Streets Apart: Hearts Apart

By: H. J. Perry

Narrated by: Piers Ryman

I’m Aaron. I’ve got a crush the size of Europe on Joe, who lives across the street, and when he’s around, I transform into a prize idiot. The rest of the time, I’m a trainee plumber. On Sundays, I play in the amateur football league. In all, I'm a confident, well-adjusted guy - for a 20-year-old virgin who lives with his parents and falls apart over the boy not quite next door.

Joe’s cute, sexy, fun, and the reason the word sexy was invented. We used to play together as kids in the massive posh house he lives in with his parents, the doctors. Now, he’s at university, studying literature. How do I ask a guy for a date when I can’t string together a coherent sentence when he’s around and I don’t even know if he’s gay? And what’s more, no one knows I’m gay.

Who keeps their boyfriend in the closet these days? I want the world to know how much he means to me. I’m going to come out, but not today; I can do it next week.

This is a hot, sexy feel-good romance about two young men who fall in love for the first time. They are crazy about each other and do lots of kissing, hand-holding, and taking their clothes off.

©2018 H J Perry (P)2019 H J Perry

Sweet and funny love story

Narrated from a first point of view of Aaron, this is the sweet story of how Aaron gets together with his childhood friend and forever crush, Joe. Aaron and Joe live in the same neighborhood, but Aaron is a closeted working class boy, going for his plumbing certification, while Joe's family is far more affluent, with doctors for parents, and Joe is out and works with LGBTQ youth. It is a fun story with a beautiful narration. Aaron is sweet, funny, somewhat naive, and is deeply in love with his Joe, and their relationship is very tender and humorous. There's some angst, with Aaron's struggling to come out to his family friends and coworkers, but there's a lovely happy ending. It is enjoyable and cheerful, and the narrator performs very well. Aaron's accent is a pleasure to hear, and the characters are distinctive.

Friends to lovers romance

Okay, this is a nice story about two young friend-ish neighbours, one openly gay, the other one in the closet, that decide to give it a try to a relationship.

The good in this story is that present realistic fears and expectations, particularly for a young man who, even if he has been aware of being gay for some years, has never acted on his feeling, nor has come out to anyone. It has too many sex scenes for my liking, but that's only my taste, not something bad by itself.

I liked how supportiveAaron's family is when he finally decided is time to come clean to them about who his 'girlfriend' is... although he took his sweet time to do it.

And the narrator, Piers Ryman... I really didn't like his style :/

But all in all, this is a nice story for those who enjoy the genre.

Sweet Friends to Lovers Story You Will Love

HJ Perry's novel finds 20 year old Aaron ready to take a chance on love with his best friend, but there's a couple of problems: Aaron is not out to anyone, and he is not even sure if Joe is gay. Aaron lives at home with his parents and is a blue-collar plumber. Joe comes from a more affluent family and is away at college.
The two fall deeply in love, but there is a bit of angst as Aaron struggles with coming out to his family.
Overall, it's a sweet love story you will love. The characters are great and well rounded and Piers Ryman's narration is excellent.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Would’ve liked more story and less sex

The overall story was, for me, only okay. Neither here nor there, just a lot of sex and repetition between the characters. Aaron’s inner dialogue felt like a rambling stream of sex, boyfriend, sex, omg sexy and boyfriend, with very little else, and the dialogue between Joe and Aaron, while innocent in that friend-to-lovers kind of way, didn’t come across as entirely realistic. At times, I felt like I was hearing Piers Ryman’s voice but not quite hearing the words; like I knew he was talking but all I was hearing was the sound of his voice and not the actual story, which was a bit upsetting that I wasn’t able to keep my focus entirely on the book. Overall, it was a good performance and a decent friends-to-lovers story, but it lacked a maturity to it.

angsty

I liked the acceptance and change Aaron's dad made after some time. I was glad Aaron finally found the courage to come out. It was good to see Damien change after his near death experience. I found it do sad and disappointing that it took saving Damien for Joe's parents to really see and accept Aaron. I'm decimated over that prejudice. I voluntarily listened to a free copy of this and am giving an honest review. The narrator did a great job.

