Reviewed by Cindy

TITLE: Smitty’s Sheriff

SERIES: Hope Collection

AUTHOR: Cardeno C

NARRATOR: Ezekiel Robinson

PUBLISHER: The Romance Authors LLC

LENGTH: 3 hours and 19 minutes

RELEASE DATE: August 1, 2017

BLURB:

Todd is too flakey. Richard is too stubborn. Together, they’re perfect. A May-December couple get a second chance at love.

Retired soldier Richard Davis wants a stable life in a quiet town with a forever man. Becoming the sheriff of Hope, Arizona, accomplishes two of his three goals, but instead of finding a serious partner, he falls for too-young-to-be-committed and too-flakey-to-be-serious, Todd Smitty. Richard won’t find the right man if he’s obsessed with the wrong one, so he walks away from Todd.

It’s lust at first sight when Todd meets his sister’s army friend. He sets his sights on the worldly, strong, stable older man, and the more time he spends with Richard, the harder he falls. But after three years together, Richard cuts off all contact, with no explanation.

When a mutual obligation requires Todd to move into Richard’s house, he’s thrilled at the opportunity to earn a second chance. Ignoring Todd from across town was hard enough. Can Richard resist temptation under his own roof?

REVIEW:

Sheriff Richard Davis is a good man who’s looking to settle down and have the family and life he’s always dreamed of. Unfortunately, when he looks at the man he can’t get off his mind, he doesn’t see what he’s looking for.

Todd is young but not as young as Richard seems to think he is. And maybe Richard needs to change how he looks at Todd.

Both of these men are good people. They have two problems however. First of all, Richard makes too many assumptions based on information he really doesn’t have. Secondly, they both suck at communicating. For Richard, is a lack of confidence in himself that makes him doubt Todd

For Todd? It’s a lack of experience. He has no idea how relationships work so he just follows Richard’s lead. Unfortunately, Richard doesn’t always know where he’s going.

I very much enjoyed how the story takes us through the rekindling of their relationship. It takes a lot of time and effort to fix their issues and I didn’t mind at all. It was a story to get lost in and turning it off to do pesky things like go to sleep or head off to work was definitely not easy to do. The angst in this story all comes from the characters own personalities, with no outside influences to speak of. The problems Richard and Todd experience are all in their heads and their hearts and it’s a very sweet and compelling journey to work through them.

This is one of the few Cardeno C books that I never read before listening to it and I’m kind of glad. I think you get a different perspective on a story when it’s being read out loud to you.

Ezekiel Robinson has the perfect, soothing voice for this story. His reading is smooth and lets the story flow without the jarring bumps that sometimes comes with other narrators I’ve heard. It made the book a pleasure to listen to.

I also have to apologize to the author for the long wait for this review. Finding time to listen is hard for me, but I’m so glad that I finally carved the time out for this story. It’s totally worth it. I cheered my heart out for these two and I know you will too.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Audible

Amazon