Stay

By: Riley Hart

Narrated by: Luke Itzvic

Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's Summary

Wes Jensen just lost the sister who raised him, and gained custody of his niece. The last thing he needs to add to his full plate is dealing with Braden Roth, the one-night-stand who continues to try to push his way into Wes' life. He has a kid to raise now, and Wes isn't great at getting close anyway.

Braden has never had a woman or a man sneak out on him the morning after. From the start, Wes intrigues him, and Braden isn't one to deny himself something he wants. And he wants Wes. The more time he spends with Wes and the little girl who constantly keeps them on their toes, the more Braden realizes this isn't just about getting the guy who walked away.

As their lives intertwine more and more, Wes discovers Braden isn't as shallow as he thought. But after everything Wes lost in his life, he isn't sure he can risk his heart, and truly want Braden to stay - and if he did, would Wes' quiet life be enough for Braden?

©2014 Riley Hart (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Loved the story and narration

Any additional comments?

I love it when a sophomore story in a series winds up even better than the first!

What can I say? This just did it for me. This was a great story, with great audio, and a terrific way to get my mind off a stressful situation.

I loved watching Wes grow up (metaphorically), deal with the loss of his sister, be needed by his niece, and seeing him fall in love with Braden.

*sighs* Braden. I just loved this fun-loving, free-spirited character. His attitude, his humor, his ability to get Wes to open up. I loved it all.

But mostly I loved the narration. Luke Itzvic brings the story to life with excellent character voices, steady pacing, wonderful emoting, and a clear sense of who these men are.

The story is fantastic with lots of heartwarming moments, plenty of passion, a dash of angst, and thankfully no melodrama, but the star once again is Itzvic's narration.

I loved the story and the narration, and can easily recommend picking up Stay along with the first story, Collide.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

MY FAVORITE OF THE SERIES

Any additional comments?

I loved this book so much. It's so sweet and so hot that I have listened to it about five times since the first time. The narration was excellent and really brought a higher level of enjoyment. This book just made me smile straight through. I also cried and laughed out loud many times. I would recommend it seven days of the week and twice on Sunday. Great Listen 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Beautiful Continuation of the Black Creek Saga

I love that Braden and Wes were both introduced in Collide initially, where I loved them both individually.

Honestly, I wasn't so sure about them together. I felt so bad for Braden who was giving his all to Wes to prove he was the man for him and Wes was a consistent asshat. Which, at least he was willing to admit. But I was definitely glad to see that this didn't turn into a one sided love affair and Braden wasn't afraid to ask for Wes to fight for him. I think that really made all the difference in the ending of this book.

The addition of Jessie, also, really made this story for me. Without her Wes probably would have annoyed me too much to really enjoy it. She added just the right amount of humor, sweetness and yea, sorrow. I definitely hurt for the little girl who was working out the dawning reality that she'll never see her mother again. There were definitely a couple scenes that made my eyes sweat.

Unsurprisingly, Luke Itzvic did an awesome job with the narration. Definitely can't get enough of him. I'm glad to see that he's doing the whole series.

I read the first two books in about two days each and am now on to Pretend. Looking forward to more great work from Riley Hart. I definitely can't get enough!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Very Good Book in M/M Fiction

I rate books relative to other books in the genre. This wouldn't rate as well to me if it were in the Mystery section, but in gay romance, it compares very well. It is a very good "read" that held my attention and developed the characters to the point I felt I knew them. I also like the characters which makes a book more enjoyable to me. I even cried at one point, which is something I don't normally do. I'm a 70 year old hetero man for god's sake. Which makes my next comment a bit more understandable. A little less detail sex would be OK with me.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Best of the series!

Where does Stay rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I've listened to so many audiobooks, I can't really say that it's my favorite but I really enjoyed this story.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Stay?

When Wes and Brayden finally told each other that they loved the other.

What does Luke Itzvic bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He voiced Wes and Brayden perfectly.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, I listened to this in one day while on a long drive.

Any additional comments?

I would love to read more about Wes and Brayden.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Amazing!

I loved how Braden gave Wes what he needed! He made sure to make Wes laugh and relax. Braden needed Wes and Jessie to make his settle and finally feel like he belonged somewhere. I can't wait for more!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great sequel amazing narration

We met Wes and Braden in book one. Wes had tried for an anonymous hook up with Noah, but ended up with Braden in what was supposed to be a one night thing. Wes’ need for a human connection while his sister died. But Wes has this overdeveloped sense of protection towards his niece that won’t allow him to have someone in his life, like a lover. So he pushes Braden away, despite their mutual attraction.
It’s this constant push/pull that drove me nuts. On the one hand, I got why Wes did what he did. And Riley Hart does a great job of painting the picture of the dedicated but afraid of being hurt Wes and the playboy who has a heart of gold Braden. It’s hard to accept that Braden can change, but every single one of his actions proves that he can. Wes is just too stubborn to accept it.
These guys have intense chemistry and deep emotions running between them. Add in the other (now) secondary characters like Noah, Cooper, Mason and Gavin as well as Jessie, Wes’ niece, who is far too wise, but who all add so much to the story.
In the end, I think the emotional growth, the super hot chemistry and the overall love they share made up for a lot of my frustration, but the vast amount of inflexibility Wes showed for most of this book really impaired my ability to LOVE this and moved it to LIKE. I just think Wes didn’t do ENOUGH to win Braden’s affection and that bothered me more than I’d like.
3.5 of 5 stars
Audio
This is another example of how the right narrator can really elevate or destroy a book. In this case, Luke Itzvick is SO DANG GOOD that he really elevates this to an amazing listening experience, despite my trepidations with the storyline. He is so easy to listen to and so good with the emotion, depth and pacing, that I absolutely fell back in love with this story.
Highly recommended as a listening experience.
5 of 5 stars
Overall 4.25 of 5 stars

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Stay for the Ending

Well, after 7 hours the story comes to an explosive and incomplete halt, with no-ends tied up. Frustrating. The good news, there is another book in the series. But the writer's style comes into play here. I love how the story is continued from the first book. The characters remain as they were, and the story advances. Slowly. So slow, one wonders if it could have been told in two chapters. I don't want to give anything away, but don't blink while reading past this town, cause you will certainly miss that one traffic light and movie theater. I guess I better start the third book before it all goes away.

Great Book

A great love story, you really feel the passion grow. You get to know, enjoy, get frustrated at the characters, and root for them throughout. I highly recommend.

Great first story by Riley Hart!

This is my first by this author and I enjoyed it. I loved Wes and Braden and Jessie. Brooding meets fun-loving. Buts it's so much more than that. It's loss, and friendship, caring, hope, family and love. It's taking a chance on love, on giving yourself over to someone else who loves you back. It's accepting you are worthy.

I liked the narrator. He played the roles well, with all of the emotions these characters felt.

A realy nice story

I did enjoy this book nicely written well read and a lovely story. This is a continuation of a previous story about 2 guys with different family backgrounds and the story of how slowly they gain trust as we all do in real life but so few obtain and fewer still keep. Soppy yes. Nice listen yes. Was the story long enough? no I enjoyed it too much.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful