Finding Archie

By: Brina Brady

Narrated by: James Talbot

Finding Archie is a story of love, healing, and the unexpected places where we find home.

Archie Star’s life had always been marked by loneliness. After losing his mother at eleven, he was left with a father who never quite knew what to do with him. Even after earning a literature degree, Archie felt like a ghost in his own home, unseen and unneeded. When his cousin Andrew offered him a job at the Blue Star Diner in Foggy Basin, he took it as a sign. With nothing but a duffel bag and a restless heart, he climbed onto his motorcycle and rode toward a fresh start, hoping to find a place where he could finally breathe.

Andrew secured him a room in the home of Brogan Finnegan, a charming Irish high school teacher with a storyteller’s soul. Brogan had traveled the world before settling in Foggy Basin, drawn to teaching after years of volunteering in communities abroad. His warm home and steady presence offered Archie something he hadn’t felt in years—comfort, safety, and maybe even belonging.

But it was Brogan himself who truly captivated Archie.

What started as quiet conversations over late-night cups of tea and shared glances across rooms soon became something deeper. Two men, both searching for connection in their own way, found solace in each other. In the gentle rhythm of daily life, in the laughter that softened the edges of their pasts, they pieced themselves together. And in doing so, they learned that home isn’t always a place—it’s a person.

Welcome to Foggy Basin, Season Two. Just passing through? No problem. But if you’re here to stay, you’d better find your place. The townsfolk love hard and play even harder. Each book is a standalone, but why not stay a while and listen to them all?

©2025 Brina Brady (P)2025 Brina Brady

Learning to trust

I loved Brina Brady's Foggy Basin book "Blue Star Diner" last year and was delighted to see Andrew and Rafe return in this book as something other than minor pop-up characters. They both play a real role in this story. I must also commend Brina Brady for the way she handles Rafe in this book. He was a prickly character (for good reasons) in "Blue Star Diner" and he remains true to his character here. It's clear loving and being loved by Andrew has made him more secure in some ways, but he's still not easily convinced to trust or warm up to new people. He's still very much the cop and he feels very real in this story.

Now, on to our new characters of Brogan and Archie. Archie is Andrew's cousin and his father has been far less than a caring, supportive parent. After college graduation, Archie comes to stay in Foggy Basin while he figures out what he wants to do with his life. He rents a room from high school teacher Brogan and as he settles in, these two recognize there is an attraction between them that they want to explore. Archie's family experience has left him insecure about people sticking around and keeping their promises and unfortunately, Brogan has an ex- who turns up and wants Brogan back. Jade is a skilled manipulator and brilliant at quickly scoping out people's weaknesses and exploiting them. Archie's insecurities provide fertile ground for him to do his worst. Congratulations to Brina for creating a character in Brogan's ex- you'll love to hate, lol. James Talbot does an excellent job in these sections, letting us hear how Jade works on Archie and Brogan both to tear them apart.

Neither Archie nor Brogan are naturally skilled communicators when it comes to relationships and watching them struggle and then find their footing as they learn how to talk to each other at all times and about everything is a delight. Coming back to Foggy Basin with these characters makes me hope the author returns regularly to this little town and gives us more characters to follow and fall in love with.

James Talbot does his usual excellent job getting inside Brina Brady's characters and making us feel everything in the story.

Loved it

I loved Finding Archie and struggled to put it down. James Talbot's voice really brings this story to life. The story is amazing and I enjoyed reading Archie and Brogan's story.

worth a listen

James Talbot is a new to me narrator and happy to say will happily listen to more from them in the future. They did a beautiful job in separating the characters so you don't get lost in the story but drawn in beautifully.

A beautiful story in starting over and moving on. Archie for good reasons has abandonment issues that prevent him and Brogans relationship from progressing to more. often times miscommunication annoys me and yet with these two I got it, both men have been through. This listen had that right amount of angst and action to keep you hooked from start to finish.
This was my first from the Foggy Basin universe and if they are all this entertaining I need to amend that.