Sweet Thing

Pretty Boy

By: Isobel Starling

Narrated by: Gary Furlong

Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

Nominated for the Independent Audiobook Award 2019 - LGBTQ+ Category

French male model Simeon Duchamp has a lot of explaining to do.

Two years after a breakdown Simeon is off drugs and booze and wants to stay that way. On his road to reclaiming his life and modeling career, Sim first needs to apologize to the man he hurt the most -his ex-best friend and object of his unrequited affection Pieter Bayer. Pieter now has a long-term partner, artist Emily Raven, with whom he shares a baby son. Sim is amazed when Pieter accepts his apology, and invites him into his family.

Closeness to Pieter sees Simeon's longing for his friend is rekindled. But then, when Simeon meets an attractive older man, Bastian Roth at an Art Exhibition, he realizes that there is a soul more broken than his, and Simeon feels compelled to help. Simeon's connection with the troubled Bastian Roth turns his world upside down. He has to decide whether to allow himself to fall for the man who wants him or pine for the man he can never have.

Contains mature themes.

©2017 Isobel Starling (P)2018 Isobel Starling/ Decent Fellows Press.

Great narration!

Gary Furlong is a new to me narrator, but I will surely listen to more books narrated by him.
Loved the German and French accents, and the foreign sentences, and he's capable of portraying both Bast and Sim in a lovely way!
The book is fascinating, although I would have liked to smack Bast a time or two, or three.

excellent!

First book I've listened to by this author and I am very impressed. The story telling pulled me right in and kept my interest until the end. The characters were well fleshed out, the chemistry and intimate scenes were sexy, and I loved all the supporting cast. The narrator Gary Furlong was perfect for this book and I will look for more books performed by him. This author is now on my must read and I will look for her other publications.

Love it!

As far as love stories go, this is on of the best I've listened to. Through tragedy and heartbreak. Real lasting love wins Everytime.

I love the narrators accent,. it adds passion to this story.

I received this audible free at my request. I'm thrill to be able to leave my review

very good

i really liked this.. i think this is the first time ive heard this narrator ( i might be wrong but im pretty sure this was the first time lol) this narrator did an awesome job hitting the feelings and complexity of the characters.. it was well written of course and well narrated. very good

Beautiful story

Sweet Thing is the second book in the Pretty Boy series by Isobel Starling. This is a fantastic story. It has lots of drama, emotion, some humor, lust, sweetness and love - bothromantic and friendship. There are some twists and it does pull at your heart....the story is well written and beautiful. The characters are interesting and keep your attention, both main and supporting. At first you are not completely sure you will like the main characters but as the story unfolds you start to really care about themand root for them. It's nice that the story is written from various POV at different points, you really get to know the characters.

The audiobook is narrated by Gary Furlong. He does a great job giving each character their own voice and making their personality shone through that voice. Clean recording and easy to listen to.

Sweet thing

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. The ups and downs Simon and Bastion went through to get their happily ever after we’re remarkable. Their love proved that if you really want something and work hard to be open with each other you can attain the love of a lifetime.

A surprising new book

*TRIGGER WARNING*
Dub/con/sexual assault

I put the warning there because I feel that this should have been a part of the blurb for the book.

I thought this was a beautiful story. One broken man, trying to get his life back together after mistakes from the past; one broken because of a broken heart.

After Simeon goes through treatment for his problems, he reunites with his one "true love" who is completely devoted to his new family. In comes Bastian, the beautiful stranger. After a night gone terrifyingly wrong, one thinks all hope is lost. However, due to circumstances and changing thought processes, our two MCs find their way back into each other's lives.

I absolutely loved the way Starling chose to have Simeon help Bastian find his way back from his self shame. The dynamics between the MCs are a mix of volatile and sizzling. The slow burn build up made the romance seem more legitimate, although it speeds up rather quickly after a short time.

When the past comes haunting, we see both characters relapse, which is shattering. But after they both hit, not rock bottom, but dangerous lows, they find a way to get back to themselves.

I do have to say that I adored Emily. Her sensuality and personality added to the story for me. I thought she was a wonderful secondary character; I actually enjoyed her more than Peter, which I found amusing.

I absolutely adore Gary Furlong's performance. He really brings the characters to life. He is wonderful to listen to when foreign languages are involved. Just beautiful.

Happy listening!

*I received a copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.*

Surprising sweetness and unexpected turns

This is my fifth Isobel Starling book and I had high hopes for it because I adored her books Silken, As You Wish and Illuminate The Shadows. This is also another audio performance by the talented Gary Furlong, a narrator I have adored pretty much ever since I started listening to audio books. as I wrote below, I did have some issues with the story, parts I felt could work better, and I have read it when it came out a while back. I was sure that the re-read on audio will give me the same feeling regarding the story. HOWEVER, the narration by Furlong added another dimension to the story, a layer of emotions so subtle and yet complex I can honestly say I hardly noticed the issues I had while reading on ebook. This is a complex book character wise. with many accents to nail, three languages AND a baby. Furlong took it all with the ease of a true voice actor and really emphasized the differences between each unique person. He flows seamlessly from French to German, effeminate to ,masculine, young to old and made this book that much more enjoyable the second time around.

Now about the story:
WHAT I DID LIKE is the way the story unfolded, with twists and surprises along the way, like Isobel does best. Their relationship was sweet and touching, even with its rocky violent start. I loved how they both had something the other needed, they complimented each other almost Yin and Yang like. This book revolves around healing and understanding past mistakes, and I felt it was incorporated into the story very well most of the time. I like that they talked about things and did not just rush in and deal with the fallout. I feel like she managed to create a wide range of relationships between many different characters and it made the book rich and beautifully layered.
This was a good book to me mostly because of its potential, and I wish it was more consistent. while reading it (before I listened to the audio) I had some issues with the book and at times it confused me. Some parts were delicately handled and the characters rich with depth and uniqueness and others were almost soap opera shallow. I have to say I did not like the beginning, where some parts were overly detailed and repetitive and others flew by and appeared under developed. I am glad I pushed through and finished it but there were still parts I felt did not balance well. I was surprised by that because as I said I loved her books, and her writing style is usually more cohesive and consistent.

Interesting Story

The characters were well realized, the performance was good. The secondary characters were also well fleshed out. The plot dealt with Sim's recovery from addiction with compassion and understanding. It felt like a redemption story for both he and Bastion as Bast was also recovering from his grief. There were some POV shifts that were a little confusing in audio, but for the most part that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story. Overall and enjoyable experience and I grew to like Sim quite a lot as he grew in a believable way through the narrative.

Oh the feels

Sweet thing is not your typical sweet and fluffy romance. My emotions were all over the place listening to this book. Simeon is recovering from drug and alcohol abuse. His past is a mess, so much that he ruined his relationship with his best friend Pieter. Luckily when Simeon gets out of rehab Pieter forgives him, and they work on rebuilding there friendship.
Bastien has a sad past. He had a homophonic father and his partner died in an accident. Simeone and Bastien first encounter was terrible. I kept thinking how are they going to get past this?? They work things out and a relationship blooms. Sweet thing is about second chances. It’s incredible emotional. It’s sad, sweet and hot. There were some twist and turns I wasn’t expecting. I couldn’t stop listening. The narrator did a really good job. I definitely recommend this book 😍😍