Honeymoon for One

By: Keira Andrews

Narrated by: Joel Leslie

Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

Betrayed the night before his wedding by the supposed boy of his dreams, Ethan Robinson escapes the devastating fallout by going on his honeymoon alone to the other side of the world. Hard of hearing and still struggling with the repercussions of being late-deafened, traveling by himself leaves him feeling painfully isolated with his raw, broken heart.

Clay Kelly never expected to be starting life over in his forties. He got hitched young, but now his wife has divorced him and remarried; his kids are grown, and he's left his rural Outback town. In a new career driving a tour bus on Australia's East Coast, Clay reckons he's happy enough. He enjoys his cricket, a few beers, and a quiet life. If he's a bit lonely, it's not the end of the world.

Clay befriends Ethan, hoping he can cheer up the sad-eyed young man, and a crush on an unattainable straight guy is exactly the safe distraction Ethan needs. Yet as the days pass and their connection grows, long-repressed desires surface in Clay, and they are shocked to discover romance sparking. Clay is the sexy, rugged man of Ethan's dreams, and as the clock counts down on their time together, neither wants this honeymoon to end.

Contains mature themes.

©2018 Keira Andrews (P)2019 Tantor

Great narration!

Honeymoon for One is very, very cute with great narration. The narration for this had me hooked from the opening chapter, honestly, I was drawn into and completely sucked in by this story and Joel Leslie’s performance.

I like that the relationship between Ethan and Clay didn’t feel like a love at first sight thing even though it’s super-duper fast, but it really didn’t feel rushed to me while listening, to the point I was surprised when their short time together was mentioned towards the end. I was fully invested and thought it hit all the right notes.

Great, dual POV romance, with lots of hurt/comfort/healing, hot sex, and a very happy ending. Getting all that and coupled with Joel Leslie’s narration, I’m a happy camper.

Something Better

Ethan just wants to be married and to have the life his mother dreamed for him before her death. But things go sideways very quickly and he feels like everything is over. When he decides to go on his honeymoon alone his life take a turn for the better. I like how we see Clay treating him better than Ethan’s ex from the start. I also like how even though Clay is drawn to him we get to see his own internal struggles. I love the epilogue were everyone is having a wonderful life. I listened to the audio version and it was a great listen.

Great story….

…but very emotional. For anyone who’s ever experienced betrayal by someone they loved and trusted, this story may bring up some painful memories. Fortunately for the two MCs, unlike what often happens in reality, they get their HEA.

A lovely tale of romance

I'm not a huge fan of either Keira Andrews or Joel Leslie (though I like them both), so I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this story, which immediately rocketed to the top tier of my audiobooks listened to this year. I really enjoyed every aspect of it, from how Ethan's disability was handled, to Clay's journey accepting his sexuality, to the sense of adventure and fun that infuses the first half of it during the tour where the two of them meet, melting into a shy, quiet sort of romance in the second half.

Ethan has just been dumped, on the night before his wedding day, by his frankly loathsome fiance, who was cheating on him with his best friend. Ethan, who is mostly deaf, decides to take his honeymoon trip anyway, where he meets the tour bus driver Clay, a divorced father of two. Clay is straight, or thinks he is, but they both find themselves drawn to the other. I like the way it takes Clay quite a few narrations to feel the attraction; it's not a situation where two people instantly fall in love. After the tour, the two of them grow closer and earn their happy ending. It's sweet, uncomplicated, and low angst, but not at all boring. Ethan and Clay just both seem so NICE, and yet so realistically depicted at the same time. Their age difference is remarked on, generally by other characters, but never turns into a huge deal.

This is not, it should be stressed, a "gay for you" story. Clay didn't have much of a physical connection or romantic spark with his ex-wife, who he married young and was the only woman he had ever been with. Ethan awakens feelings Clay has repressed most of his life, for reasons that become clear. Everything develops believably and at a good pace. I like that Clay's ex wife is neither demonized nor martyred; she's just a woman who was trapped in a marriage that had become a friendship. She betrayed Clay's trust, but there's very little rancor or malice involved on either side. Even Ethan's ex fiance, Michael, who I detested, got the chance to tell his side of the story, and isn't just made into a knee-jerk villain.

The one part I could have done without, which was minor, was Ethan's lectures to Clay about sexuality. I suppose it could be chalked up to millennial nonsense, but it felt a bit too much like the author was lecturing the reader. No thank you, I've been out of the closet for 20 years, I don't need someone telling me about the gay community, thanks. This is something I've noticed happens frequently with this author; more so in recent releases. I wouldn't even mind except Ethan's lectures really go against the grain with my experience, starting with overlabeling Clay with fad words like "demisexual" (Clay leaves this one out when he describes himself late in the novel, thank god) and going straight on through to a treatise on the reclaiming of the word "queer," which, at the very least, Ethan acknowledges some "older" gay men still find distasteful. Yes, I DO find the word distasteful, and I'm not that old, thank you very much.

Like I said, it's only one or two short sections where this happens, but I found it irritating enough to knock the story rating down to four stars. Luckily, Joel Leslie's excellent narration bumped the overall rating back up to five. Leslie is hit or miss with me, but he really did a stellar job here. I liked his voice for Ethan especially, soft and vulnerable but not unmasculine. And of course his Australian accent is fantastic, at least to my inexpert ears. He alternates between narrating chapters with an American accent and Australian depending on the point of view. It's impressive.

Absolutely a Must Listen/Read

An absolutely stunning story, incredibly well written, full of sooooo many feels! Seriously an amazing story. Keira Andrews’ characters are detailed and real in the most perfect way. Her portrayal of Ethan’s hearing loss and struggle isn’t exploitative or preachy, but does give an accurate example of the issues that face the HOH community, and is seamlessly woven into the narrative in a way that makes it necessary to the story and not an afterthought or a “message”.

Joel Leslie gives his usual outstanding performance. He flows between characters and accents easily and flawlessly. He’s invested in his performance and makes each character completely real. If I see he’s performing a story I can be sure the performance will be amazing.

This is a wonderful read and I highly recommend it!

Brilliant story and narration

It took me on a journey. An adventure with love thrown in. Loved the unique hard of hearing aspect as well.

Emetophobia warning, other content

I wouldn't probably have chosen to leave a review on this book except I have a few content warnings that I wish I'd read before I started the book. Number 1: a massive warning for emetophobia, including seasickness and food poisoning. Additionally, a warning for extreme identity-motivated violence against a gay man and lots of LGBTQ trauma.

I expected this to be a lighthearted read and it ended up being not so light. There was fluff but also a lot of hard stuff that I didn't expect. I guess I should have guessed from the description that there would be discussion of internalized homophobia and coming to terms with being gay. There was also a lot of time spent to teaching the reader about the hard of hearing community, which was interesting, but again, not what I expected from the book. It also read kind of like a tourist brochure for Australia, though I did enjoy the setting.

Joel Leslie did a great job narrating as always. It was fun to hear him do Australian accents!

In the end, I'm glad this wasn't the first Keira Andrews book I read. It hasn't put me off her books because I know I've enjoyed her other work, but based on this book I might not have continued. It makes me sad to write this review as I usually only post positive ones! But I did want to put content warnings in and to be honest about how I liked the book.

Beautiful love story!

This delightful and delicious story of two men, each with their own unique baggage is a page turner. I fell in love with these guys and crave for a sequel.

My favourite.

Loved it. Great story. Narration got all the character's and accents just right. My favourite which I know I will listen to again.

Just a Great story!

Truly lovely, I enjoyed every minute! Best listen I’ve had in months. Not the typical filth these books usually have to offer, but a really special love story.