Matter of Time: Vol. 1

By: Mary Calmes

Narrated by: Paul Morey

Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

Jory Keyes leads a normal life as an architect’s assistant until he is witness to a brutal murder. Though initially saved by police Detective Sam Kage, Jory refuses protective custody - he has a life he loves that he won’t give up no matter who is after him. But Jory’s life is in real jeopardy, especially after he agrees to testify about what he saw.

While dealing with attempts on his life, well-meaning friends who want to see him happy, an overly protective boss, and a slowly unfolding mystery that is much more sinister than he could ever imagine, the young gay man finds himself getting involved with Sam, the conflicted and closeted detective. And though Jory may survive the danger, he may not survive a broken heart.

©2010 Mary Calmes (P)2012 Mary Calmes

I LOVE spending TIME with Jory and Sam!

Great characters! This is very emotionally satisfying. Jory and Sam are not your typical romantic heroes. A+

Gotta love Sam and Jory!

When I first read this series I really, really loved it and it’s what put me in the Mary Calmes fan club for life! There’s a bunch about this story that I still adore, but I’ve noticed that this particular Mary story isn’t one I re-visit often and so I decided to do just that. I wanted to see my guys again and I wanted to write a formal review, seeing as I haven’t yet.

What can I say? On the one hand, I absolutely love Sam Kage and find him amazingly sexy and endearing. He’s Alpha to the core, and that really appeals to me, so when he finds himself in love with the train-wreck that is Jory and he’s all mushy – yeah – that really does it for me!

(I find myself comparing this story to Kaje Harper’s Life Lessons series – the cop/gay guy is too similar to ignore, but, honestly, that series really delves far more deeply into their relationship in a way that feels more realistic while this tends to be a bit more about the action and adventure. So they are kinda like apples and oranges in that resepect.)

On the other hand, Jory makes me crazy. I didn’t ever really bond with him as a character. He’s pretty self-involved, but in a clueless way. I never understood, besides his good looks and talents in bed, why everyone loved him so much. I suppose he has a “heart of gold” but he’s always in trouble! (When he gets kidnapped near the end, his inner monologue makes no sense. There’s no sense of urgency or fear and I think that doesn’t make sense given how much he’s supposed to be in love with Sam by this point…)

The thing about this series is it’s length. It is LONG. There is just SO MUCH DRAMA! Then, at the end of this, Sam LEAVES! That makes me crazy! (I’ll be saying more on this in the next review, when the two not only end up apart for YEARS but also end up having relationships with other people while they’re apart!)

So… you have to keep reading, because by now you’re totally enthralled and wondering WTF will happen to these guys next, because, obviously, it ends in HEA, but WOW, they’ve got a rough road to get there!

The other thing that kinda makes me crazy is all the secondary and tertiary characters. It’s supremely evident when listening to this, because there are so many side little stories and whatnot. I’m just not so sure how vital they are to the overall story.

We get that Jory is clueless. That’s hit over our head over and over. We get that Sam’s in the closet. We get that everyone loves Jory. There are a lot of little moments that illustrate this for us, and I’m not sure we needed them all.

Finally, the narration.

First, there is this horribly, cheesy lounge music at the beginning of every chapter that I despise! I just have to grit my teeth when it comes on.

Next, I love Paul Morey and he does a great job voicing Sam and Jory. Unfortunately he’s been around long enough that his voices also sound like other characters near and dear to me, so when I hear the evil guy who kidnapped Jory near the end sound like Shane from Amy Lane’s Promise series, I kinda get freaked out! I know it’s not his fault, and depending on what order you’ve listened to books, that voice may be weird coming from Shane but… It’s just something I noticed this time around.

So… If this is your first exposure to the series I don’t want you to think it’s not good. Because it is. It’s one of the best out there and the figures are almost iconic if you know Mary and her stories, Sam and Jory are kind of a theme for her.

I’d read a few reviews before deciding if it’s for you, but really, if you’re an m/m fan, you’re gonna need to read this and you’ll love it, I’m sure

Overall, for the narration and this book.

