Blueberry Boys

By: Vanessa North

Narrated by: Tobias Silversmith

Length: 4 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

Connor Graham is a city boy - a celebrated fashion photographer in New York. When his uncle's death drags him back to the family blueberry farm, all he wants to do is sell it as quickly as he can. Until he meets his uncle's tenant farmer.

Jed Jones, shy and stammering, devout and dedicated, has always yearned for land of his own and a man to share it with. Kept in the closet by his church, family, and disastrous first love, he longs to be accepted for who he is. But now, with his farm and his future in Connor's careless hands, he stands to lose even the little he has.

Neither man expects the connection between them. Jed sees Connor - appreciates his art and passion like no one else in this godforsaken town ever has. Connor hears Jed - looks past his stutter to listen to the man inside. The time they share is idyllic, but with the farm sale pending, even their sanctuary is a source of tension. As work, family, and their town's old-fashioned attitudes pull them apart, they must find a way to reconcile commitments to their careers and to each other.

©2015 Vanessa North (P)2016 Riptide Publishing

Really lovely story, great characters

What made the experience of listening to Blueberry Boys the most enjoyable?

I was so impressed with this story. Just beautifully written, and so intimate. The characters had such an intense and wonderful relationship, and the character development on them each individually was perfectly done.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I loved Connor, he was so sweet and open.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The narrator did a terrific job with Jed's stutter. My only criticism is that some of his stresses and accentuations came at the wrong places.

Sweet ,romantic story

What does Tobias Silversmith bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I loved Jed's stutter. It made the story real. I loved his emotion in each character as well.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes. I like an occasional short book you can do in one sitting.

Any additional comments?

The Blueberry Boy is a sweet story. I loved the cover and title.
Jed is a very religious man. He works hard on the blueberry farm that is being sold after the owner died. Jed isn't sure what will happen to him.

Conner is a photographer, he loved the Blueberry farm but agreed to sell because he needed the money to build a gallery he always wanted. When he and Jed become romantically involved life becomes difficult as neither can change their lives?

The story is sweet. I was giving it a 3.5 but when Conner sent the email near the end to Jed that did it for me. That was the sweetest love letter ever. The story is very family oriented with conflict in both Scott and Conner's family and Jed's family. There is some hot man sex too.

If you like farmers, photographers, blueberries, Cityboy/country boy, coming out, and a sweet romance.

Heartwarming Down on the Farm Romance

If you could sum up Blueberry Boys in three words, what would they be?

Poignant, Thoughtful, Relationships

What was one of the most memorable moments of Blueberry Boys?

That would be the scene where Connor grieves and Jed is there to hold him. Lots of scenes grabbed me, but that is the one that sealed it for me when it came to their relationship.

What about Tobias Silversmith’s performance did you like?

Um, everything? Okay, so that's vague.
Well, I thought he nailed the characters, the spirit of the story, the timing and the emotional tone throughout.
I would definitely listen to other audios he narrated.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Almost did, actually! But yes, it was engaging enough that I would have been disappointed to hit pause and go do other stuff.
It wasn't exciting or overly angsty, but it had heart, quiet conflict, and passion. The author carefully handed difficult subjects and didn't turn things into flippant cliches. I was glad to see how she handed things with respect, honesty, and instilled depth and reality to the story as a result.

Any additional comments?

I received this book from Riptide Publishing in exchange for my honest review thoughts.

Some good moments, but too slow-paced for me

I liked the scenes that featured Conner's photography/art and was excited that Oliver from Vanessa North's Dark Collector made an appearance (I would have loved more of Olliver). The beginning started out good, but the pacing and farm setting was slow and the story dragged on until things picked up near the end.

The narration was good. Ultimately, I think it's the story that didn't succeed in drawing me in. I did like how the ending resolved.

Must Be OK with Stuttering

One of the main character stutters, a deal breaker for me. I'm stopping at only about 15 minutes in though, maybe it's not all the way through.

Can't get enough

"..whispers of Hope into the darkness as he fell asleep.."
Beautiful story with real characters.

Don't be afraid of the religion - this is great!

Connor, a fashion photographer from NYC, is suddenly thrust back into a life he never wanted and in fact left years ago when his uncle dies, leaving him 1/3 of a blueberry farm. He wants to sell it, as does the rest of his family, and he’s come home to do just that…until he meets Jed.

As a tenant farmer, Jed is very reliant on the weather and luck. . He believes in … faith… and it plays a central role in his life. He loves men and growing things, but his religion won’t allow him to be his true, whole self. In fact, Jed’s not unconvinced that loving men isn’t in fact “wrong”, and he still considers himself a deeply religious man.

Right from the beginning the two men are attracted to one another. Chemistry is one thing, but true compatibility is a whole other ball of wax. One lives in the country, one the city, one is liberal, the other conservative, one deeply religious, the other … not so much.

Is there any way – on earth – that these two can make this relationship work? Is it even worth it? Should they even try?

**

Don’t let the religion aspect of this story steer you away. It’s handled so well. Vanessa North is an amazing writer and gifted at handling tough subjects like this and I think you’ll find she leaves us a nice middle ground.

Yes – there are some stiff and uncomfortable scenes wherein we watch Jed wrestle with what he’s been taught and what he feels to be true. But – the religion aspect doesn’t hit us over the head, nor is it vilified. In fact, the new pastor- Brenda – actually steps up to help when nobody else can.

This is a story full of love, laughter, hot smexy times and oodles of “feels”. It did make me stop and think and doesn’t ignore the true hurdles on the way to happiness, but in the end the best choices in life are often the hardest. And it has an ooey gooey Epilogue – my favorite! – that will leave you smiling!

I loved this book and highly recommend it!

5 of 5 stars


Audio

Tobias Silversmith is a relatively new narrator and I’m not quite sure how I feel about him. On the one hand I LOVED his depiction of Jed. He did a great job with his low voice and the stutter. He handles the emotion and dialog parts of the story very well. I didn’t love his choice of voice for Connor, it felt a bit too effeminate, and I didn’t like his British accent at all, but I appreciated the try. Every character had a fairly unique voice and it was easy to discern who was speaking. I sometimes felt his non-dialog narration was a bit rushed and breathy, but he’s still quite easy to listen to and overall didn’t stop me from enjoying this lovely story.

Narration 4.5 of 5 stars

Overall 5 of 5 stars

I didn't like it that much

I really didn’t liked it that much. I liked both characters, they were really sweet and the story was nice, but there was something that just didn’t work for me. I really don’t know if my experience would have been different if I would read it instead of listening to the audiobook, but I think I t would. I loved the narrator’s voice but that’s all I liked from the audio. I had a lot of problems with it, one of them was that I find it really hard to know whose point of view was being told from time to time, and also didn’t find any difference between the main characters voices. Jed’s speak problems made it a bit easier but other than that.

The story overall it was nice and I think most readers would be able to enjoy it, but it just apparently wasn’t the right book for me. I still want to try other books from the author and maybe also another ones of the narrator just to make sure it wasn’t my mood at the moment that didn’t allow me to like it more.