Heartsong

Vino & Veritas

De: A. E. Wasp

Narrado por: Chris Chambers

Duración: 10 h y 12 m

Resumen del Editor

"It just figures that the first guy I'm bringing back to my place is cute, single, and totally off-limits...."

Sean Anderson has spent his life waiting to get the hell out of West Virginia. His plans got derailed when his dad shipped him off to "pray the gay away", but he's over it, ready to prove that he's a grown-ass man who can take care of himself. Of course, he'd have a better chance convincing himself if he could stop lusting after his grumpy roommate.

Army veteran Cooper Hill returned to Vermont minus one leg and one career, but determined to build a new life. When an army buddy asks Cooper to keep an eye on his nephew, a junior at the local college, Cooper can't say no. He's expecting a sheltered kid. What he gets is a gorgeous young man whose brilliant poetry gives voice to everything Cooper's been trying to express. He wants Sean more than he's ever wanted anything. And somehow, miraculously, Sean wants him too.

But wanting each other isn't the same as being good for each other...especially when past pain threatens to write its own verse in their song.

Contains mature themes.

©2021 A. E. Wasp (P)2021 Tantor

I LOL. I Cry. Worthwhile.

This was a story that has age gap and firsts. The beginning chapters had me ROTFL. As the story progressed, I was surprised at the turn and the direction the story began to unfold. It was refreshing albeit, a heart tugging tear jerking ride. Worth seeing to the end.

Best series

I love how versatile this series is. If your reading this series you should already know LOVE IS LOVE, but it’s just great to see all the different love & struggles.

Good story. Good narration.

This book was one of my favorites from the Vino and Veritas series. Cooper and Sean have an entertaining dynamic. They are very different, but they fit well into each other's lives. Cooper is an army veteran, and the author does a wonderful job of using his experiences to incorporate into the book some useful info about military life that isn't always common knowledge for the general public. Sean's life experiences offer up some very painful social commentary. Getting to know both characters was a worthwhile experience.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and the narration, but some moments in this book reminded why I don't usually like first person point of view. I feel dreadfully uncomfortable hearing a character's internal dialogue describing their own six pack abs. It feels a bit egocentric even if it is a factual description. I think the narrative flowed more smoothly when the internal dialogue was referring to another character.

If you have read AE Wasp's Veterans series, you will recognize a couple of the characters who appear in this book. They were a nice addition to the story, and for new commers to the author's work, a sneak peak at an interesting series by the author. I hope we get a chance to hear more from all the characters in this book, and I look forward to more narration performed by Chris Chambers.

Broken soul

It always saddens me when I hear about a pretty soul that’s been broken by a broken world. The simple fact that people have a mean bone in their body to be able to hurt another is sad. I’m happy that in the end he found himself, but he shouldn’t have had to go through what he did. Sad story.

Ohhhh my god!

This book is amazing! Now I have purchased all of the audio books in the series and I’ve been disappointed by a few of them. But this book

Has blown me away! I’m going to try to put it as succinctly as possible. Yes, each main character has a “personal demon” and the author does amazing job of laying them out quietly and expertly BUT without the angst that same authors insist on beating you with ….
I don’t want to post any spoilers so I will just say you have to listen to this book! The story is perfect & the narrator is fantastic!!

I have to make a point also about the way the author ends the story .. like life …there’s not a quick fix, the journey of living isn’t a straight road . Such a great book !!!!

Outstanding Narration

Chris Chambers is an awesome narrator! I'm definitely putting Chris on my favorite top ten to listen.

bad narration

the storyline was good but the narration was not good at all I don't like giving a bad review but I could not finish the book because the narrator I'm so sorry 😞

Overpolitical

Young, naive Sean has a lot of questions about being gay. Cooper has a lot of answers that mostly involve getting offended very easily and lecturing Sean about why he's a bad person. I've been unimpressed with every entry in the Vino and Veritas series (with the exception of the first one, Roommate) and after this one, which started out very promising, I'm finally going to just give up on the whole thing. Even books in the series by authors I like (such as A. E. Wasp, as it happens) just feel like reading an epic Twitter thread written by someone with blue hair who calls themself queer and spells the word "woman" with an X. No thank you.

Here's an example: Sean and Cooper go to the titular bar/bookstore, and Sean makes the mistake of casually referring to it as a gay bar. Cooper immediately pontificates (and I'm quoting): "First of all, it's not a 'gay bar,' it's just a bar that makes a point of being welcoming and inclusive to people of all races, sexes, genders, and gender expressions. Got it?" Ok dude, chill out. 99% of the world would call Vino & Veritas a gay bar, INCLUDING ME and literally every gay guy I know. In fact, I'm actually slightly insulted at the implication that there's anything wrong with the phrase "gay bar," so points off for that, Ms. Wasp. Also I think it's interesting that a gay man wouldn't include "sexual orientation" in that list (and include race for some reason), but I guess we're actually pretty far down the hierarchy of identity politics, so I shouldn't be too surprised.

I've been out of the closet for about twenty years now, and I never thought I would say this, but I'm actually jealous of straight people who get to read romance novels that actually focus on the romance. Lately it seems like every book I read or listen to is a treatise written by some know-it-all straight woman trying to educate me about the LGBT community. I get that the actual audience for these books consists mostly of straight women, but I honestly can't help but feel a little insulted that someone is trying to lecture me about my own thing. And I can't imagine that it goes over well with the straight women being targeted, either, but I guess they sell ok. I'm not going to return this audiobook because, you know, it's like the sixth book I've bought in this series that had the same problem, and caveat emptor and all, but I am going to Amazon.com to get them to delete it so it doesn't clutter up my library.

Incidentally, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out the unbelievably good narration by Chris Chambers. There's no need for a dual narration when one person can play both roles so convincingly. He's so good I'm going to search for another book he's narrated to cleanse my palate.

A bit much, but it has its moments

So, the level of angst is way too much. I mean, being kidnapped as a young adult by your Father and sent to a conversion camp. What?!? Nah...police weren't called? What?? That's over the top...this isn't the 60s. The good, Stump the dog, Sean's teacher, Cooper, everything about him. His patience, his flaws, and his disability was not looked at as unattractive but just part of his beautiful package. So overall, a mix bag but I finished it and for the most part, enjoyed it.