Out of Position (Dev and Lee)

By: Kyell Gold

Narrated by: Jeremy Sewell

Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's Summary

Dev is a football player at Forester University, a small liberal arts college where he and his teammates get to strut around and have their pick of the girls on Friday nights. That's as good as it gets - until he meets Lee, a fox with a quick wit and an attractive body.

Problem is, Lee's not a girl. He's a gay fox, an activist who never dreamed he'd fall for a football player. As their attraction deepens into romance, it's hard enough for them to handle each other, let alone their inquisitive friends, family, and co-workers. And if school is bad, the hyper- masculine world of professional sports that awaits Dev after graduation will be a hundred times worse.

Going it alone would make everything easier. If only they could stop fighting long enough to break up.

Kyell Gold's fourth novel is a story of relationships, of finding oneself and learning to live with someone else, set in the contemporary fantasy world that was the setting for his acclaimed novel Waterways: joint Winner of the 2009 Rainbow Award for Best Gay Novel; Winner of the 2009 Ursa Major Award for Best Novel.

©2009 Kyell Gold (P)2013 Kyell Gold

Don't be put off by the cover art

While the editing and narration were slightly off (someone needs to tell the narrator how to pronounce Penelope), this is one of the best gay romance books I've listened to. Characters are subtle and well rounded. The dialog is some of the best I've ever read.

If you are a fan of gay romance, buy this book. I'm not a furry - so my enjoyment of the characters is purely based on the character development and story.

Finished in just 2 days.

Would you listen to Out of Position (Dev and Lee) again? Why?

Probably, its a good read. I was particularly intrigued by the use of language. There was never really a dull moment in the writing. A lot of novels can be long winded and over descriptive. This strikes that happy balance. Not too over descriptive, not too dull.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It sure did have its moments. A lot of anticipation, a shock or two. And a satisfying ending.

Any additional comments?

I would happily recommend this.

The Beginning of Something Great

Would you consider the audio edition of Out of Position (Dev and Lee) to be better than the print version?

The narrator does a decent job of giving the characters their own unique voice characteristics.

What did you like best about this story?

The occasional switch of the perspectives between the two main characters is something I have never seen in a book in this genre before.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Jeremy Sewell?

I believe he has a good voice for audiobooks and as he develops this skill with further books in the future, it will only get better.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It brought up a sense of pride for Dev in his bid to break the mold of the professional sports world and bring it into the modern era in terms of its treatment of players with alternative sexualities.

Any additional comments?

I hope that Kyell Gold will continue to have this trilogy produced in audio format as well as his other books.

Award for the Worst Narrator goes tooo...

By no means I want to be an ass, but after listening about half way through this book, it became the first book ever I've returned purely because of the narrator...

loved it

this book was a rollercoaster. gets kinda steamy in spots but it was a good kinda steamy.

Damn It! Now I have to buy the 2nd book!!!

What did you love best about Out of Position (Dev and Lee)?

I loved the authors odd yet refreshing writing style, switching back and forth between views of the two main characters, giving the reader insight into their lives, minds, and the world how they saw it. Yet the switching between characters never gave away what might happen next leaving the reading in suspense eager to flip the next page. I found it almost impossible to sit the book down just to go to work, I haven't read through a book this fast in years and I look forward into reading the sequel(s).

What did you like best about this story?

The story was what kept me reading to often I pick up a book and become board with how easy it is to see what is coming next. This one though, the author did a great job of keeping up the twists and turns yet not sending the reader for a spin. The story was never to good to be true, there were ups and downs, wins and losses, nothing went perfect and things were messy; it mirrored the real word and that is what kept me hooked to the story to the very last page.

Have you listened to any of Jeremy Sewell’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No I haven't, at times the audio was a bit choppy and edited poorly in some ways with words being cut off when he switches from one take to another yet the audio didn't ruin the story in any way.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Not a specific moment, sentence, paragraph, page, or chapter was 'moving'. Though the decent into madness and obsession of Brian (the spotted skunk) that took place over the second half of the book would be the most moving for me. It wasn't an enjoyable part but that's what makes it good in my opinion like the perfect train wreck that you just can't turn away from.

Any additional comments?

It was an amazing book, and I enjoyed it cover to cover, the only reason I dare not give it a perfect score is how it ends on such a cliff hanger that I have to start the second book now and if the second book is anything like the first I'll be buying the third in a day or two. Damn you Kyell Gold! Damn you and your amazing writing and catching story telling! Damn you and how you can make me spend more money on books than I have in almost a decade in a matter of days!

Heartwarming

I actually got this book 7 years ago but never got around to reading it. I bought it on audible and started listening to it in the car. I couldn't turn it off. It really is beautiful. Truly heart warming with suspense. Everything in it seems real and connective. I am glad to have read it.

despite audio hiccups, good listen.

very good story, typical gay for you jock story but with heart and very good characters. the one issue was the narration having some weird pauses and strange pacing where he ran out if breath.(as well as being unable to pronounce Penelope)

You better like football

Lets start with the weakest part of the book, which has to be the narration. The technical quality of it is just sub par, and Mr. Sewell needs to slow down and to annunciate better. That being said it isn't terrible, but gets annoying at times. Now lets get to the most important part, the story. Its ok, the characters and settings are pretty good, and Kyell does a good job at writing these. However the story does have parts that focus primarily on the game of football, and unless you're into football these parts can be pretty dull.

Great story, terrible narration

I read many of the books in this series before the audio version was released, and I was really looking forward to experiencing the story again. But I didn’t get very far into it before I had to stop listening due to the incredibly low quality of the narration.

The narrator is clearly an amateur, and it seems as if there was little to no editing, producing or directing performed for the audiobook. Some problems that I noticed in the narration:

- Tripping to over certain words, mangling them.
- Speaking the wrong word, then correcting himself.
- Inappropriate inflection and emphases. Rarely does the emotional time of the characters sounds correct.
- Mouth sounds (smacking lips, etc)
- No attempt to give characters unique voices. There’s literary a part where the author calls out a thick southern drawl, and the narrator makes no attempt to produce an appropriate voice for the character.

Most of these could have been fixed with some basic directing and editing. It’s really a shame.

After giving up early in the audio book, I went back after about a year because I REALLY want to experience Dev and Lee’s story again. So far I’m powering through, but it’s hard to focus on the story and characters when the narrator is so distracting. The fact that I’m able to bear through it is a testament to the quality of the writing.