Buzz

The Riley Brothers, Book 1

By: E. Davies

Narrated by: Michael Dean

Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

"I'm walking away from that dream."

At 23, an undiagnosed heart condition sends pro hockey player Cameron Riley back to his hometown newly single and looking for work. Cam can't hide his past - especially when his heart racing is a big risk, and boy, does his new boss's nephew make his heart race. Noah's exactly the kind of guy Cam needs after his hellish ex.

Art curator Noah Clark is glad his beekeeping uncle hired this hunk. Cameron is a sweet, smart bad boy. Noah works hard, like organizing a hockey-themed art exhibition, and he wants to let himself love hard. Noah's busy life would be perfect with Cameron, but what's his new lover hiding?

Pitting Cam's budding relationship with sweet Noah against millions of bucks, Cam is offered a lot of money to abandon his new priorities: life, love, and family. The game of their lives is on the line. And after all's said and done, is it too late for Noah to forgive Cam for his partial truths?

Buzz is a steamy, standalone gay romance novel with a happily ever after ending and no cliffhanger.

©2015 E. Davies (P)2017 E. Davies

Sweet as honey

This was a nice book but I felt like some parts of it tended to drag out a bit sometimes and wish it was more fluid.

I did read it before in e-book format, which was a bit harder to get into. However, Michael Pauly did a great job narrating this story and bringing it to life, making it more interesting and engaging. I am a long time fan of Michael, and love his emotional renditions of characters and situations.

This is a sweet love story, it is very gentle and I liked Cam's brother's a lot.
I would say i think it's not a master piece, but a feel-good romantic read for sure.

Just Greatness!

Michael Pauley has done it again!! Buzz is such a great book to read but then you take an amazing narrator like Michael and that book become even more amazing! Noah and Cam become even more real to me and now if I read this book I will have Michael's narration in my head. If you haven't read/listen to a book by E. Davies then this is the one you should start with. Just amazing!

Amazing narration for an incredible story

Narration Review
I listened to this book in audio as a second read. I have to say that I really enjoyed the book the first time, but I loved it even more this time. Michael Pauley did such an AMAZING job with the narration and sucked me right into the story. He had very distinct voices for Cam and Noah, and I could imagine that is exactly what they sounded like. The scenes where Cam and Noah finally got together were HOT. holy cow Michael brought such passion and tension into the scenes. It was beautifully done.

Book Review
I am such a sucker for hockey players in my books. That made this just a bit of a guaranteed read for me.

Cam is a professional hockey player who finds he has some heart problem that requires him to retire from the game. He also has a real jerk ex who leaves him while he is sick in the hospital, claiming it's partly because Cam is in the closet. He loves the game, but finds once he gets back home that he missed being with his family and having a more sedentary life (versus traveling all over all the time). He has a great bond with his siblings and his parents.

Noah is a museum curator and is in the process of creating an exhibit about local hockey. His uncle, who he is close with, is a beekeeper, and Noah helps him out from time to time. He is very knowledgeable about bees and random art stuff. He's sweet and adorable.

They meet and there is immediate attraction. What I loved, though, is that they didn't get together right then. When they saw each other a day or a few days later, then they chatted and set up a date. They didn't rush into anything. Noah helps Cam realize what is important in life, and makes him question what it is he really wants. Cam kept a lot of secrets from Cam, but they weren't malicious or handled in a negative way. Cam was afraid of Noah treating him differently if he knew he was a hockey player, because that is how he was treated in the past.

Of course the guys work through everything and we get a nice HEA with the wonderful promise of 2 more books!!! There are 3 brothers so I am looking forward to their stories. I am also looking forward to seeing Cam and Noah throughout those books. I want to know what is really going on with Cam's heart, and I am hoping we will find out in the next books.

I really, really enjoyed this and can't wait for the rest of the series.

heartwarming story

glad rhey put this book on audio. hope they put the next books out soon

Look forward to more, but there were a few things.

I enjoyed "Buzz" and plan to continue the series. I adored Noah and loved his creativity as an artist. I found it was easy to connect with him. Cameron was a little more of a challenge for me. I didn't understand why he kept secrets from Noah, especially when he had the chance over and over to tell him the truth. I loved the bees!! I smiled so much in those scenes! I also loved Cameron's family and am interested to know more about his brothers, BUT I will say, it was confusing to be thrown into the brother's minds sometimes. Since it was written in third person, it was hard to keep track of who's mind I was in, and I ended up backtracking at least 3 different times to figure it out. But other than that, I enjoyed this story and look forward to more.

Great listen

I read this book quite a while back and remembered that I liked it so with Michael Dean as the narrator, I knew the audiobook had to be amazing. I was right. Michael does such a great job of bringing characters to life and adding a dimension to the book that would otherwise be missed. It helps when it is such a great story. One unique part is that E. Davies included Cameron's brother Patrick's point of view instead of just keeping it to Cameron and Noah.

I really enjoyed the developing relationship between the two men, especially with everything happening in their lives. The story was well developed in that you could see the natural progression of how things grew instead of everything being shared too soon (or unrealistically).

