start signing, Ken & Hannah also learning was popped in as a clause like an afterthought. ASL is a language; it is not English. People don’t magically receive sign language any more than people magically produce it. Some signs are also used by the broader hearing public, but yes, they would all need to take classes and practice. (Also there are other options regarding body language generally or specific modes like cued speech which is a way of making spoken language visible and might have suited their needs better.) What I’m saying is that the portrayal of coping with not speaking didn’t really work for me.

Steam: Med-Low. M/M sexytimes occurred after a while, some with on page detail but unlike my usual desire to spectate, I did the listening equivalent of skimming those scenes. I almost never do this. I think it’s because the connection between them wasn’t clear to me and It’s the connection that I’m looking for.

Narration: I don’t know if the distance I felt was the text or the narration. It felt a lot like it was being, well, narrated. I’m used to thinking of the voice performer as the character rather than as someone telling me about the character, which is how I felt here. That said, the narrator had good inflection and feeling,so I think it was good but I still didn’t feel it somehow. Don’t quite know why.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Cute Story

This is such a cute Story by Andrew Grey. I've read it several times (along with the others in his Senses series), so I was happy to see it listed in audio. I was a little hesitant at first to see how the narrator would do since Patrick is Deaf and cant talk and I wasn't sure how that would come across in Audio. But I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this narrator, he did a good job with the two MC's.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Moving story but did not enjoy the narrator

I really enjoyed the story itself but it was somewhat of a struggle to finish based solely on the narration. The narrator sounded like a Casey Kaden half the time and then like Casey Kaden with marbles in his mouth the other half. Otherwise, the characters were engaging and the the story kept me engaged.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Boring

Narrator has monotone voice. Could not finish. I just did not care what was going to happen next.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

lovely story. poor narration

I enjoyed the story, but that narrator gave a very subpar performance. his lines came across so awkward. it also sounded like he had marbles in his mouth. worth the read but not worth the listen.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Average writing, subpar naration

I only made it through about half the story before I had to give up. The writing of the dialogue especially just felt rather juvinile and unnatural to me. It didn't help that the narration was quite flat. I haven't heard any otger audiobooks using this narrator so I'm not sure if this is typical of him or not but he didn't seem to put as much emotion or flare into the narration as I've become quite spoiled to by other narrators in the MM romance world. The plot seemed to have a lot of promise and I was hoping for better, maybe with another narrator it would have been bearable...

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Bad, really bad.

The writing is juvenile with a play-by-play style. Unimaginative, bland, boring and tedious.

The rhythm of the narration is dreadful and does nothing to liven the dry clinical how-to writing.

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