The Remaking of Corbin Wale

By: Roan Parrish

Narrated by: Chris Chambers

Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

Last month, Alex Barrow's whole life imploded - partner, home, job, all gone in 48 hours. But sometimes when everything falls apart, better things appear almost like magic. Now, he's back in his Michigan hometown, finally opening the bakery he's always dreamed of. But the pleasure of opening day is nothing compared to the lonely and beautiful man who bewitches Alex before he even orders.

Corbin Wale is a weirdo. At least, that's what he's heard his whole life. He knows he's often in a fantasy world, but the things he feels are very real. And so is the reason why he can never, ever be with Alex Barrow. Even if Alex is everything he's always fantasized about. Even if maybe, just maybe, Corbin is Alex's fantasy too.

When Corbin begins working at the bakery, he and Alex can't deny their connection any longer. As the holiday season works its magic, Alex yearns for the man who seems out of reach. But to be with Alex, Corbin will have to challenge every truth he's ever known. If his holiday risk pays off, two men from different worlds will get the love they've always longed for.

Contains mature themes.

©2017 Roan Parrish (P)2018 Tantor

Didn't quite get there for me

I had a hard time getting into this book and connecting with characters and the romance. Not quite sure what it was and I was really expecting to love this considering I love this authors other book In the Middle Somewhere. I just don't know what it was. I did like the narrator so that wasn't it. Chris Chambers actually has a nice voice and I enjoyed listening to him. May need to revisit this one at a later time and read the actual book.

Sweet but slow moving.

Super cute and sweet love story - but there wasn't much conflict. Writing style is poetic and the characters were diverse and unique. It's a good choice if you need something to mellow you out.

Enjoyable relationship, with pastry & bread

Interesting take on magical realism. The reader is not required to believe in magic nor to disbelieve to embrace the book and characters. Corbin & Alex fit each other, which makes the story comfortable.

Content Warnings: a secondary character is in an abusive relationship, Corbin was an outcast at school & after, and characters spend a deal of time thinking about dead parents. For all that, the book doesn’t wallow there and is relatively low trauma.

Corbin has been trying to get along in a place where he never fit well. Alex is starting over after his life in NYC changes. He has a helpful fallback position of turning his Michigander mom’s coffee shop into a bakery. Corbin hangs out in the bakery while lives inside his head & drawings. They meet, there are sparks, then there’s a long slow burn of getting to know each other. The POV switched up. Each protagonist got a couple large blocks from their view. I would have preferred a little more back and forth, in part to “meet” Corbin earlier but it was at least neatly done. I liked the relationship a lot.

Why not 5 stars? It took me a little longer than usual to get drawn in to the story/relationship. I think that’s because Alex only started to interest me as he tried to get to know Corbin. Alex is your standard “all the kids are above average” kind of white guy. He liked baking but I felt like he desired the control more than he yearned to bake. (Not that it’s bad to be happy with the path your life takes.) He just felt a little blank. His care for Corbin turned him interesting. I liked that I never got the sense that Alex would be careless with Corbin’s vulnerability. I would have like to know more about why I was so sure of that. How did ~average Alex develop into someone who wasn’t thoughtless? That usually takes some consciousness of privilege to figure out. I’m not sure even being gay and casually Jewish would drive that consciousness - at a guess, it tied into his feelings about Thanksgiving but again, I wanted more detail of how that came about.

The other quibble is also about a lack. There is a secondary arc with Alex’s bff & a tertiary one with Corbin’s dogs that felt neglected in the last few chapters. Gareth (who I keep thinking is named Derek) is left in limbo, and that’s fine because it’s a reasonably comfortable limbo. But it would have felt more settled to see some details. More, I wanted to see both Corbin & Alex interact more with Dreidl. How often is she home? What does she eat? Where does she sleep? Not knowing these things made the book feel unfinished. (possible very minor dog spoiler: I kept waiting for Wolf to come in the house but he didn’t. I thought that arc needed another beat to either have that happen or hint at why not. /end dog spoiler)

Steam: Medium hot. M/M on page with some details and a good helping of metaphor. There aren’t a lot of sex scenes, and I’d like to argue that the penultimate chapter needed another one. But what was there was creative and sexy. A lot of the earlier detail was actually imagined by the characters rather than being physical contact. The way the characters blended in the boudoir, what with Alex liking control & Corbin being a mass of raw nerves in want of direction was really satisfying. Honestly, it’s one of the few books I’ve read where one partner’s directive that the other touch themselves felt needed for the one doing the touching, rather than just a peep show for the director. It really worked.

Narration: The narrator made some subtle changes to indicate character. I was a little worried that my lack of connection early on might have been a subconscious issue with the narration but after the relationship picked up, he faded from my conscious thought too. Except for the few times the wrong character’s voicing was used, which was minor. Sound quality was good.

Decent story made great by narration

A decent story with good characters made great through the narration. Here's the word you might not recognize sufganiyah and the plural sufganiyot...

Magical little story

I really loved this story. It started off just a tad slow, but the characters, especially Corbin, are so intriguing and delightful, the story soon sucks you in. I very much enjoyed it. It had tons of heart.

One of Roan Parrish’s best

I’ve been eagerly awaiting Roan Parrish’s next book after being absolutely obsessed with the Middle of Somewhere series. The Remaking of Corbin Ware is a new favorite! Her characters get under your skin, and I love watching their love stories unfold, so human and riddled with imperfections and damage. There was an added element of magic to this story, which I personally loved. Great narration, too. I hope Parrish writes a sequel (I smelled a set-up for Noah and Oren, perhaps?).

What a sweet story

A new author to me and a new narrator to me and I loved it. A sweet, slow burn love story. Chris Chambers really brings the characters to life and I will look for more books narrated by him.

Something New

I was abit sceptical after reading the details of this book, but then I decided to give it a chance. I'm glad I did. This story was captivating for me. I felt for sad and hopeful for Corbin and glad he had Alex. Corning's character felt so real and weird but relatable. I love the way his character was written and the way his imagination was wild. The narrator did a wonderful job and brought both characters perfectly. I loved it!

Indulgent

This book has beautiful descriptions of aspects of life that go completely unnoticed! It does take a maddeningly long time for them to get to the hot stuff, but it’s worth the wait. This is a wonderful rainy day read and makes me wish I saw life somewhere between the ways Corbin and Alex do. Simply dreamy!

A Rescue Trope Love Story

Corbin is a shy and deeply wounded young man. Alex is confident, self assured, and a caregiver looking for a place to call home without quite realizing that's what he's doing. I have some concerns that their relationship might not be the healthiest, comma because there is a theme of Corbin needing Alex and somehow not being able to get by without him. I really enjoy the hurt/comfort aspects of the story, and how Alex encourages Corbin to come into his own. The story would have been 4 stars for me if if the message that Corbin Corbin doesn't need someone else to rescue him came through a bit more clearly. This is still a very sweet, warm, almost holiday themed romance.