From out in the Cold

By: L.A. Witt

Narrated by: Charlie David

Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

Neil Dalton's foundation is already cracking. Grief, guilt, and PTSD have ruled his life since a terrible crime tore his world apart last year, and he's dreading a holiday visit with the family he simultaneously needs and resents. Then someone from his past shows up and rattles that shaky foundation right out from under him.

First a war nearly destroyed Jeremy Kelley, then his family threw him out when he needed them the most. Now he's barely holding on emotionally. He spends his last dollar to get to Chicago and prays his former best friend won't leave him out in the cold.

Neil and Jeremy spend the holidays with Neil's family in their hometown of Omaha. They struggle to deal with families, flashbacks...and feelings that haven't even begun to fade since their last failed attempt at being more than friends. As they try to repair their fractured psyches and rebuild damaged bridges, they rely on each other more than ever, but they can't deny the mutual attraction that's existed since before they were both emotionally battered and scarred. If they couldn't make it work back then, how in the world can they pull it off now?

©2013 Lori Witt/L.A. Witt (P)2016 Lori Witt/L.A. Witt

Slow story with TERRIBLE audio.

This story may have ended well, though it went quite slow. I had to stop listening about half way through because the BASS got so deep and loud that I could barely make out the words. Buyer beware.

This book is anything but cold.

Where does From out in the Cold rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It's a favorite, that's for sure.

What other book might you compare From out in the Cold to and why?

Any other book written by LA Witt and narrated by Charlie David. They have an amazing partnership and I love everything I listen to from Charlie that was written by Witt.

What about Charlie David’s performance did you like?

Everything.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Neil finally let's it all go, accepts his true feelings for Jeremy and lets Jeremy in.

Wow!

"It's a welcome addition to my library. I've read it twice, and , as with his/her other books, I'll probably read it multiple times. It's not often, I find an author who make a story not only believable, but enlightening.

B+ rating...

My Review:
Overall: 4.0
Performance: 4.25
Story: 4.0

Friends to lovers is always a favorite of mine and this story is especially bittersweet in that these two characters WERE best friends, but then they tried the lovers thing and it became so awkward they haven't spoken for 5 years.

But as the story begins, Jeremy just left the military and a vicious ex who outed him to his family without Jeremy knowing. He went home after a horrific deployment to find that his parents and family wouldn't have anything to do with him. He's suffering from horrible PTSD and has no where to go in the middle of winter so he shows up on Neil's doorstep.

Neil didn't serve in the military, but he's dealing with his own trauma and PTSD after his boyfriend died. He's not really in a place to help Jeremy, but he can't turn him away. And that's where the story and healing for both these guys begins.

This is an angst-filled, heartbreaking book. Both of these guys are in a horrible place mentally, but I love that that fact brings them together. They truly begin to heal each other. It was a gorgeous story.

It takes place during the holidays so there is a trip to Neil's home in the middle of the story. Neil is out to his family, but they're very vocal about not supporting that part of him. As a result, he's never even told them about what happened to his boyfriend or the mental anguish he's been going through the past year. Those scenes between Neil's mom, Jeremy, and Neil are so heartwarming and felt so real. People don't think when they condemn about what they're really doing to the ones they love.

It's a beautiful story about the healing power of love and I thoroughly loved it.

So Sad

Seriously High Angst Warning

Damn this book was sad, those poor guys.

I listened to the audio version and Charlie David does a nice job with the pacing and enunciation but I would have liked it if the voices for the two MCs were a little bit more different.

Enjoyable

Good book for a simple relaxing time. What I expected. good for its type of story

Poor audio Quality

About half ay through the narration, I lost the ability to hear the book unless I Turned my audio up to 100%. Is there a way I can exchange this novel for Conduct becoming by L.A. Witt?

Great story

I have really enjoyed each of L.A. Witt’s ebooks and this is my first audible book. The story is well written and believable. My only issue was the narrators voice was at times in a tone that was hard for my ears to pick up. I’m not normally hard hearing but I did adjust the settings on my device so I could enjoy it better.

more physical description of men's bodies

more detailed description of males bodies including chest pits biceps erroneous more detailed description of males bodies including chest pits biceps erroneous zones pecs attitude

If at first you don't succeed....

Then try and try again. L.A. Witt is top notch in making you feel what the characters are feeling and her world building is phenominal - especially in this title - I could feel the coldness both in Illinois and Nebraska....I almost winced myself at the bright lights and crashing of the pins at the bowling alley. The only criticism I have in this regard is I feel she does not provide enough description or reinforce her descriptions of the charcters themselves. We get a general description of dark hair and dark eyes for Jeremy and platinum blonde - maybe blue eyes? for Neil. And this is only once so if you miss it then you struggle in deciding how they look. We assume they are both fit mainley because Jeremy was in the army and (because it seems all men in the m/m romance world are fit and handsome). I hate that I couldn't tell how tall Neil and Jeremy are nor how tall they are in relation to each other. But all that aside, I always feel that Witt's m/m romance come off as authentic - 2 people who happen to be men who fall in love. I totally dislike it when it seems 1 of the males comes off as feminine.

*Spoilers*
"From Out In The Cold" is a lovely struggle of friends-to-lovers novel - each male having to live their lives seperately to grow and become the men that they are today so that they could finally come together and make their relationship as lovers work. But if you ask me all they had to do was hold each other after having sex; maybe even talk sexy while they were having sex so maybe those walls would have been down so by the time they were finished there wouldn't have been that nonsense of staring at the ceiling and letting the awkwardnessb slowly creep in and spread - to the point where they stopped talking for 5 yrs! But if they had done this 5 yrs ago we wouldn't have the book we have today - Neil wouldn't have PTSD from watching his boyfriend get murdered and Jeremy his PTSD from the army and subsequent forced outting to his family. I liked that although this book had depressing themes - PTSD, chain smoking, feelings of being unaccepted (especially by family) and scar tissue from failed attempt at going from friends to lobers - there were wonderful outcomes in this book...so much that at the end I felt hope for Neil and Jeremy and I felt as if I, myself had come in from the cold and into the warmth right alongside with our Heroes.

As for the narrator Charlie David...he has a pleasing masculine voice and can keep you engaged with what's going on in the book and the characters. My only issue is that he has no skill in changing his voice for different characters. If I forgot the announcement at the beginning of the chapter of which POV that chapter was going to be I had to piece it together by the interactions and even then I would confuse who was saying what so I had to backtrack.

5 stars - worthy of a repeat listen