Home Truths

The Complete Love in Three Lakes Bundle

By: Sasha Goldie

Narrated by: Richard Reynolds

Big-city Nate isn’t about to fall for a small-town man.

An unassuming town. A huge development deal. Nate has it all figured out, until his car breaks down and threatens to ruin everything. The local mechanic has a way with his hands that fantasies are made of, but Nate can’t afford to get wrapped around Ian’s finger.

A few sweaty nights tangled up together should be enough to scratch the itch, and the chemistry between them is hot enough to burn. But there’s something about the mechanic that keeps Nate coming back for more.

When Nate’s boss puts the pressure on, he’ll need to decide if he’s ready to risk everything. Can he give up the deal of a lifetime for a chance at love? Or, will he sell the town and sell out his heart along with it?

Get Home Truths and the rest of my amazing Love in Three Lakes audiobooks in the complete series bundle!

©2020 Special Fiction Books (P)2020 Special Fiction Books

Nice little stories

The books in this set were good. I am not sure which one I would say was my favorite. They were sweet books and not too long each on their own. The narrator wasn't bad. He didn't really put any effort into voicing the characters, it was very much like he was just reading the story out loud. He has a good voice though.

Each ending is too abrupt

the narrator was great and the stories were all very easy to get into, the problem was how each story ended. it was so abrupt and just jumped into the next story which kind of left me less than happy with the book overall

Enjoyable bundle

This was the first narration I’ve listened to from Richard Reynolds. Overall I really like what he did with these stories. My biggest criticism with this set was how rushed the ending seemed. Maybe that’s just me.

great series, loved it!!

This is an awesome series. loved it. I love the sweet, fluffy, insta love aspect of each of them. I love having a bundle where you can listen to all the stories continuously. The narration was well done.

A very good series.

These stories are set in a super small town, with all the pros and cons of it. The community is very closed-knit, prone to drop everything at the drop of a hat to help anyone in need; on the downside, nothing remains a secret.
The four stories are about four different couples, that, being very close friends, pop up here and there in the other books.
I loved the romance and the action; the series is sometimes high on drama, and some of the characters have A LOT (!) of baggage, but overall it’s very enjoyable and the narration is spot on!

great bundle of books

I hadn't heard this narrator or read anything by this author. I'm glad I did. I quite enjoyed it and loved the town and characters. it was nice to have the first three together

It's not perfect, but I still enjoyed it

This is a series that has some flaws in writing, some very likely unrealistic happenings and details, and some soap opera flair, but somehow, I still found it entertaining - exasperating at times, to be sure, but still entertaining, and by the time I finished the last book of the series, I didn't want it to end.

I've included my review of each individual book below:

Book 1, Home Truths:
This was an enjoyable and fairly light read for me. The timeline for the two characters to fall in love is VERY short, but they did spend time getting to know one another to some extent - in so much as people can in a matter of 2 weeks. The characters are flawed, each with their own reasons for flaws and their seriously bad habit of jumping to certain conclusions. Meeting each other causes them to have to reevaluate themselves and their prejudices. It was a little Hallmark tropey, the gruff, down to Earth small town guy meets the fancy city boy. But I liked the characters, as they were sweet, funny and sexy. Ian was my favorite of the two.
There were a few flaws, which is what took it down to a 3.5 to 4-star read. Most every romance novel has a challenge to overcome for their final happy after. In this book, I think the author could've found a more interesting way to bring this about that was more in character. But that's me. Another flaw is that the timeline was a little sketchy at times, and there were a few small inconsistencies in general, but I decided to just do a mental shudder & go on when this happened, because I was enjoying the story itself.

Book 2, Crossroads:
It seems weird to say that this was an enjoyable book, considering that one character has some pretty serious skeletons and issues to sort through, but I did enjoy it. Despite the serious subject material, I also found myself laughing out loud at times. Like the previous book in the series, it requires an ability to suspend one's disbelief a tad at points, and it is a bit soap opera like as well.
I found both Corey and Brady to be highly likeable. Brady is basically The Perfect Man. I mean, whatever flaws he might have, like having a bit of a hero complex, are extremely minor. Corey's chock full of issues and so doesn't always make the best decisions or reach the best conclusions, but he definitely could've made worse decisions and come to worse conclusions. At one point, I was absolutely sure that there was going to be a Big Misunderstanding that was going to be a catalyst for a plot twist, and I was SERIOUSLY annoyed - but I was wrong. So look at me & my own bad jumping to conclusions.
This book did have some issues with the timeline, mostly when it came to events that occurred during the previous book. Also, Corey's life story seemed to have inconsistent timeline issues - I think he was supposed to be 24 years old, based on details he gave about his life as the story went on, but when Brady first asked him his age, he said 27. BUT I decided to just roll with these things, letting my exasperation slide off, because I wanted to know how everything would turn out, the actual story/plot being more important and ultimately worthwhile for me.