3 rd time

I’ve listened to this series 3 times already.. So good, I really enjoy the story. I’d actually think it would make a decent series on Logo or Lifetime.

This is my go to series

I love this story! I love how the reader changes their voice for each character and the story line is awesome and funny! This is a great book!

Horrible performance

Would you be willing to try another one of Paul Morey’s performances?

Never ever. The speaker had very long, odd pauses. So much so that it distracted from the story or didn't know what character was speaking. Seriously Morey stops speaking in the middle of a sentence for a few seconds. The only way I got through was to listen on fast forward.

What would have made this romance irresistible?

A different narrator

Sad ending

There were a lot of things about this recording that I liked, but there’s not enough of a story to justify six books. I also found the ending very unsatisfactory, it’s not the ending to a book it’s just different chapters in some thing that’s much too long and drawn out. I also would’ve liked both of the lead characters to have a little more spine, one has too much one doesn’t have enough. The amount of yelling that the alpha male does is unacceptable, you can be a strong man without being loud and obnoxious.

I've listened to this series over and over.

I think that this first volume is probably my least favorite of the series. I hated a lot of the on again off again stuff and had a hard time seeing why Sam was different (in Jory's mind) than all of the other guys who wanted in his pants. It was never terribly clear to me why he kept going back over and over ... other than that Sam is the designated "one" of the series.

Paul Morey's narration is kind of hit and miss for me and there are a few places in this series where I cringed, especially listening through the first time. To be honest though, I have fallen so in love with the characters over the course of the series, and knowing all that is yet to come, when I now re-listen to this I no longer notice much of it and am willing to forgive a lot.

The fact is, I have listened to this entire series at least 5 times since first buying it. To me, that, more than anything else says it is worth the credit. It isn't necessarily a great piece of literature, and they aren't my *all time* fave characters, but I like them, and their world enough to want to come back and visit it somewhat regularly.

I LOVE Jory and Sam

This story is continued for several books but the time spent listening is well worth it.
I love their story and as a lesbian women, I understand Sam's life. I really enjoy Sam and Jory. I also love the Marshal's story that is three books.
I enjoy Mary Calmes writing and really enjoy the long books in audible.

So Much Promise But !!!

I'm afraid this book irritated me quite a bit. I really do try and give a story a chance and I liked the way this one began but all of a sudden the good intro gave way to what seemed like another story entirely - one that seemed to be about this character called Dane and from what was being presented I couldn't find anything to like about the guy (read, boring). Nor did I like all the whining the author had the women characters going thru. Actually both the women who liked Dane and the men who liked Jory were irritatingly needy - it was ridiculous. I was like ENOUGH ALREADY! If I heard them say "Jory" one more time - it all just seemed like "filler." Its kind of like in horror movies when the girl gets the call from the stalker she keeps talking to the guy rather than hanging up! I felt that same frustration about Jory and Dane. I noticed other reviewers had similar impressions. (For better character interaction I'd suggest another author's books about Ty and Zane in the Cut and Run series. They are funny, delicious, angst ridden and sexy.) Maybe I'm not being fair because I simply couldn't get thru the book - I just couldn't stomach all the self glorification of Jory and Dane - everyone else appeared pathetic. And like I said a lot of the "dialogue" was monotonous, just different characters saying the same thing. I don't have a soap opera mentality and I would rather have an author stick with the main characters than populate it with boring ones. I hate half written sex scenes, either have a sex scene or don't. Don't give some estimate details then say after that.
Overall I will try the next book and at under 10 bucks is it was OK but far from anything great.
The narrator was bland with Jory's voice but OK with others so I not sure about the whole delivery of the story.

It should have ended after book one.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Not bad per say, just a little tedious. Actually book 1 is okay, but the books that follow are horrendous. I'm a big fan of Mary Calmes, but unfortunately these series of books don't live up to her usual high standard.

What could Mary Calmes have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

The series needed to end after book one. In the books that follow stretch to the story line to a point where it's no longer plausible. And please please please please just get Jory to make a sensible decision.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

The narrator was really good.

Did Matter of Time: Vol. 1 inspire you to do anything?

It inspired me to buy books two and three. These books inspired me to return them.