The Ballerino and the Biker

The Hedonist Series, Book 1

By: Rebecca James

Narrated by: Christopher Rain

Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Pursuing his dream of becoming a principal dancer in a prestigious corps de ballet, Morgan Wentworth returns to NYC only to find his brother Jake has died and his own life is in danger. When the president of Jake's motorcycle club appoints member Zeke Ivers as Morgan's bodyguard, the tough biker is forced to begin questioning his sexuality as he finds himself unexpectedly attracted to the young dancer.

©2018 Rebecca James (P)2020 Rebecca James

Good story. Good narration.

Overall a good opposites attract fantasy romance that kept me engaged. The narrator was well suited to the characters. There is definitely room to expand on relationships after this story, which I hope the author does in some fashion.

I am going to make an observation from the perspective of a ballet dancer and distance runner. Spending hours sweating in spandex and/or tights equates to an awful smell that your significant other will not appreciate. You also tend to need food and rehydration immediately after workouts. I cringed everytime Morgan went straight from dancing to anything but a shower and food.

A decent book ruined by the narration

I had read this book a while ago and enjoyed it for the most part. Unfortunately, the narration ruined the audio for me. The character voices sounded pretty much the same and one of the characters who I assume was Spanish from the name, was particularly bad. Save you money/credit and read the book instead!

Terrific Story & Narration🎧Captivating & Heartfelt

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it is a terrific MM romance with interesting and original storylines. This is my first book written by Rebecca James and it will not be my last, I enjoyed her writing style and how she swept me right into her story, grabbing my attention right from the start and holding it straight to the end. Her character are complex and nicely developed, they are realistic, easy to relate to and connect with. Morgan Wentworth comes from a family of wealth, not exactly a loving family, his parents did not have time for him and sent him off to school. His older brother, Jake, was estranged from the family after the father disowned him for joining a motorcycle club. But he reached out to Morgan after their parents death and they kept in touch, planning to get together whey Morgan finished his studies in Milan. Morgan is a ballet dancer and was accepted to apprentice with the Manhattan Ballet Company, taking him one step closer to his dream, being a principal dancer. Unfortunately Jake died in a bike accident before they could ever get together and his accident caused a riff with a rival MC. Zeke Ivers is a member of the Sentinel’s MC, Jake’s club, he and his fellow club members vowed to protect Jake’s little brother. Zeke is the one assigned to watch over him and he takes his job very seriously, even sleeping outside his door at night. I adored both of these characters, they came from two completely different worlds yet they got along perfectly. Zeke, a straight man was not easy on Morgan at first, his rude comments were either a defense mechanism or something learned. His father was not easy on him or his brother and when he lost his brother he fell out of touch with his father too. Morgan was a good sport when it came to Zeke, he knew he turned him on but did not throw it in his face. He waited for Zeke to be ready, to come to him, make the first move. I loved how their story plays out, the drama, angst, the denial, the coming to terms and then the love. In addition to the romance there are several other storylines, the problem with the rival gang, business drama with Malcolm’s family business, members of he board wanted him to give up his seat and interest in the company and then there is Thomas, whom Malcolm totally misread. These storylines bring in some mystery, thrilling and suspenseful moments. A lot goes on in this book, it is very well plotted and there is never a dull moment. Rebecca James, thank you for this terrific story and the emotional rollercoaster ride. I am looking forward to checking out more of your work, I loved he secondary characters in this book and hope their stories come to Audible too.

Christopher Rain is a terrific narrator and voice artist. He did a great job portraying the characters, bringing them to life, giving each their own voice and personality as well as humanizing them. His Morgan was perfection, he grasped his persona to the tee, his Zeke was great too, he showed us his alpha-tude. You could hear how much heart he puts into his work as he captures the characters emotions and projects them into his performance. He is an entertaining storyteller and a pleasure to listen to. Thank you for this great listen🎧

great story terrible narration

loved the story and the characters and that was the only reason i made it through this book. the narration was terrible. It didn't start put terrible but got progressively worse as the story went on.

