Under the Boardwalk

De: Felice Stevens

Narrado por: Nick J. Russo

Beneath the famous Brooklyn landmark, love is hidden but not denied: All his life, Alexi Kharpov has dreamed of traveling to unknown exciting places instead of working at his family’s frozen custard stand on the famous Coney Island boardwalk. Every year is the same until a gorgeous man picks a spot in front of his stand to sing, captivating him with his beautiful voice. After two summers of listening, it might finally be time for him to cross that boardwalk and take a chance.

Opera singer Cameron Maxwell has traveled the world, but the sight of the beautiful man serving custard to tourists touches his heart like nothing ever has before. A summer fling might be exactly what he needs to put his problems out of his mind, but the last thing Cam expects is to want the summer to last forever.

It’s a season of discovery for both men who learn to dig deep within their heads and hearts to decide whether secrets old and new should remain buried, or if love is too important to keep hidden under the boardwalk.

©2017 Felice Stevens (P)2018 Felice Stevens

Good listen

I really enjoyed listening to this Audio book. Felice Stevens and Nick J Russo are a great pairing. The characters are really brought to life by the very talented Mr. Russo.

I liked this a lot.

Under The Boardwalk is my first Felice Stevens book/audio; I listened to the audio without having read the book.

I enjoyed this story. It's a nice coming of age/coming out story. Cameron Maxwell has been singing under the boardwalk for a couple of years and at the same time Alexi has been serving custard at his family's stand. They've been admiring each other from a far but neither took the step to talk to the other…until they do.

Alexi isn't out to his family and, while he wants a relationship with Cam, he isn't ready to let his family know that he's gay. Cam is willing to wait under Alexi is ready to tell his family.

This is a sweet story about a summer fling that turns in too much more. Alexi has to deal with his family (his father in particular) and Cam has a health crisis to deal with. Cam helps Alexi figure out what he wants to do with his life and gives him the courage to come out to his family.

Nick J. Russo's narration is very good. He does a great job with the voices and accents so that it's easy to tell who is speaking. I've listened to a couple of other books he's narrated and I enjoy his voice.

***Reviewed for Xtreme-Delusions dot com***

Such a sweet listen!

Alexi and Cam are so sweet and I just love their story. I couldn't help but fall in love with these characters. Felice Stevens made such an sweet story that i just couldn't stop listening. Then to have Nick J Russo doing the narration just made the story even more amazing. I just love the way he brings this story to life and I just absolutely love it.

Romance on Coney Island set to music

A coming of age story steeped in culture and the sights and sounds of New York. This author writes about what she knows, life in multi-cultural NYC. This is the story of two young men who watch each other for an entire summer season near the Boardwalk on Coney Island.
Alexi - of a conservative Russian family works at his family's frozen custard stand. He can't wait to have enough money to travel, to go somewhere and see the world. He doesn't feel that he can possibly come out in light of his conservative family and homophobic attitudes.

Cam, a singer, and musician, on the other hand, has done plenty of traveling and is now is looking for stability and to settle down. More than anything he wants to make connections.

These two young men watch each other for an entire season before making contact the following year. In the meantime, the attraction between the two silently grows. When they do finally connect and their relationship develops, they realize that despite their love, they want entirely different things from life.

You can count on a satisfying conclusion and this story is no different.

After reading the story, listening to the performance of narrator Nick Russo adds an entirely different dimension and allows for increased appreciation for the personalities of main and secondary characters. Mr. Russo is one of my favorite narrators and a strong motivating factor when making a purchase decision.

A solid 4 stars for this sweet & hot story

One of the main reasons I like this author’s books is the characters. I know I can count on them to carry the story, and make me feel invested in their lives and relationships. This does happen again here in Under the Boardwalk, with both Alexi and Cam quickly getting under my skin as I read.

The fact that they’ve both noticed each other from afar—and not just in the present time frame—comes across as sweet with a bit of longing, and when the first move is finally made it was one of those *happy sigh* moments. The fact that this is novella length though means that things progress pretty quickly between them. They each have issues to deal with…Alexi not having come out to his family, and Cam with his voice issues…so for me I think a longer story would have given more time to fully explore these while allowing for more relationship development.

Story length aside, there’s still plenty to get readers sweating with Cam and Alexi’s hot intimate scenes. And there’s enough drama provided by their individual issues to cause a good amount of angst. The different backgrounds from which Cam and Alexi come from also give the story some great contrast.

For a good, relatively quick read with a nice dose of heat to add to the sweet, Under the Boardwalk will definitely fit the bill. For me, it’s falling somewhere between a 3.5 and 4 star rating, mostly because I felt like it could use a bit more length to really give Cam and Alexi’s relationship time to grow more. This book is meant for readers 18+ for adult language and sexual content.

The narration: As I often find it does when the narration is really good, Nick J Russo’s narration of Under the Boardwalk has me more solidly sliding this title into a 4 star rating. He voices the characters quite well, accents and all, particularly when it came to Alexi in the more emotional and more passionate scenes. Nick’s narration made me appreciate this story more, making repeated listens at a future date highly likely since I truly enjoyed the way he brought Cam and Alexi to life.