Believe

Skins, Book 3

De: Garrett Leigh

Narrado por: Shaun Grindell

Flight paramedic Rhys Foster is hooked on adrenaline. By day it's blood and guts, by night it's the thrill of the club. With a different face in his bed most nights, he doesn't have time to be lonely...right?

Entertainer Jevon Campbell is a play therapist like no other - dancer, magician, acrobat, he brings it all to his global mission to help children in need laugh again. He's on a rare home visit when he encounters enigmatic Rhys in a London bar.

Their connection is instant, but Rhys fast realises Jevon's easy confidence doesn't stretch as far as the bedroom. He has no idea how mesmerizing he is - how beautiful - and Rhys resolves to show him.

They grow closer, but time isn't on their side. Rhys seems unable to articulate how he feels, and with Jevon's imminent departure from the U.K. hanging over them, their separate commitments could tear them apart forever.

As the days slip by, Rhys must learn to believe he's worth the happiness Jevon is offering.

Contains mature themes.

©2018 Garrett Leigh (P)2019 Tantor

WHY THE CARIBBEAN ACCENT???

This is pissing me off to the point I don’t know if I can finish the book. This character was raised, if not born in the UK to a Caribbean family. He states he did not even know what a plantain was until adolescence, so presumably he was not deeply immersed in Caribbean culture in childhood (are his parents even immigrants???). Given all of this, WHY THE FUCK DOES HE HAVE A CARIBBEAN ACCENT??? The accent is not consistent or genuine but honestly if it made sense with the character’s backstory that would be something I could look past. I don’t know if the narrator thought because it was a Black MC he needed to have something to distinguish him from the white characters?? He has lived most of his life (and all of his childhood) in London wtf. It’s gratuitous actually and kind of offensive as an immigrant. Has anyone who had a say in this “creative decision” actually met an immigrant… or a child of immigrants… or a Black person for that matter?
Along the same lines I’m curious about the choice to have him listening to reggae music and cooking jerk chicken (both seem like Caribbean stereotypes that I’m not sure the character would adhere to given how he was raised…) and referring to his hairstyle as dreads rather than locs among some other things. I’m tempted to say beggars can’t be choosers when it comes to wanting more diversity in books but I think they could have consulted a Black person or two 😭

Heavy on the drama, light on resolution.

Believe, on the heels of Whisper is just a bit off.

First, the narration continues to work in this book. Often white narrators taking on characters of color slip into expected and uncomfortable stereotypes, fortunately Grindell makes no such choices, and with a light Caribbean accent, Jevon is pleasantly portrayed.

The reader needs to just buy into the premise and not ask a lot of questions, Leigh isn't offering much in the way of answers. For instance, how exactly did a unicycle riding, Caribbean man learn fluent Arabic? Wait, he does more! Jevon's skill set is unparalleled! Why Rhys is a paramedic? The answer is so mushy/confusing, I wish she don't bother brining it up.

Leigh makes great use of connected characters from the previous two books, especially Angelo. However I found that I didn't know Rhys much better by the end of the book. I think she had an idea of who he was, but he remained a bit of a cypher. The relationship between the brothers is never really resolved, some things happen outside the storyline, and I found that a bit of a miss.

Believe also slips into the “I said in my mind” mode of storytelling. Rather than say something directly - a line is said, and then transitions to an internal conversation, leaving that character to regret not just saying the thing out loud. Also, there is a lot of breathless waiting for a phone to ring. I find that in a lot of Leigh's books.

Finally, similar to the first book, Dream, Leigh chooses a calamity to pull things together. While it is a bit over the top, it works better in this title vs. Dream. For me, this use of a broad event pulls way from the intimacy of the world that these semi-loner characters inhabit.

After the pacing and clarity of Whisper, I was less excited by Believe. The whole sex club thread was too frayed for the amount of play it received in the third volume. Once established that is how Rhys met Dylan and Angelo, that topic needed to be put to rest.

Is it worth the read? Yes. Still recommended. While a bit farfetched at times, Leigh is willing to think outside the box and she can write dialogue. All in all, a solid series. If you enjoyed the first two books, check out the novellas (print or Kindle) that continue stories from Dream and Whisper.

These are good stories

I don’t love the cadence of the narrator in this series, but he does a good job voicing a large cast of characters with a variety of accents. The books are well-written and enjoyable. Each one takes on a serious topic or few, but they’re handled in such a natural and matter of fact way that they are part of the story, not the focus of it. The books never feel too heavy.

A great storyline run off the rails by poor narration

The narrative style, pacing and affected voice was awful. If you try an accent please be proficient. I could not follow the story even at 90 percent.