Meet Me in the Blue

Hemlock Harbor, Book 1

By: A.M. Johnson

Narrated by: Evan Parker, Aaron Shedlock

Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

Meet me… in the place where the sun kisses the horizon and sinks into blue shades of you and me.

Meet me there… where everything was always perfect. You and me and the damp grass at dawn and the gray dirt in the late evening rain.

Meet me where we were ourselves and not these two people who can’t even say I love you.

Meet me there, and maybe we’ll remember…

We’ll remember the us we were before them, before miles, before lost hours, and you’ll ask what color the sky is, and I’ll say blue like your eyes.

And you’ll smile, and I’ll forget I ever missed you.

Luka and Rook have been best friends since they were nine years old. Five years ago, Luka threw it all away.

When his dad’s health takes a turn for the worst, Luka must come home to say his goodbyes and mend the bridges he burned all those years ago. Coming home is harder than he imagined, and after reuniting with his family, there’s only one person he needs.

Rook. His best friend. The one man he pushed away, the one man, no matter how hard he tried to forget, he can't stop himself from loving. Even if loving him means breaking his heart all over again.

Meet Me in the Blue is a standalone, best friends to lovers, second chance, demi-awakening, MM romance, with a whole lot of small-town heart, meddling moms, gossiping townies, self-discovery, a friendship forged of forts, Dungeons and Dragons, and a love that will stand the test of time.

©2023 A.M. Johnson (P)2023 Podium Audio

Engaging story

Amanda has an exceptional talent with placing words together, flowing musically through her words. Her character development just flows, her sentence structure flawless, perfectly balancing the past/future moments of their friendship growing.

My only concern with this story is the lack of platonically generated content. There were numerous moments of Rook telling Luca he was content with “naked cuddles,” yet their intimacy seemed forced. The story would have been so much more interesting had their relationship continued without intercourse.

Narration was a little confusing, as Luca’s thoughts were deep yet actual voice was gentle and smooth. And, Rook’s thoughts did not match his deep, guttural voice. At the end of the day, the story was engaging, as most books are by Amanda, and highly enjoyable. Rook and Luca were soulmates, right from the beginning.

Beautifully Done

Well written and wonderfully narrated. Characters were well written and the story was a realistic interpretation of love, longing, and romance. I couldn’t recommend this book highly enough.

Rook and Luca are Poetry

But sometimes frustrating poetry. 😅 I always want the self-sacrificing heroes to get out of their own heads and see the sunshine quicker! Thanks, Amanda, for getting us the Audible. Excellent narration for a beautiful story. I must have a happy ending, and you deliver. I can't wait for the next HH book! Thank you for helping to spread the love a little farther, every day. You do God's work my friend. Whether you believe or not, you do. Just as the Beatles did (and do now). Love Never Fails, All You Need Is Love and now, I love you Luka, meet me in the Blue... Love Never Fails

Great story- spent 75%of the book crying

I did not know the dad is dieing of liver cancer throughout majority of the story. My dad passed away from liver cancer -so maybe some trigger warnings are in order. Normally I am not a fan of time jumping throughout a story but this one was done really well. The story, narration, etc was excellent. And the HEA payoff was great.

Engaging story!

The love is felt in the way this story is told! Family, friends and history.

I absolutely loved this book!!!

I loved this story. Luka and Rook start off as best friends and then one day Luka is gone. It has been years and now he is home to care for his dad and face the friend he fled to try and forget. All the distractions of the city life change nothing. Rook loves his small town and has built a life for himself. He never understood why his best friend left him and then ignored his calls. Now he is back and although they both have changed the bond that they shared is still as strong as ever. Luka is going through a lot of different emotions he needs to be there for his dad but being near Rook is taking it toil. Will he be able to find his peace in the blue; or will he have the courage to face his friend with the truth of his feelings and find Rook in the blue and know his real peace.

Story is difficult to follow,

the story line is so-so. the barrators voices sound alike. had to reference the title details to verify that there actually were two narrators. that issue made the story line harder to follow. wish I could return this book

Storyline boringly erratic

I really struggled here! AM wrote some really endearing characters but forgot to give them a storyline. it was all nostalgia and sex. no plot. no arc. story was told asynchronously but it was so hard to follow. the best parts of falling in love, missing each other had already happened and we just get small snippets through flashbacks.

then there was a huge mistake in the recording whereby the end of the story (ch 26) plays at the end of ch 24. so what little storyline there is was ruined because you hear the end before the small uncompelling quandary was even introduced.

I also struggled with the fact that she wrote a demi character who then engaged in completely traditional MM fashion. all angst about his identity and whether he could love/have attraction for his friend was resolved before the book began.

super disappointed 😞

So, so boring

* Quick note, but as of this writing - the audiobook was just released - there's an error in the audio files at the end of the book. Chapter 24 plays directly after Chapter 22 (it's actually part of the chapter 22 file), so the ending was pretty much spoiled for me. Someone should fix that. *

I will preface this review by stressing that AM Johnson is a wonderful, lyrical writer. "Let There Be Light" is an absolute wonder. Amanda's words simply dance across the page (or, in this case, across a set of headphones). Her writing, sentence structure, descriptions, and phrasing are impeccable.

But ... and you probably felt that "but" coming ... there are serious structural problems with "Meet Me in the Blue." There is zero -- and I mean, literally, zero -- tension or conflict. The characters reunite pretty early in the story and then we just follow their fairly boring lives as they do fairly boring things, occasionally whispering sweet nothings to each other. Yay?

This story would've worked so much better if it was told in a linear fashion, if we had grown up with Luka and Rook and really got to witness the development of their friendship and the evolution of Luka's longing. We get a few glimpses in flashbacks, but they lack any emotional weight. We should see the best friends grow apart and Luka flee from his own emotions and pain. We should experience some of that five-year estrangement. But we don't. A second chance love story should be about loss and pining and angst. We get none of those things here.

Finally, while I'll always give a big cheer for ace representation, yet again in a M/M novel we have a heteronormative conception of intimacy thrust upon the characters, even though it makes little narrative sense. Rook explicitly states numerous times how happy he is just to have naked cuddles with Luka, and yet still this author feels it necessary for our characters to "consummate" their relationship in the most traditional way possible. Once more for the people in the back, men who have s*x with men do NOT need to check p*netration off like it's some to-do list for true love.

As for the narrators, they were perfectly fine, although somewhat interchangeable to my ear. Or that could just be the fact that the characters here are mostly interchangeable. Sigh.