Romanus

By: Mary Calmes

Narrated by: Greg Tremblay

Length: 1 hr and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

Stopping to offer help one sultry summer night, Mason James is unprepared for the change that this simple act of kindness will bring. After giving an old man a ride home, Mason discovers a new, magical, and even dangerous world he cannot hope to understand. But he also finds Luc Toussaint and is intoxicated at first sight, and even the secret Luc protects won't be enough to keep Mason away from the truth of his heritage and their love.

©2010 Mary Calmes (P)2016 Dreamspinner Press

There's some confusing scene jumps

I don't mind the insta love since that's normal with a paranormal story. A little more depth would have been nice since I have many questions. There's a huge location shift at the end plus a few smaller changes that felt disjointed. The transitions probably wouldn't have been so jaring in a written format. Greg Tremblay did a wonderful performance.

Too short!

I listened to Chevalier first. It would have been better the other way. Although I enjoyed this story, it was just too short and lacking detail. Disappointing for a Mary Calmes book.

Thoroughly entertaining audio

Any additional comments?

Greg Tremblay gives such good audio. *sighs*

When firefighter Mason "Mace" James stops to help a naked old man on the side of the road one late night he doesn't expect his good Samaritan duty to change his life forever. Coming off a double shift, he's exhausted and the strange people and sights when he returns the old man home are just plain weird. When he ends up agreeing to stay the night, it's mainly because he meets Luc Toussaint and is intoxicated at first sight.

When things get a little more weird than Mace can explain away, even in his exhausted state, he quickly leaves and goes home. But events have now been set in motion, and Mace can't run from his man or his destiny.

An interesting paranormal romance, Mace finds the love of his life, learns he is a Romanus, that gargoyles are real and he can see their true forms, and that not everyone is happy for the Romanus to have been found.

Greg Tremblay showcases the confusion, wonder, and heat of the story all while drawing the listener in and wrapping them up creating this cocoon until the last seconds of the audio.

As with any Mary Calmes novella I find myself wanting more as soon as I get to the last page. Romanus felt a little unexplored, like there was so much more story to tell, but there's good news for readers as Mace and Luc's story continues in Chevalier.

Ultimately I was thoroughly entertained by the audio, with Greg Tremblay giving another fantastic performance. Recommended.

5 stars = I freaking LOVED this book!!!

I received a free copy of this audiobook to listen to and review for Wicked Reads.

I am absolutely addicted to this audiobook. There is something about the combination of the story that Calmes has penned and Tremblay’s narration that has resulted in me listening to it every day for a week, sometimes twice a day. The fact that it’s just under two hours long makes it possible to listen to it daily, yet I’ve refrained from writing my review just so I had a semi-plausible excuse to listen to it again and again and again. I’ve always been fascinated by gargoyles, yet I think this is the first M/M gargoyle romance I’ve read (or listened to, in this case) and that has probably contributed to my addiction as well. You’re likely laughing at me or scoffing at my claim of repeated listening, but it’s so true that I received the Silver Repeat Listener badge from Audible, which is earned for listening to the same audiobook at least 10 times. Obviously, I have a problem and were it not for the fact that I want to get Romanus and its sequel, Chevalier, blogged this week in the leadup to Halloween, I’d probably still be putting off writing this review.

