Reviewed by Tori (Vicki)
SERIES: Dreamspun Desires #29
AUTHOR: Eli Easton
NARRATOR: John Solo
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 5 hours 39 minutes
RELEASE DATE: April 5th, 2017
BLURB:
Snow, steam, and secrets.
The latest snowstorm carries something unexpected to the doorstep of Hutch’s secluded Alaskan cabin: a stranger named Jude, the most beautiful man Hutch has ever seen. Jude says he’s in the area for a ski trip and that he fled a domineering lover, thinking he could make it into town. But Hutch is a suspicious SOB and treats his unwanted guest warily. The problem is Jude isn’t just gorgeous, he’s funny and smart and flirtatious.
Two gay men snowed in for three days—things happen. Really good things. By the time the storm clears, Hutch finds himself a little too attached to Jude Devereaux, San Francisco-based male model. But is Jude what he claims to be? Or is he entangled in the secrets Hutch moved to Alaska to escape?
STORY REVIEW:
Wow! This story was not what I expected! I thought I was getting a fluffy story of two men stuck in the snow. That was not what I got!
Hutch is surprised to find a man on his doorstep, considering he lives way out of town, in the middle of nowhere Alaska. He’s hiding in Alaska for a reason, and is pretty suspicious of the mystery man, who claims to have been lost in the snow. The man’s name is Jude Devereaux, who turns out to be a male model. Hutch helps him recover from near frostbite, but can’t get him to town for a few days. The two start off wary of each other, eating and playing cards, but of course end up fucking like bunnies! Then the night before Hutch plans to take Jude back to town and send him out of his life, it all changes.
Now comes the tricky part of writing this review! There is nothing in the blurb to indicate what comes next, and I was surprised by the turn of events. I don’t want to ruin it for anyone else! I’ll just say there is way more to this story than I expected, and more to Jude and Hutch than you know. This story went from being predictable and fluffy, although hot, to exciting and fast paced! Jude and Hutch have quite the adventure, getting themselves in to a bad situation, and working themselves back out. And they get their much earned happy ending.
I really liked this story! I have read several books by Eli Easton and have liked them. This story starts off ok, but I was thinking I have read books like this, two men stuck in a cabin in the snow, blah blah blah…. then BAM! It totally changed, and began to moved along quickly, especially after the “big scene” goes down. I liked Hutch and Jude, Hutch has quite a dramatic history, and I was intrigued by him. I like military characters, so he was right up my alley. I did question the realism of some of the military parts, but I let it go and just enjoyed the story. Jude was kind of mysterious, that worked for me as well. I liked the connection that built between the two men, yes it’s pretty close to insta-love, but these Dreamspun Desires books tend to be like that, so it was ok. The sex scenes are plentiful at first, since they are stuck in a cabin with nothing else to do, and were very hot. Then there is lots of action out of the bedroom, but we wrap up with some post action sex. The plot started out slow, but once things really get moving, I was totally caught up in the story, and rooting for these two to survive!
Give this book a read, it was well worth it!
NARRATION REVIEW:
I am a big fan of audio books, I listen to one throughout my day all the time. This is the first time I thought to review one though, and I’ll be taking more! I was concerned that I wouldn’t get as much out of the story, I tend to listen to books I’ve read before in case I space out, but I worked really hard to pay attention to this book and it worked great. John Solo is a new narrator for me, and I enjoyed his narration. I was able to differentiate between the character voices just fine, and he got the couple of accents down very well. Occasionally Jude did have a bit of a surfer dude sound to his voice that didn’t quite work, but that was minor and didn’t last long. His pace was steady even during the exciting scenes, but his voice did display the appropriate energy when things picked up. His narration of the sex scenes was sensual and well done. I’ll be keeping an eye out for more books narrated by him in the future.
BUY LINKS:
[…] Snowblind (Dreamspun Desires) by Eli Easton (Author) & John Solo (Narrator) […]