ePistols at Dawn

By: Z. A. Maxfield

Narrated by: J.F. Harding

Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Choose your weapons.

Jae-sun Fields is pissed. Someone has taken the seminal coming-out, coming-of-age novel Doorways and satirized it. He's determined to use his Internet skills and his job as a tabloid reporter to out the author as the fraud and no-talent hack he's sure she is.

Kelly Kendall likes his anonymity and, except for his houseboy, factotum and all-around slut, Will, he craves solitude. There's also that crippling case of OCD that makes it virtually impossible for him to leave the house. He's hidden his authorship of Doorways behind layers of secrets and several years' worth of lies - until he loses a bet.

Satirizing his own work, as far as he can see, is his own damned prerogative. Except now he has an online stalker, one who always seems several steps ahead of him in their online duel for information.

A chance meeting reveals more than hidden identities - it exposes a mutual magnetic attraction that can't be denied. And pushes the stakes that much higher, into a zone that could get way too personal.

Warning: This book contains large Korean men; Will, the houseboy, factotum, and all-around slut; hot sexy manlove including oral sex, and serious ass play. (Jae's note to self: OCD + socks + mouth = BAD.)

©2009 Z.A. Maxfield (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Not a train wreck

I expected this to take a turn for the worse about half way through. I hate stories where all the problems of the MCs are based on miscommunication. This looked like it was headed that way, but it was handled pretty well. I didn't end up with chapters devoted to how messed up things had become because of the communication issues. Instead these fellows handled things pretty well and actually communicated. So this went from a 1 star to a 3 star with that twist.

LISTEN TO THIS BOOK NOW!

This book is absolutely amazing! I could not put this book down. The narration by J. F. Harding was superb (as usual). But I was captivated by the story. It was so well written and truly enjoyable. Do not miss this out on this gem. I definitely have this book on my repeat list.

Settle in

Agree with other reviewers that the blurb does this story no justice. There is some element of overstepping but it’s not quite stalking. And aside from the ending being a little fast, I thought it was a great story to settle in with.

Content Warning for off-page suicide/violence related to being outed/closeted/rejected.

Set in the runup to CA’s Prop 8, before iPhones eclipsed Blackberry phones, on the cusp of information being harder to keep private. Jae works for a sketchy paper intent on outing secrets. Kelly is a writer mostly housebound from anxiety, with some secrets to keep. Thankfully Kelly’s sexy houseboy, Will, is good at survival, both his own and Kelly’s.

Will had prodded Kelly into writing a smutty book for fun and it sold well. This plus widespread email meant Kelly started interacting more with fans, including fake fan Jae/S. Berry. Their emails started out weird but grew to be an outlet for each of them. Thankfully the reveal of that wasn’t the main conflict, just another beat of the plot.

I was feeling really restless when I decided to listen to this book, sure I would be compelled to start & quit several books to find something but this story pulled me in right away and kept me wanting more time with the cast of characters. I would have liked more at the end, maybe an epilogue, maybe another scene with Jae’s grandma, but that was more about me wanting to wallow some more than about what the story needed.

Steam: Med-Low. There’s some M/M sexytimes and some M/M passing the time with sex. I was really pleased that no one seemed to be nasty about sex work. Even calling Kelly’s book “smutty” was mostly in fun. I liked that the sex wasn’t overblown in importance so much as treated like a normal thing adults do.

Narration: I found this mostly easy to listen to. On occasion I would lose track of which guy had the POV as there weren’t distinct voicings used. The author was good about making sure the POV name was used in each transition, I just stopped paying attention sometimes, hearing only that a main character’s name was said, and not caring which until I got confused.

Amazing!

The blurb and title totally undersell this book. It was so deep and heartfelt and the narrator did such a fantastic job. I'm tempted to listen a second time I loved it so much.

Really enjoyed it :)

This is another interesting story from ZA Maxfield. This one touches on mental health, learning to trust and love.
I loved Kelly with his OCD and other issues because he recognised his flaws and tried to overcome them (not always successfully). Jae-Sun is sweet and patient, a good match for Kelly. But Will stole my heart! I'm so glad things work out for him.
I enjoyed the narration very much. I will be looking for more from JF Harding.

Engaging, emotionally stirring and hot.

I didn't want to put it down! A thought provoking, sometimes uncomfortable, sad, frustrating, enduring tale. Romantic, sexy, and highly entertaining.

Great story and excellent narration.

Definitely enjoyed this book. The characters felt so real, and their stories were a bit heart wrenching.

As always, JF Harding does an exceptional job of narrating.

Witty & Romantic, Great Job by JF Harding

Clever and witty, excellent characters, and smoking hot erotica, I enjoyed every minute of ePistols at Dawn.

Beautifully performed by J.F. Harding, his voice is always a pleasure

Not a fan!

Fantastic narrarion!!! but a Struggle to finish. This should have been Will and Kelly's book/story. Hate MC decisions sometimes. For some reasons, MC doesnt know how to communicate important things. Not a fan of the ending! Drunk!

Great story and narration

Really enjoyed the emotion and passion of the story and great performance on the narration helped bring even the secondary characters to life. Worth a credit.

Super narration for an entertaining book

This was my least favourite Z.A Maxfield book so far.
I don't know what it was about the characterizations of Jae and Kelly but it took me at least the first three hours of this audio book to get into it. Still i never connected with either MC and found their messed up communication rather tiresome at times. Even though this book was released only 5 years ago in 2011, there were several references that have dated very quickly - like the fact that they were communicating on MY SPACE chat!!! This really could be changed easily to Facebook and it wouldn't jar as much as it did to me.
Over all the narration was very good but the story was tired and didn't have the same magic that Z.A's books usually have. I would recommend her books "Gasp!", "Drawn Together" and "Rhapsody for Piano and Ghost"

Tragic events change lives

A sad fact of life and this story says it all. Traumatised by events this man ahuts himself away from life, I can say no more I understand the feeling.

Beautiful and complex

Beautifully complex depiction of love and the human character. Full of flaws and challenges that life throws at us. A story about taking a chance and not being perfect.

Brilliant

Another wonderfully written book by Z. A. Maxfield, I can count on experiencing compassion, humour and love together, it will leave you egerly wanting to read page after page. I laughed, cried sympathised and felt many other emotions all the way through this story and found I never wanted it to end.

Great story

Well written interesting story with likeable characters. Narrated by the best voice for bittersweet romance.