I look forward to listening to the other books in the series, especially with Michael as the narrator.

Amazing

The greatness of this book, the series in fact, cannot be stated with enough adjectives.

Noah's soft heart and acceptance allow for a heartbroken Cameron to find a place of space in a world that is spinning off its axis.

From the first meeting to the last scene you feel the blossoming of love expressed in the between words. Those words and thoughts we keep to ourselves out of fear that they will not be welcomed.

Art curator and a forced retired hockey player navigate the landscape keeping each other in their sights, tethering one to the other and all that comes from it is beautiful.

A sweet romance

I love Cameron and Noah. They are such a cute couple and I love their chemistry. They are sweet and are so in sync that it’s not even funny. I love their story and the way that they are there for each other for everything and anything that comes up. Michael did an amazing job with this story. I can’t wait for more of these guys.

Hockey player turned beekeeper

Buzz is the first book in the Riley Brothers series and after finishing the Significant Brothers series, I found it to be similar in feel regarding the pacing, sweet storyline, and characters with a fairly high heat factor.

I was drawn to listen to Buzz because Cameron was a hockey player; but that was not a big part of the story, at least not in terms of time on the ice. It factors in to the overall story theme, but it is not a sports-romance. When Cameron moves home and starts working in bee keeping, I found the transition smooth without any difficulty. The whole story is low-angst.

A couple of things I found not as successful to me for the story was the fact that a couple of chapters were in Cameron's brother Jackson's POV. I was not sure what that was accomplishing to the plot and it confused me when it first came about. Also, I would have liked a little more "wrapping up" of some threads in the story that were left dangling. They may come up again further into the other brothers' stories, but I felt like I was missing a few things at the end.

The narration was very good and made the characters come alive. I enjoyed listening to the story so much that I think liked it better in audio than I would have reading it in print.

Two Canadian Boys

This was my first E. Davies book and I’m already a fan. I was up for a low-angst book with two great men, two sexy brothers, and an adorable beekeeping uncle, and parents who accept their sons for who they are.

The prologue starts with a bang, and chapter one continues that drama, only in a different venue.

Cam Riley plays hockey on a professional team, just one step below the NHL (National Hockey League). He plays in Toronto –a hotbed of hockey fans. Even though the beloved pro team – the Toronto Maple Leafs, have one of the longest Stanley Cup droughts in the history of the league, Leafs fans stand by their team, convinced that this year will be ‘the one’. With Austin Matthews on their team, it’s a near-future possibility.

But I digress.

I love books set in Canada – bias here, I admit – Especially books that portray this vast country in such an accurate way.

Montreal drivers are angry (sorry, it’s true and I have firsthand experience). Toronto, according to Cam’s brother Jackson, is a ‘soul-sucking hellhole at the best of times’. There’s a truth to that. Again, firsthand experience. If you don’t have friends and family to keep you grounded, it can be very lonely. Cam’s hockey buddies are great, but they are enjoying the freedom of living in the big city with lots of people who love hockey. And the one boyfriend Cam had? True jerk.

Finally, there is the small-town life. Fredericton, New Brunswick isn’t a one-light town, but with the city filled with Maritimers, it can feel like everyone is a friend. It’s a place where a former hockey pro with an undiagnosed heart problem can meet a cute guy and secure a job at the Saturday morning Farmer’s Market.

Noah Clark is manning his uncle’s honey stand while the older man tends to a beehive emergency. And when he meets a hunky guy who’s returning to town and looking for a job (and he’s gay!), Noah considers himself a lucky guy. He’s an art curator and a bit on the feminine side. Many men find that a turnoff, but he is exactly Cam’s type.

Thus begins a series of dates with a slow burn of escalating passion. Noah is wary of people because often people who leave New Brunswick don’t come back. Also, this amazing man wants to build boxes and learn to tend bees. It seems too good to be true.

And maybe it is – because Cam is still in the hockey scouts’ sights and when one makes him an offer, he has a choice to make.

I love that this is a book about family as much as romantic love. Noah misses his family back in Ottawa, but his job in Fredericton is good for his career and his Uncle Billy is there.

Cam is the middle brother. Jackson is the eldest and came out early in high school. Because of being a jock, Cam wasn’t ‘out’. Thomas, the youngest, was the one who was bullied because everyone thought he was gay. His sexuality is a non-issue as he never discusses his personal life, never mentioning a boy or girl friend. He also points out that the statistical odds of three brothers being gay are astronomical.

Given there are more books, it will be interesting to see how the story develops.

(That having been said, ‘Clang’, which is Book 2, is Jackson’s book and ‘Swish’, the final book in the series, is Thomas’ story. I’m hoping they will be released on audio soon).

As I said, low-angst, great storyline, and then there’s Michael Pauley. He’s a narrator who delivers a solid performance every time. Even his pronunciation of French words such as beurre and Trois-Rivieres, is done valiantly and with a degree of accuracy, so good for him. As always, he is a treat to listen to.