Strays
Urban Soul, Book 2
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Narrated by:
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Dan Calley
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By:
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Garrett Leigh
About this listen
Work, sleep, work, repeat. Nero’s lonely life suits him just fine until his best friend Cass asks him to take on a new apprentice - a beautiful young man who’s never set foot in a professional kitchen. Despite his irritation and his lifelong ability to shut the world out, Nero is mesmerized by the vibrant stray, especially when he learns what drove him to seek sanctuary on Nero’s battered old couch.
Lenny Mitchell is living under a cloud of fear. Pursued by a stalker, he has nowhere left to run until Nero offers him a port in a storm - a job at the hottest restaurant in Shepherd's Bush. Kitchen life proves heady and addictive, and it’s not long before he finds himself falling hard and fast for the man who has taken him in.
Fast-forward a month, and a neither man can imagine life without the other, but one thing stands in their way: a lifetime of horrors Nero can’t bring himself to share with Lenny. Or can he? For the first time ever, happiness is there for the taking, and Nero must learn to embrace it before fate steps in and rips it away.
©2015 Garrett Leigh (P)2020 Garrett LeighWhat listeners say about Strays
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- Mari Cardenas
- 31-08-20
Enjoyable!
4.5 Stars!
This is book 2 in the Urban Soul series and it can be perfectly read as a standalone, even if there are appearances by the throuple that features in Misfits.
Lenny is being pursued by a stalker and can barely manage to work for fear that the guy will do more than appear everywhere he goes. Going to the police is useless, as they can't really do anything unless the man attacks him. His boss Cass gets him a new position and a place to live with Nero, one of their chefs in their Urban Soul group of restaurants. Nero is not completely on board about a stranger living with him, but he can't say no, and before long, Lenny becomes an integral part of his life. However close Lenny and he get, Nero isn't ready to let anyone in, and share the horrors that he has gone through.
I felt so bad for Lenny. He was quite resilient despite everything, though, and I loved that he had such a great disposition. It took me a whole lot longer to warm up to Nero. He was just so grumpy and difficult, I get that what he lived through wasn't easy, but him being all hot and cold with Lenny got a bit tiresome after a while. I will admit that I really liked how protective he was of Lenny, and that they definitely had a lot of chemistry.
No one writes ordinary, flawed men like Garrett Leigh does. She gives them depth and makes the reader want to make things better for them. While I can't say I loved Nero, I still felt bad for him, and of course, I adored Lenny, so I wanted everything to work out for them.
Dan Calley has a pleasant voice, although his accent is quite heavy, so it takes me a couple of chapters to adapt to it. Still, his performance was very enjoyable and he really brought these characters to life for me.
The stalker storyline felt a bit underdeveloped, even if it got resolved in the end, but other than that, this was a very good, angsty, engaging audiobook that I have no trouble recommending.
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Overall
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- ButtonsMom2003
- 26-08-20
Gritty and touching; a great love story!
While Strays is part of the Urban Soul series, it can be read as a standalone with no problem. I'm sorry to say that I haven't read book one yet, but I didn't feel like I missed anything by listening to this one on its own.
Dan Calley's voice is so nice and mellow and very easy to listen to. As with one other book I listened to recently, I did have just a bit of trouble differentiating between the MC's voices but the way the dialogue was written it wasn't difficult to know who was speaking. I'm pretty sure part of the problem is me – Midwest US gal listening to a great narrator with a strong London (I'm told that's what it is) accent. In any case, I still loved listening to this one.
Parts of this story just about broke my heart. Lenny is running from a stalker and he's given refuge within the Urban Soul group of restaurants – specifically he's going to work with Nero at Pippa's. As with most of Garrett Leigh's books that I've read lately, this one is very British and helped to expand my vocabulary of Brit words and slang. 😊
Nero is having a difficult time opening up to Lenny and it causes problems in their relationship; Lenny can't stand the silence between them. But once Nero opens up and tells him everything it just about breaks Lenny's heart. Then, just when it seems like everything is going to work out fine for Lenny and Nero, a twist is thrown into the works.
Fantastic stories like Strays is why I've become a huge fan of Garrett Leigh's writing.
A copy of this audiobook was provided to me but my review was voluntary and not influenced by the author.
***Reviewed for Xtreme-Delusions dot com*** (Posting on August 29, 2020.)
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