Loved it

This has been on my TBR forever, when I got the audio I decided to start it. I was hooked from the very beginning. Morgan’s brother does and he is now in danger, so now he is staying at his brother bikers club u til he is safe. Zeek is the hot biker that has to watch over him. I love how this book is not just about forced proximity and bad biker guarding Ballerino, there is so much story to this book. I can’t wait to dive into the rest of the series.

Ok

There was a lot going on in this that made it hard not to roll my eyes. I think if there had been less then I could have been drawn into the plot a lot more and connected to the guy’s. There were some sweet and sexy moments and some parts that I liked though and it was an easy listen

Good deliverance

I was impressed with the narrator only because I have already read the book... so i think this was read just right

Great!!!

I read all the reviews and almost didn’t get this audible but goodness gracious, it was hot! A motorcycle club guy and a ballerino! Lots of twists and turns and tons of fun characters! I’ll be following this author for more!

I Liked It

This story grabbed me from the start and I enjoyed listening to it. I liked both characters, Morgan was down to earth, dedicated, loyal and not overly dramatic diva as ballet dancers often portrayed in some books. Zeke was tough and cute and I loved that he had no drama about his preference discovery and handled it with dignity. The story was sweet with almost no angst, but left some questions unanswered for me. I hope these will be answered in other books since this was just first book in the Hedonist series. Narrator did a good job giving voices to all the characters and I especially liked how he narrated the part in the end of the story with Morgan and his "fan". This was new to me author and narrator and I am looking forward to the next book in the Hedonist series.

Dance is poetic baring of the soul through motion

~Scott Nilsson~
This was a phenomenal book! I was kept on my toes the whole time with the endless twists and suspense, it was brilliant. I loved the way the author developed the characters and really brought the story to life through giving vivid descriptions of the club, dance studio and the overall scene.
If you haven't listened to this yet then all I'm asking is: "What are you waiting for?!"
I adored Morgan and Zeke's relationship, it was a beautiful slow burn bi-awakening. I had a few favourite parts of this book but when Zeke tried to "kidnap" Morgan, the fight they got into was really funny and a great start to their relationship. I also enjoyed the subplot of Zeke's underlying issues with his Father, and how he eventually got his chance to stand up to him. There was so much depth to this book, it really kept me captivated. I can't wait to listen to Swish and Dante's story.
I wish the rest of this series was on audible because I would purchase every single book!!!! Please keep Christopher Rain as the narrator for the rest of the series! He did such an amazing job with every character. I love the way he brought out Morgan's bratty, yet mature down to earth nature and Zeke's rough brooding personality. Also, the way he was able to capture Tomas's slimy, stalker persona was flawless, I got chills and goosebumps from the last part of the book. Amazing!!
I received this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

Enjoyable story

A case of opposites attract - Morgan, a dancer and Zeke, an MC member. There is some intrigue, a bit of drama, age gap and romance. Enjoyed the story.
This is my first Christoper Rain narration. I enjoyed listening, it gave the story an added boost. He had really good and distinct voices for each character, though it took me a while to warm up to the voice for Morgan (entirely on me - I had a different voice in my head).

Overall, I would recommend this as a way to experience and enjoy the story.

as great as the ebook

The story is always 4-5 stars, because if I wouldn't like the story as ebook, I wouldn't listen to the audiobook. I can't listen to an audiobook without knowing the book, that's not possible for me.

The performance from the narrator is also very important for me. I can't listen to a lot, because my English as a non-native-speaker isn't so perfect to follow a whole story over hours, when the narrator speaks too fast or too sloppy. Normally I have to SEE the person, who is talking to me in English. Christopher Rain is one of the 8 narrators (so far), I can listen without break and have no problems to follow. I'm just not yet finish with the book, just over the half, but I listen enough to give a review.

PLEASE READ MY RATING SYSTEM!!!

To my ratings:

5* - very very good
it's like an A+

4* - very good and will be often re-listening
it's like an A

3* - it's more then a one-time-listening.
it's like a B

Entertaining enough, but...

