A Series of Rooms

De: A.J. Barlowe

Narrado por: Clayton Michael Walker, Joshua Kachnycz

On the night of his twenty-first birthday, a domino effect of unfortunate events leads Liam Cassidy to a chance encounter with a stranger. What he thinks will be nothing more than a moment of shared refuge in a bar bathroom takes a turn when Liam finds the same stranger waiting in his hotel room that night.

Jonah Prince is just trying to survive another night, same as he has done since his life derailed at seventeen. When his services are requested as a surprise for someone’s birthday, the last person he expects to see is the man from the bar who showed him kindness.

It doesn’t take long in a room together to see the cracks in Jonah’s facade. He’s afraid of someone, even if he can’t say it out loud. Hungry, guarded, and jumping at shadows, it’s clear he is in desperate need of a break, and Liam is in a unique position to grant him one—even if it’s just for a night.

Drawn together by their mutual need for escape, the two of them fall into an arrangement of weekly meetings inside the cheapest hotel rooms Chicago has to offer. The encounters are not sexual in nature, but an unexpected intimacy blossoms between them over time. For Jonah, it’s one night a week of guaranteed safety. For Liam, it’s the first real friendship he has ever known.

But soon, the circumstances that exist outside their private series of rooms begin closing in around them, reminding them that they can’t live in a bubble forever.

©2024 A.J. Barlowe (P)2024 A.J. Barlowe

So beautifully written!

As a professional author myself, I began listening to this book only after one of the narrators had auditioned to produce one of my books! I kept listening, drawn in more and more by the content rather than just the narration (though all narrators were perfect, in my opinion). Such gorgeous writing, such an incredibly heartbreaking story that made me feel all the emotions! Very few books pull me in and keep me engaged to the end. I couldn't wait to listen to the next chapter, anxiously wanting to know what would happen, and was relieved and over the moon by the end!

A.J. pulled me through a litany of emotions, including some "ugly girl" crying in public, all the way to the happy tears that finally came in the last few moments! Great job! Please read this book! It portrays real life and hardship alongside the surprising ability to find peace within chaos. Thank you for giving me such a lovely example of LGBTQ+ liberation and joy. It will be a lasting motivation to continue working on my own material and serves as a powerful voice to the struggle.

J.T.

The audio quality for one narrator is not good

Jonah's narrator's audio has a high pitched ringing noise in the background and it's making it really hard for me to enjoy the story, especially because it's duet narration so there's not an opportunity for my brain to get used to it enough to filter it out :(

Couldn’t stop!

I started this one late yesterday afternoon and spent the whole evening listening to it. I was so invested in the characters and needed to know what was going to happen. The audio is very well done with duet narration! Will definitely be re-reading this amazing book💜

Speechless

This story is heartbreaking, gut wrenching, and achingly beautiful. The author takes extremely heavy topics, and manages to give the characters the respect and dignity they deserve. This subject matter is extremely challenging to do well, and this was truly exceptional.

I’ll be thinking of Jonah and Liam for a long, long time.

Not what I expected!

But I was soo emotionally invested in it!

The whole story was lovely and the connection between the two MC’s was jist soo well done.

Perfect Narration

This narrators are perfect! They capture all the emotion & brokenness of Jonah & Liam. Needless to say I cried...AGAIN.