Book 3, Making Peace:
This was a pretty light and not terribly angst-filled book, if you overlook some of Max's military history and resultant PTSD. There was enough humor - and really cute dogs - to offset the moments he spoke about those experiences with Carson.
Without spoilers, the main barrier for the two men was whether or not Max could accept that one doesn't need to perfect themselves and their life alone. That it's okay to go through things with someone you care about and not take it all on yourself. Carson was kind of pushy and, like the other relationships in this series, they move very fast. But I think Max needed a good push.
Like the previous books, there are some minor errors/timeline snafus in the writing, mostly concerning other characters' story arcs, not as much with Carson & Max. It wasn't terribly distracting in this book, since their story was pretty tight.
One thing I noticed with this series, with this book, beyond timeline issues - the author seems to have trouble with end scenes. They seem to just suddenly END without warning. It's not that there seems to be anything major unresolved for the couples for each book, but it's just suddenly over. This might be made more glaring because of the audio narration, at least for me. I liked the audio narration over all, but most narrators make final lines sound final, the way they slow the last words down or alter the tone of their voice that lets you know it's the end, without even needing to say "The End." But with some of the books in this series, the story and the narrator just stop. It's like that part of the story arc has ended right at that moment and the next book picks up for the next couple. I still enjoyed the book though, despite its flaws.

Book 4, Healing His Heart:
I enjoyed this last book of the Three Lakes series. I continued to like the characters and was totally sucked into a suspense-thriller aspect of this particular story.
Patrick did a couple things that were kinda borderline stalker-like, but he did it out of caring and a misguided way of following his heart. He's rather immature at times. At the same time, Tyler had to deal with a real stalker with life and death danger. I can see some readers being turned off by Patrick's borderline unethical behavior and I'm sure there are some seriously unrealistic bits to the story both in the medical part of things with Patrick/Tyler and the way the actual criminal stalking aspect was handled. BUT, as with a lot of this series, I let my suspension of disbelief go as much out the window as I could manage - and that helped me enjoy it pretty thoroughly.
This book also had a fair amount of humor - I laughed quite a bit, but none of the humor felt forced. The characters in this series seem pretty normal in a lot of ways and have pretty down to Earth conversations.
There were timeline issues again. Throughout this series, from book 2 onward, the author seemed to be confused on exactly how long Tyler was in a coma with relation to everything else going on in the series. It kept being referred to as 3 months in this book, but it would have to have been longer than that. THAT being said, I decided to shake it off. It didn't change the actual important aspects of the story arc and character behavior.

The audio for this full series was good, the pacing & emotion and differences in character voices. Other than a lack of the sound of finality with the end scenes of each book, I have zero complaints.

Love this!

Home Truths is a wonderfully written bundle of 4 books about love in the small town of Three Lakes. I really enjoyed getting to know these amazing characters and how each book added more to the overall story of the series. There is so much growth in these men as they find love and their happy endings. I love how accepting the town is and how they support each other no matter what. Life there is never boring. If you enjoy sweet small town love you don't want to miss this. Definitely recommend and definitely one to enjoy again and again.
Narrator Richard Reynolds does a marvelous job and was a joy to hear throughout all 4 books.

Stunning set

This was a amazing adventure you get so much love, pain and new exciting characters in this set. The storylines are all good and interesting. The characters are fun and exciting, my favorites are Tyler, Patrick and Nate , Ian they are amazing characters and I loved there stories. Great narration.

To be honest...

Sasha Goldie’s Home Truth bundle contains four MM romance stories of men in a small town looking (or not) for love. The stories are sweet, insta, with a little drama to keep you entertained but the narrator fell a little bit short. His voice isn’t annoying by all means but it was hard to know which character he was narrating. I have a way more enjoyable experience when the narrator differentiates between the characters but I’m spoiled like that lol but besides that, the bundle was worth the listen, I love me MM romance and found that Home Truths was worth it, so I honestly give it four truthful stars. Happy Listening all!

I received an audio code, in exchanged for my honest review, of this audiobook for Gay Romance Reviews.