Painted Faces

By: L.H. Cosway

Narrated by: Ali Coffey

Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

Come forth with an open mind, for an unconventional tale of love....

Dublin native Freda Wilson considers herself to be an acquired taste. She has a habit of making offensive jokes and speaking her mind too often. She doesn't have the best track record with first impressions, which is why she gets a surprise when her new neighbor, Nicholas, takes a shine to her. Nicholas is darkly handsome, funny, and magnetic, and Freda feels like her black and white existence is plunged into a rainbow of color when she's around him. When he walks into a room he lights it up, with his quick wit and charisma. He is a travelling cabaret performer, but Freda doesn't know exactly what that entails until the curtains pull back on his opening night. She is gob-smacked and entirely intrigued to see him take to the stage in drag. Later on, Nicholas asks her if she would like to become his show assistant. Excited by the idea, she jumps at the chance. Soon she finds herself immersed in a world of wigs, make up, and high heels, surrounded by pretty men and the temptation of falling for her incredibly beautiful employer. In this story of passion and sexual discovery, Nicholas and Freda will contend with jealousy, emotional highs and lows, and the kind of love that only comes around once in a lifetime.

©2016 L.H. Cosway (P)2016 Cipher-Naught

Unconventional, Amazing Love Story

Painted Faces is an amazing love story! So different and quirky. The heroine is Fred (Freda), a bit awkward but outspoken. The hero is Viv (Nicholas) her good looking and sexy drag queen neighbor. The story was a beautiful song that sang to me right from the heartbreaking prologue.
I couldn't put the book down and ignored my family and home (and sleep) to finish.
I listened to the audiobook for some of the story. At first I was surprised by the unusual, sort of fast sound of the narrator's voice. But as I listened I realized how much she had taken on the fun and quirky personality of Fred and that was what was coming through in the narration. I fell in love with Fred and swooned for my first drag queen crush, Viv!!

"I love him because he makes me laugh when I don't feel like laughing. I love him because he challenges my view of what a man is. I love him because I know I shouldn't love him and that he'll break my heart. I love him because he's a complete and total anomaly. I love him because I want to kill the sadness inside him more than I want anything else in the world."

All the stars

I've read this book a few times before and loved it, but Ali Coffey's voice does this book so much justice and then some. It was amazing to hear it brought to life. I give it all the stars! No better book out there. Between Cosway and Penny Reid I could be set for life for reading. LOVE!

Heart achingly beautiful

Any additional comments?

I am not even sure what struck my fancy on this audiobook but somehow, I wound up owning it in my audiobook library.  I buy audiobooks when they are on sale if the narrator is good on the sample and the blurb intrigues me I go for it.  I am beyond pleased that I did with Painted faces.  This book is brilliant!  

“Come forth with an open mind, for an unconventional tale of love….”  

This tale has heart and soul in leaps and bounds with Freda, I loved her wit and humor from the beginning.  She is that character that you instantly want to have as your BFF and know that you would get on perfectly.  

Nicholas, to some, would be the perfect man.  If you think about it, he is very sexual and masculine, one minute.  Then he morphs into the basically the “gay BFF” who can shop for purses and shoes. He has better taste than most women.  It is the best of both worlds.  

I loved the narrator on this, she was wonderful.  This is a story I would love to see brought to the big screen, but since it isn’t the main stream it probably won’t.  It is so heart achingly beautiful yet full of so much humor, I can give it no less the 5 HUGE Boundless Stars! 

Wow!

Loved this story and wish that more of LH Cosway's books were on audible. Have read them all but love the way the words sound spoken. The narrator did a great job with an Irish accent. Her differing voices were sometimes hard to discern because she didn't change tenor very well. It I got the whole gist of the book from her reading! Good contemporary romance.

Spectacular!

Amazing! Can’t miss!
I never would have known about this book until I attended a book chat with Julia Kent and Penny Reid, 2 of my favourite authors (on Zoom, during quarantine of course). Penny and LH Cosway co-wrote a book series together (about Rugby players) that I enjoyed, and Penny and Julia had talked about how great this book was and how important it was in the Romance genre. I had to check it out. WOW! This book is incredible! A must read for everyone, especially if you love Irish accents! Fred and Viv’s story is just so special ❤️

Unusually wonderful!

I had a wonderful surprise for Pride Week when I found this book. It was excellent with perfectly developed and lovable characters!

I wasn't ready for it to end.

This unconventional love story had a realistic storyline that kept me wanting more. I love that this is not a story of instalove found in most romance book it was a story of attraction that leads to more. The witty and sexy banter makes the pairing believable I really liked and felt the relationship develop. After it ended I had to know if there was more to this story. There is more and I hope that it comes out in audiobook soon. (I just don't have the time it takes to read)

Fantastic Story and even better narrated!

This will always be my favorite book by Ms. LH Cosway, my first read of hers and my favorite. It's such a unique read/listen, not your typical story, characters. You can relate to Fred's character so much, and the uniqueness of Viv draws you to him and makes you love him for all that he is. The Narrator on this audio was absolutely wonderful, perfect fit for Fred. I hope Killer Queen is also narrated, being able to listen to Viv in all his glory would be amazing!!!

Great Story—it was Different

I thought that the story was refreshing, I hadn’t heard anything like this before and really enjoyed it…the characters aren’t as unpacked—so sometimes I got kind of confused at which character is whom (especially at the end) but definitely give it a listen—it’s a wonderful love story with a happy ending. the voice actor was good, but i feel like she didn't do the characters as much justice….it seemed very blah from the voice actors end. overall great story but lacking on character development and voice acting.

Magical quirky romance

This is a sparking magical tale full of second changes and characters with flaws and hang-ups, self confidence issues, and so much hope.
Nick/Viv dresses in drag and sings for a living and meets sassy, snarky Fred and they becomes inseparable friends and then lovers. Nick has some serious ghosts and he definitely messes up and does a good grovel. Triggers below:
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Off-page implied pedophilia, off page substance abuse, on page alcohol abuse… also I wouldn’t say there is cheating in this book but Nick does sleep with another woman after he meets and starts flirting with Fred and even admits that he imagined Fred while he was with this other woman. I didn’t care for this but it was pretty in-character and sort of fueled a change. There is no “cheating” after that or after they actually get together though.

another brilliant unique story

L H Cosway has done it again with a unique story about a drag queen with a heartfelt back story and a quirky girl.

Didn't get on with the narrator

Appalling narration, mechanical and monotone, unusual for a female voice to be so. I struggled to finish because of this.
Story was very good.