Given the Circumstances

By: Brad Vance

Narrated by: Brad Vance

Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's Summary

Two promising college athletes meet, each needing something only the other can give him....

When Roger and Brian lock eyes on the first day of school, a friendship is born. Both men are hungry for connection - Brian needs the acceptance, encouragement, and support he never had growing up, and when he finds out his new best friend is gay, it brings his own sexual identity into question. Roger needs a big brother, a best friend, but that will never be enough, especially not when he's this close to big, strong, handsome Brian.

And both men want something more - careers as professional athletes. For Roger, the demands of the closet, the need to reject the love of a man to fulfill his love of the game, will be a crushing burden. For Brian, his downfall will be the substances he uses to get an edge over the competition, and to suppress his gnawing self-doubt and guilt.

One set of desires will bring them together, the other will force them apart....

©2013 Orland Outland (P)2016 Orland Outland

such a great love story

This is such a great book! Excellent writing!
Its such a great love story.
I was not to sure how this book would go. Some books in this nature are just filled with sex, sex and more sex, with no story line. This was not the case at all with this book. Yes, there was some sex, but it was not badly written and focused more on the story line of the book and the two main characters. The struggles they have went though trying to hide the fact they were gay in the main stream life.
It is worth the listen. Though it does revolve a lot around football. I do not know much about the sport, and would kind of get lost now and then, not understanding what they were talking about, but it wasn't often.

I was gratefully provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator for an unbiased review via Audio Boom..

1 person found this helpful

The best damn baseball and football love story

The best damn baseball and football love story on Audible. Perhaps a little sappy at times and definitely some ugly episodes in the lives of two great loves who fight to survive and do.

1 person found this helpful

This book was AWESOME

I wasn't ten pages into this story when I knew I would love it, and I did. I enjoyed it so much, and the fact the narrator was also the author made it so much more enjoyable because he knew exactly when to pause, when to show anger, etc. I highly recommend this book, it is great.

1 person found this helpful

Excellent coming of age tale

I really enjoyed this story. Well written. Narration was competent, but some of the voices were a bit distracting. Characters were believable. Descriptions of the emotions experienced by elite athletes were amazing.

1 person found this helpful

Given the Circumstances

I have always loved this book and listening to it has made it more amazing

1 person found this helpful

Not lovin the Narration

I am a huge sports/romance fan, this one looked perfect for me by the description. I can’t tell it it was the story or the narration that just didn’t do it for me. The plot of the book I did enjoy, each of the M/C’s history, their relationship... but somewhere through the book for me something was missing. I can’t put my finger on it but like the reallife-ness felt missing to me, also the second half of the book the timeline was a bit convoluted and where did the prologue fit.

Mostly the issue was the narration, I think the author was he narrator? Not sure, but I did not enjoy it, at times I could not tell who’s POV I was listening to, the emotions were flat and sound effects just read over and childish. He actually detracted from the Roger character for me.

Given the Circumstances by Brad Vance

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, It's an excellent story of love and sacrifice.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Roger was my favorite character. His integrity and character were above reproach.

Which character – as performed by Brad Vance – was your favorite?

Jacob was my favorite per the performance by Brad Vance.

Any additional comments?

From the beginning of this story I was captivated with the two leads, Roger and Brian. I loved every word of their very real story. It’s well-written, characters are fully developed, real and likeable, the story has a great flow, LOVE Brian and Roger… the sexual scenes are realistic, very sensual and OMG steamy! I also enjoyed the sports aspect (you can tell the author did his homework), but what I liked best is the love story (I’m a girl, what can I say) and Roger and Brian’s romance is one of the best I’ve read in awhile. As I said I was totally hooked right from the beginning. Parts of this story are sad and heartbreaking to read, but much of it, much of them together is just so sigh worthy! I can tell you I hated when it was over and I had to move on. I wanted more!! Brad Vance is a new author to me (and frankly I'm fairly new to M/M romance), but he can consider me a sold-out fan. GIVEN THE CIRCUMSTANCES was an amazing read and he is a talented writer! In the audiobook version, the author is also the narrator which works well since he knows better than anyone the emotions the characters are feeling and perfect times for emphasis.

Meh

One of my rules is to never buy an audiobook narrated by it's author. The story was decent enough, but the narration took away from the story

Smooth and easy

After listening to A Little Too Broken I had to listen to this also. I'm so glad to see these books in audio format. This was my second ever audio and second Brad Vance so that shows you how much I enjoyed listening to him. I read this book when it came out and had put it on my reread list. I thought listening to it while doing things around the house would be perfect. It helped me get everything done while staying on task. His voice is smooth, easy, and nice and clear. I would definitely listen to more.

Great sports story

I've really enjoyed this book (Two hot jocks??? Hard not to!!). Good story and good characters.

It was cool to have the author narrate the book, but at times it was hard to follow as there were not a lot of voice changes and i was not sure who was talking.