St. Nacho's

St. Nacho's, Book 1

By: Z. A. Maxfield

Narrated by: Thomas Fawley

Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

Cooper has spent the last three years running from a painful past. He's currently moving from town to town, working in restaurant kitchens, and playing his violin for tips. As soon as he starts to feel comfortable anywhere - with anyone - he moves on. He's aware that music may be the only human language he still knows. Ironically, the one man he's wanted to communicate with in all that time is deaf.

Shawn is part of a deaf theater group at the nearby college. Shawn wants Cooper as soon as they meet and he begins a determined flirtation. Cooper is comfortable with down and dirty sex, just not people. As far as Shawn is concerned, dirty sex is win-win, but he wants Cooper to let him into the rest of his life as well. Cooper needs time to heal and put his past away for good. Shawn needs to help Cooper forgive himself and accept that he can be loved. Both men find out that when it comes to the kind of healing love can bring, the sleepy beachside town of Santo Ignacio, "St. Nacho's" as the locals call it, may just be the very best place to start.

Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some listeners may find objectionable: Anal play/intercourse, male/male sexual practices.

©2008 Z. A. Maxfield (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

A pretty good love story for the gay among us

If you are into gay love stories (which, as a gay man, I am), then you will probably enjoy this book. It's predictable. It's sappy at times. But it was a fun read.

Music can be heard in your heart

Other than the insta-love, the story of lost & hurt souls worked it's way into my heart. I fell in love with Shawn's tender heart. This is a love story that left me with a good feeling of hope and happiness.

Good read from a 1st time author & narrator to me. Well done!

heartfelt

Narration = 5 stars.. this is my first time hearing this narrator and he was amazing... giving each h character a distinct voice.
Story = 5 stars.. this is a well written, richly developed main characters and storyline..
Overall= 5 star.. I am highly recommending this book.
Charo

Sweet Life Changes

I think everyone needs a little St. Nachos whether they find it on the coast or in the mountains, when you find home inside you or with the people around you or both it is beautiful and this is the best of examples.

Loved it

I loved this audiobook the voice actor did a wonderful job with a fantastic story I loved all the characters and am excited to read more of this series the setting was fun and there was emotional turmoil to keep things interesting with a satisfying ending

I liked the 1st half, but struggled w/the 2nd half

What was most disappointing about Z. A. Maxfield’s story?

I really liked the development of the relationship between Shawn and Cooper, it was sweet and the interplay of Coooper's music and Shawn being deaf led to some very touching and memorable moments. But the story lost momentum for me after Cooper's past pulls him away from Shawn and St. Nachos. I couldn't find Jordan sympathetic, and I found Stan and the whole religious subplot highly annoying and overly dramatic.

Have you listened to any of Thomas Fawley’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I've listened to only 1 other performance by him, Touch the Sky by Nyrae Dawn and Christina Lee (which was a dual narration with Brandon Bujnowski), which was also a $1.99 audible add-on to the Kindle Unlimited book. Since I'm not a big fan of dual narration, I liked St. Nacho's narration better ... but I think both of these stories weren't the strongest and the narration helped bolster both books.

Any additional comments?

The Kindle book is offered free (purchase for $0, not Kindle Unlimited) and I added the narration for $1.99 (although it is now included in the Audible Romance Package). I know there are 3 more books in the St. Nacho's series (also included in the Romance Package), but I don't think St. Nacho's and Z.A. Maxfield is a good fit for my tastes!

Straight Forward romance

The most I can say about this book is that it's startlingly okay. The story was semi engaging and held my interest enough but it felt like it moved both too fast and too slow at the same time for me. The relationship between Shaun and Cooper was endearing however I wish we learned more about them as individuals. It's repeatedly stated multiple times that Shaun isn't as much of an angel as Cooper thinks, but there's never anything to back that up. I almost wish the book was told from Shaun's perspective rather than Cooper's as I would have liked to hear more about the small conflicts he kept having with Kevin.

The move from St. Nacho's back to Coopers home town was, a thing, I suppose. I understood why he made the decision but I found it frustrating to have the tone change so much so quickly. All the characters I grew to enjoy in the first half just kind of got pushed aside for a new cast. Most of which I didn't particularly like or have any real interest in. Jordan was irritating the pastor guy was even more so. Cooper's sister and the librarian woman are largely forgettable. This is a huge contrast to Thomas and the rest of the St. Nacho's crew who were all great supporting cast.

The narration was... Acceptable I guess. This is kind of a personal taste thing but I honestly wasn't a fan of it. I had to speed up the narration to 2X speed because he talked so slow. This of course lowered the quality of the vocal performance for me but honestly trying to listen to it at regular speed was like torture. Once again this is just a matter of personal taste and I'm sure I'm in the minority here. I don't think I'll be listening to the rest of the series though.

All in all, I don't hate it and it was a pretty straight forward M/M romance novel with a couple fun and worth while characters.

Fantastic Series!

I downloaded a few books to listen to on a cruise and I was pleasantly surprised by this series. This book stands alone, but definitely listen to the entire series. Z. A. Maxfield does an amazing job at tying all the characters together throughout the series. You will become enveloped in the little town of St Nachos. The spice level was great, but some of the language in those scenes was off. Who says “perineum” and “entrance?”

Great story

Loved the characters, seeing their growth and found it romantic and sexy at the same time

writing was a little odd

I liked this story, is raw and real, nothing seemed all the unrealistic. It was beautiful, full of heart break and healing. However the way it was written is a bit odd. Seems like sometimes we are listening to past tense or a memory but then switches to real time without even knowing it. Doesn't take away from the story and its not distracting, just odd.