WILD

A MM Survival Romance

De: Egan Sheridan

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Best friends, Daniel and Wes have always craved adventure, and their latest hiking trip into the remote wilderness is meant to challenge them like never before. But when a freak storm hits, they find themselves lost, cut off from civilization, and forced to rely on each other for survival.

Facing treacherous terrain, harsh weather, and dwindling supplies, the two friends push their limits in a desperate search for safety. But as the days drag on and the wilds close in, something unexpected begins to grow between them—a bond forged by fear, trust, and the raw intensity of the untamed wilderness.

With every step deeper into the unknown, Daniel and Wes must confront not only the dangers around them but also the unspoken feelings that have been simmering beneath the surface. Will their connection be enough to carry them through, or will the wilds test them in ways they never imagined?

Into the Wilds is a gripping MM romance that blends heart-pounding suspense with the beauty of human connection. Perfect for readers who love stories of survival, adventure, and love in the most unexpected places.

I thought it was fun

Obligatory complaint about the AI narrator. The inflection and intonation isn't good, but it's not the worst I've seen. I didn't have a problem getting through it.

It's not very realistic on the wilderness survival side, so if you know anything about the topic, there's plenty of eyebrow-raising moments that you just have to ignore. This is further exasperated by the protagonists having the collective survival skills of a walnut. Despite the fact that these characters are established to be long-term hikers (easily at least a decade of experience), they somehow don't have a single basic survival skill between them. At no point during the entire course of the book (which spans several days) do either of them even consider shelter or a fire, and they do a poor job of staying hydrated and having water, despite rain being one of their primary problems.

The narritive has a habit of being redundant (it will establish something, and then a few sentences or pages later, state exactly the same thing again) but the overall writing isn’t bad, and it has a lot of potential. It could benefit a lot from some hardcore editing; these redundant sentences add up a lot, and it makes several scenes drag on just a hair too long. If all the redundancies were cut out, the narritive would be pretty snappy and fast-paced, in a good way.

Anyway, I had fun with it. It reads more like an angst-fluff AO3 fanfic than a NYT thriller, but if you know what I mean, then you know that's not necessarily a bad thing. There's a lot of fun in just chilling with this sort of narritive. Especially for a free book, I have no regrets giving it my time, and I'd read more from the author.

Really? 🙄

OMG. Not the most sophisticated writing. In fact it sounds like it might have been a high school short story assignment. I went back to the listing to see if there was actually a writer, because I thought the basic sentence structure, syntax, and repetitive nature of the writing might have been created by an early AI bot.

Usually, there is a link attached to the authors in Audible. But not Egan Sheridan. I looked him up on line, and he does have a page, so presumably he's a real person.

But it's the narration that really stands out in this selection.

While there is some vocal inflection in the narration, it is completely divorced from the events in the story. Even when the written narrative suggests a vocal intonation, like fatigue or worry, the narration does not express it.

Even at the most dire moments of the story, the voice is chipper, reading with a constant, consistent tempo that expresses neither the events or the emotions being described.

The story is a bit more LGBT than I expected, including one somewhat graphic scene. I guess that's what MM romance refers to.

Overall, not very mature writing, and badly narrated.

It was under 3 hours long, so I listened while working in the garden. Not the kind of book you can sink your teeth into. Or your mind.