The Druid Next Door

Fae Out of Water, Book 2

By: E.J. Russell

Narrated by: Joel Leslie

Professor Bryce MacLeod has devoted his entire life to environmentalism. But how effective can he be in saving the planet when he can’t even get his surly neighbor to separate his recycling?

Former Queen’s Enforcer Mal Kendrick doesn’t think his life could get any worse: He’s been exiled from Faerie with a cursed and useless right hand. When he’s not dodging random fae assassins in the Outer World, he’s going toe-to-toe with his tree-hugging neighbor. And when he discovers that the tree hugger is really a druid, he’s certain the gods have it in for him - after all, there’s always a catch with druids. Then he’s magically shackled to the man and expected to instruct him in Supernatural 101.

All right, now things couldn’t possibly get worse.

Until a mysterious stranger offers a drunken Mal the chance to gain back all he’s lost - for a price. After Mal accepts, he discovers the real catch: an ancient secret that will change his and Bryce’s life forever.

Ah, what the hells. Odds are they won’t survive the week anyway.

The Fae Out of Water stories can be enjoyed in series order, or enjoyed on their own. Word count: 91,200.

©2017 E.J. Russell (P)2023 E.J. Russell

If You Understand D/S You'll Love This Story

The characters struggles with how they feel about the d/s dynamic are super cute and relatable & the sex is so HOT!!! Yum Yum! Love this author, love this narrator.

Fickle Fae

I have loved all the stories set in EJ Russell's MythMatched universe. I also adore Joel Leslie's narration. Put those two things together and you can't help but have a winning combination!

I kind of want to smack Mal around a little for acting without thinking but he is such a sweetheart inside that I have to forgive him. Him and his brothers still have a long way to go to update their thinking and stop assuming that the old ways are still ok bit they are all getting better. It's Gareth's turn next!

Amazing addition!

I absolutely love listening to this story. I love Mal and Bryce's story! These two definitely didn't start off the right foot but It was great to seeing how these two get together and discovered things about themselves along the way. This is another funny story and Joel Leslie does another amazing job with this narration. I am pulled even more into the story. I just couldn't stop listening to it. Can't wait for the next one.

Getting better

Mal's back and this time Bryce joins him. This series is still not worth 3 credits, more relationship, more world building, more holes showing in. Not a ton of sex, but more is certainly implied.

Since you were introduced to Mal in the last one, you're allowed to get to know him and Bryce in this one. There's more story, and Mal and Bryce have character development to go through. You get to know more about the world, and get to less of a conclusion than the last one. You also spend a TON of time wanting to strangle Mal and a bit on Bryce - the story isn't moving fast enough for the amount of time they don't spend talking to one another or asking questions of anyone.

There's a lot of - I need an answer to this extremely important question! I can't tell you that now, we'll talking about it later. Why, well... cause the plot said so? Extremely important question still hasn't been answered 6 chapters later. Don't worry, everything gets wrapped up nicely with a bow in time for the finale.

You get to know David better and you still won't learn anything more about Alan, other than he spent a lot of time stuck in the past. You also learn more about the Faerie world - which other than the inhabitants seems rather interesting. You also get the impression that the world was created to keep all of the moronic seelie/unseelie inhabitants away from humans.

Loved this one!

After listening to Cutie and the Beast I couldn’t wait for Mal’s book!
Mal is not a happy guy. While saving his brother he lost a lot. One thing he really hates is the curse of his hand that makes it useless.
Bryce’s work revolves around protecting the environment. One day he runs into his neighbor who may have had one too many drinks. That neighbor is none other than Mal. And Mal realizes that Bryce is a Druid. Mal calls on his brother in laws aunt to come and help Bryce. The aunt helps Bryce realize what he is and also ties the two men together. They can never be far away from each other without feeling pain or discomfort. One night a stranger shows up and offers Mal a deal. Complete certain task and he can break the curse. He agrees to the offer but now has to convince Bryce to follow along. The two men are attracted to each other. When they finally give in its HOT! Mal needs someone to take control and Bryce is the right man to give him that. There are secrets revealed while on their mission to break the curse. And they get a surprise when the stranger is revealed.
I actually liked this audiobook better than the first one. I was rooting for Mal through the whole book!
Joel Leslie’s narration is amazing! I love how he does the different characters and voices.

++

I would recommend. the book's composition makes it an enjoyable listen with the narration great except for how they they say f**k with a bad British accent.

Magic & a little mayhem

I found this very entertaining. I'm sure Mal would irritate some people & he certainly has some not-great moments, but if I had been in his position, I'd be even more disagreeable than he was. I'd be wallowing with a jar of Nutella & a spoon, personally. He might have been snippy, moody & not all together honest, but he did leave the house. Bryce has a couple imperfections, but is, in general, lovely & admirable. I enjoyed seeing their admiration for one another's good points and how they understood one another, despite having seemingly nothing in common. Seeing characters from the previous books make appearances was a real bonus.

I did figure out a bit of a riddle in the story WELL before the characters did & wanted to smack them on the head repeatedly for being so clueless. I'm sure most readers will want to yell at them as well. Maybe that's part of the fun?

For the audiobook, it was very quintessential Joel Leslie, so you either like it or not, depending on how you feel about him as a narrator. If you haven't heard Joel Leslie before, I say give it a try. He does snark and voice differentiation very well. His sex scene voice acting isn't all my bag, (and this book as more & hotter scenes than the previous one), but it might be good for others. ;)

I'm very much looking forward to starting the next book, as the Bard has definitely got my interest piqued.

Entertaining!

I loved the first book of the series. I hadn’t read this before I listened to the audio so I came into this one not knowing what to except.
While I enjoyed the book overall, I had some big issues with Mal. He seemed like a completely different character than he was in the last book, but considering what happened to him, I guess I can see why he was written that way.
I absolutely adored Bryce and all his druidness.

Joel Leslie did a fantastic job narrating this story. I’ve said it before and will say it again...he is a master of voices!!!

Fun story

I was so happy to get Mal’s story and get to know even more about this character. Him and Bryce definitely did not get off to a good start but was it fun to watch! There were times I wanted to knock some sense into Mal and get him to do something else but overall it was a very enjoyable listen and the narrator did a fantastic job! I loved getting to listen to the characters and story be brought to life!

enjoyed it

Would I listen to it again: yes ✔
Did the story keep me engaged: yes ✔
Was I invested in the characters: yes ✔

📖 Story comment: good pace and an interesting story. It took me a while to warm up to Mal's character in this one, he wasn't what I was expecting from the character I met in Book 1. Over all it was entertaining, and I enjoyed it, but there was just something missing to make it as enjoyable as the first.

🎧 Narrator comment: Joel Leslie is a master voice actor, he has good cadence, inflections and intonations and it's easy to distinguish the multitude of characters from each other and feel the emotions of the story..