Jude

De: Garrett Leigh

Narrado por: Shaun Grindell

Isha has spent the last year watching his BFF get his happily-ever-after. He's proud of Dom, but...it hurts to see him so free while Isha's love life is still on lockdown. Only Isha's ex-wife knows the secret that he's kept caged for so long - that he's queer too, and he's lonely.

Jude's too chained to his work to notice what he's missing by being terminally single, but a new face in the village soon catches his attention. City boy Isha is gorgeous, and when he starts to haunt Jude's reptile shop as well as the hook-up app on his phone, he's a welcome distraction from Jude's business problems.

For a control freak like Isha, letting Jude under his skin is an existential meltdown, but Jude's not in the market to be anyone's queer crisis, not when he's facing troubles of his own. Unlocking their lives could push both men apart forever, but it might be a risk worth taking if sharing is the key to their happy future.

Contains mature themes.

©2019 Garrett Leigh (P)2019 Tantor

Narrator is amazing!!

The books are great on their own. However, the narrator is amazing. At one point there are 4 people talking around a table, all with distinct voices/tones/accents. No confusion at all and none of the voices are those awful nasally fake tones that some narrators do. Not even when doing female voices. I will be going out of my way to buy more books read by this narrator.

Holy Explosive Chemistry!

I read this book for the first time in 2020, this was my review:

Jude and Isha’s story is one I think I needed right now. Seeing Isha work through his needs, not only physically but emotionally too, and Jude finally getting what he deserves even though he never thought he would is something epic. I love the bond Isha’s kids develop with Jude and the way it works out for them all and lastly, holy moly the sex is explosive and about as hot as it can get! The connection and chemistry is off the chart amazing and I might be in a book hangover right now! Yikes! Sooooo good!

Shaun Grindell is growing on me, I still set the speed to 1.15 to help with the pacing issues but the performance in this one was much better! I actually enjoyed the narration, although I 100% would rather hear Dan Calley narrate Garrett’s books!

Still a great series that I highly recommend!

Go ahead, finish the series. But.

The fourth star was grudgingly given. As I finished this final installment, it was clear they are all the same book.

Want an example? Lucky was homeless, falls for rich man but doesn’t want his money. Rae is broke and living in a tent. Meets a financially stable guy, doesn’t want his help. Jude is a struggling small business owner who is on the verge of losing everything, meets rich guy but doesn’t want his money.

Need another? In each book they struggle to communicate, it’s almost always through WhatsApp, they go days to weeks not communicating through the apps. When they do meet, there is crazy, passionate sex, then some sort of fight. They are always so deep into who they are that they declare they can never change or be more together. While Cash didn’t require hiding their relationship, they were as short tempered and mean to each other as the two couples who had to hide.

I was disappointed that Leigh didn’t attempt to break new ground in this series by staying on a slow burn path versus the inevitable relationship collapse. Where Cash had elements that made it seem different from Lucky, Jude is mostly Lucky redux.

Isha, as we get to know him, is a self acknowledged mess who ruins everything. He’s right. Unfortunately, as written, I went from liking him in the early books, to finding him really frustrating. Leigh uses Isha’s children as a plot driver, with Isha flailing at fatherhood, and unwilling to have a serious personal life because he can’t come out. The things he says to Jude over the course of their relationship regarding the children should have been the end of said relationship. Jude behaves like an emotional punching bag, and it’s disappointing.

Then there’s the narration. Of the three in this series, this is Grindel’s thinnest. The Welsh accent for Jude slips and slides a bit. Leigh wants us to know that Isha wasn’t born the polished sports agent that Jude sees. Early in the story Isha drops his posh sound to let Jude hear his real roots. Grindell’s scrappy London sound took me back to Dream, from the Skins series where I struggled to understand what was being said. Fortunately that doesn’t last.

The rest of the story is fine. Leigh’s ability to create characters is top notch. I really like Jude. The characters from the first two books are smartly connected and are featured well. She is also great at heightening the angst, and I think that is what brings people back. But recycling the plot isn’t acceptable, Isha and Jude could have reached the same conclusion without resorting to some of the exact same things as Lucky and Dom in their book.

It’s worth the listen, especially if you read the first two.

Don't want it to end

I fell in love with both of these guys! It was so easy to immerse my self in this story and as always the author captivate every day problems in a realistic way. I really didn't want the book to end, i will deffently read it again.
This is the third book i have with this narrator, and i like him more and more. Now i find that he is perfect for these characters! I hope there will be more books in this series.

Favorite of the series

This was so engaging. I really loved both these characters. Love the depth and continued world building. These would easily be a favorite series I listened to again and again of it weren’t for the breathy narration. He was fine on accents but did a weird breathy thing on every sentence. It pulled me out of the story so many times