A sweet love story

Piers Ryman has the perfect voice for Aren, the plumber, and does a good job of voicing the other characters differently. The growing love between Aren and Joe is written tenderly and beautifully.

A sweet romance

This is a sweet romance between two young men who grew up living across the street from each other. One comes from a hard working, blue collar family of plumbers, while the other comes from a family of doctors.

While the boys played together when they were younger, for the last couple of years, they have only admired each other from afar. They did not attend the same school, so they don't have much reason to interact.

Aaron is an apprentice to a plumber, on his way to a good job. Joe has gone against his family's wishes for medical school, and is studying to become a teacher. When their paths cross, Joe calls Aaron out for checking him out; but Aaron didn't know anyone could tell he was gay. He's never come out to anyone.

As their relationship grows, so does the pressure for Aaron to come out; a good part of that from Aaron himself. Things go better than expected, but his father takes a little longer to adjust. But, once he does, he accepts the couple as just one of his boys having a significant other. This leads to all kinds of excitement, and an unproven could-be disaster for Aaron's future.

But, all jealousies and prejudices are set aside as the couple finds their HEA/HFN.

This is a new narrator for me, but I enjoyed listening to the performance. His characters are well differentiated and the words flowed smoothly.

Happy listening!

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review

Sweet, friends to lovers story...

I just want to put it out there that I'm a sucker for the English accent...

I didn't realize this was a bundle of two novellas but I'm glad it was combined to one. Streets Apart: Hearts Apart is my first read from author HJ Perry and I'm not disappointed. A coming out, friends to lovers story about 20 year old, trainee plumber and amateur footballer Aaron, who has acknowledged that he's gay but has not come out yet, and he also has this huge crush (apparently the size of Europe lol) on University Literature student Joe, his childhood friend from next door. HJ Perry has painted a picture of young love in its almost perfect world, it's definitely a feel-good story and reminder of what it feels like to fall in love for the first time. I'm glad that Aaron wasn't some closeted homophobic who denied his feels but instead he opens up about how he feels with Joe, even if he can't think straight or string a complete sentence together (lol). I enjoyed the story but won't be too eager to give it five stars so I'll settle with four stars, only because I'm so use to angst and drama, that this was just too sweet of a story.

Like the author, this is my first listen to Piers Ryman, and I wasn't disappointed. Again, I'm a sucker for the English accent and maybe for some it's not a turn on but it definitely kept my attention. I'll have to admit though, it wasn't easy for me in the beginning to differentiate if he was narrating Aaron or Joe (I guess I've gotten use to another narrator whom I've listen to narrate m/m books that changes the tone in his voice when he narrates two males) but that didn't make me hit the stop button. In the end, I'd imagine what Piers would sound like if he narrated Aaron with a deeper tone? Then I thought of English actor Jason Statham and blushed....HOWEVER, I needed to remind myself that Aaron and Joe are 20 years old, it only made perfect sense that Piers narrated them not perfect but just right for this story. Five stars for the performance because although I'm just so use to listening to different tones when it's only one narrator, Piers did capture the voice of two adolescent males who are so new to love and relationship that it wasn't hard to finish in a day. I will defiantly keep a look out for more audio books from Piers (because again, I'm a sucker for a sexy accent) and will definitely look into HJ Perry.

With that said, if you enjoy a feel-good romance (that doesn't give you heartburn) about two young men who fall in love for the first time, then HJ Perry's Streets Apart: Hearts Apart will do it for you. Plus, Piers Ryman narrating is just as sweet as this story (wink*wink). Happy Listening all!

*I was given this free review copy audio-book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.*

Sweet story, authentic narration

It’s a lovely coming out story, authentic read, and a believable protagonist—-all served hot and steamy.

Sweet Coming out story

This actually is a sweet coming out story. I wanted to love it. I normally try to avoid writings from British novelist because I tend to enjoy clear cut HEA. Like a lot of British movies, this book was similar as the ending was like we are kind of happy but who knows.

The book is well written and the characters seem to be well developed. I am a big fan of M/M romance. I just could not feel connected to either of the characters in this book. I am listening to another one of his stories and am hoping for more of a connection.

I do recommend this story if you like a slow burn and YA gay romance.

I requested this book and was given it for free for my unbiased review.