...would an apprentice in a major ballet company really go on in principal roles so often?
Re the performance, the reader seemed uncomfortable with the ballet terms - not so much about pronouncing the words, but he had none of the rhythm to imply the movement any dancer would inevitably use. And T(h?)omas’s accent seemed to be multi-purpose ‘European’....

Finally a gay biker series!!!!

Rebecca does an amazing job with the storyline, I can't wait to dove into the next one.
M/M biker stories at it's finest, rivalry without complete bloodshed. I'm a big fan of biker brotherhood.
Christopher did an amazing job on the audio and can't wait for the next one to be out

The ballerino, Morgan, is the brother (Jake) of a dead member of The Hedonist. When a rival gang is set on killing Morgan as retribution for Jake having the president's woman on his bike when he died.
The biker, Zeke, is sent to retrieve Morgan in order to keep him safe, which he does in typical biker fashion. At first they both like and hate each other, Zeke is fighting against his bisexual nature while Morgan is grieving the loss of his last family member and is trying to follow his dreams and kept himself alive.
The story has many turns from psycho old family colleague, Zeke's dad appearing out of the woodwork, Morgan deciding ballet doesn't need to be 12+ hours a day

I enjoyed this.

This was my first book by Rebecca James and my first audiobook narrated by Christopher Rain. I thought both the writing and narration were very good. I didn't care too much for some of the voices used for secondary characters but I thought the ones for Morgan and Zeke, and the other bikers, were really good.

The romance was very good, if somewhat predictable. I don't mind predictable when the writing is good enough to keep me from skipping pages. Since I listened to this as an audiobook skipping around wouldn't have been easy, but I wasn't tempted to do it anyway.

I don't usually care too much for motorcycle club stories but this one was much better than others I've read and the secondary characters were likeable. I'd be happy to listen to more books in this series if they are done in audiobook format.

A complimentary copy of this audiobook was provided to me but my review was voluntary and not influenced by the author and/or narrator.

Believable love story

I didn't know what to expect since this was a new-to-me author and as well as narrator, and to be honest I wasn't in the mood for too much digging into neither MC clubs not ballet, but this book surprised me by giving me exaclty the right amount of everything. Some MC club stuff, light on the MCs and heavy on the club, as in people who care for each other and have each others backs, and some ballet, just enough to keep it interesting. The love story was also perfectly balanced and well paced, it was the right mix beteen friendship, trust, love, and sex, Morgan and Zeke were great together. I also liked the secondary characters a lot and look forward to listening to a book about some of them.

I liked the narration, the voices were distinct and perfect for the characters. It was easy to know who was speaking and and pleasant to listen to.

Great audio for this enjoyable new series

Two worlds collide in this highly enjoyable romance from Rebecca James.
Morgan, a trained ballerino, and Zeke, member of The Hedonists MC Club, are brought together by Morgan's brother's death and the need to protect Morgan from a possible revenge act. From very different backgrounds but attraction and a connection cannot keep the two from getting to know each other as Zeke is tasked with keeping Morgan safe.
I love these two characters, both extremely strong physically and mentally but in different ways. It comes across as a natural progression between the two, not forced upon them by the situation. The plot line is intriguing and I love the outward difference of the two, people you would never think of as a good fit together but when written in this way, you can't imagine a more perfect partner.
We see both the good and bad in both men, stubbornness being a common theme! The actual story line separate from their relationship was great and a brilliant twist at the end!
The Hedonists MC club is full of interesting people and I can't wait to read about them.
Highly recommend and looking forward to reading more work by Rebecca James.
Wow! This is the first time I've heard narration from Christopher Rain and it definitely won't be the last! He does a fantastic job of giving different voices to all of the characters and so much emotion comes through all of the different situations that the men find themselves in. Right from the start, I fell into the story and managed to finish over two days with how easy it was to listen and be pulled along with everything that goes on between Morgan and Zeke. Really looking forward to hearing more from this narrator.