Of course, the problem with addiction is that oftentimes it’s difficult to explain why you enjoy the thing you’re addicted to so much. In the case of Romanus, that is only partly true for me because while there is an elusive quality to it that keeps me coming back for another listen, there are several specifics I can readily identify. Calmes manages to pack a lot of story into a novella and through the events that take place, builds the world that Mason has suddenly found himself a part of. From Mason’s first interaction with Fabron, we learn much about the kind of man Mason is – kind, patient, and possessing an honest concern for his fellow man – and the author continues to use Mason’s interactions with others, including his friends, roommates, and the gargoyles to show us his character. I found it to be a clever way to both develop his character and move the storyline along. The author also drops bits of information that help to explain Mason’s instant attraction to Luc Toussaint, although the extent of their connection isn’t revealed until the end of the book and is still left up to the reader to ponder just how strong their connection will be. Calmes uses an opposing faction within the gargoyles’ champ (the downside of audiobooks is not knowing how to spell unfamiliar words, which bothers me a lot) to add an element of suspense and action to the storyline that felt natural instead of forced for the sake of drama, which can happen when an author tries to put too much in a novella. Being as Romanus is a novella, there was not a lot of character development for Luc, so I hope that we will see that take place in Chevalier because I loved the chemistry between him and Mason and I’m looking forward to seeing that relationship progress further. Romanus was a sexy gargoyle romance that sunk its talons into me so thoroughly that I didn’t want to leave, while at the same time made anxious to begin Chevalier so that I can find out what will happen to Mason and Luc next.

P.S. – As an aside, I did take issue with Eli’s attitude that it was acceptable for him to stroke Luc’s back while Luc was asleep in Mason’s bed. Mason shouldn’t have had to tell him not to do it in the first place, but then for Eli to do it anyway, that just irked the heck out of me.

Overstuffed first book of a series.

Ending
💖Happily Ever After

Comedy Level
😄Minimal Comedy

Romance
💜Love at first sight? Or lust.

Sex
🔥🔥Long Sex Scenes

Series
📘Stand Alone
(Audible doesn't list it as part of a series but this is book one. Book two is Chevalier)

Misc
👨‍👨‍👧‍👦Too Many Characters (Hard to follow along)
👻Supernatural

Narrator
💎Distinct Voice for Each Character
🎭Voice acting on point and matching emotion of story

Biased Review
Too much information shoved into too short a time. Only because I did research was I able to realize the reason for this was because this is just book one of a series.

Loved it!

Greg Trembray did an awesome job as narrator. The story is great and I wish there were more books besides the 2.

Fun story, need to read more

This was a fun story. A bit too short, but fortunately there is a second book so far. I am intrigued by the whole gargoyle culture that is being revealed in this story, but need more.

A Bit Different...

This was pretty weird to be honest... gargoyles, insta-love to the max, confused MC. Ugh, not sure I would have finished this one but I had it on audio and Greg Tremblay manages to make it work.

It’s An Amuse-Bouche, - - - An Appetizer

Any additional comments?

This petite confection by Mary Calmes is a wonderful paranormal amalgamation of the Beauty and the Beast love story and a dollop of the midlevel in the form of French gargoyles among us in the back country of Kentucky; the gargoyles shapeshift between human and bestial form. It is perfectly prepared, garnished, and served by the narration voice of Greg Tremblay. In fact, the only flaw is it is an amuse-bouche, - - - an appetizer, to a main course second book named Chevalier; which is NOT AVAILABLE in audio format, at the time of this review. I am deeply disappointed because this fact.

How can Amazon, Audible, and Dreamspinner Press allow this obscenity of offering an audio appetizer without an audio main course to continue to exist? If they correct this, for heaven sake, please use the same narrator. Why mess with a good thing?

In the meantime the consumer must content themselves with listening to the amuse-bouche of this offering of Romanus while reading the ingredients in the second book and self-baking the main course in their own minds. This is not all bad. However this is the difference of whether one eats pot luck at home or dining out with a narration waiter to deliver the meal perfectly prepared to ones ear. It is a matter of preference.

I'm impressed 😊

ok I have to say I'm not a huge fan of Mary calmes, I have a love hate relationship with her books, that being said I was very sad when this book ended it felt like the story was just getting started and then BAM! it's over, I have read from other reviews that there is a sequel to this book, I'm sorry I can't remember how to spell the name so I'm not even going to try, but I'm going straight to that one next. this is a good short cheap book and I do recommend you get it, there are some parts of disbelief with the main characters reaction to certain events but hey its a phantasy love story with gargoyles so I got passed all that and allowed myself to get swept away and had a good time.