Reviewed by Lisa
TITLE: Earning His Trust
AUTHOR: Alicia Nordwell
NARRATOR: Mickey Hamm
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 3 hrs and 43 mins
RELEASE DATE: December 22, 2017
BLURB:
Evin lost the only two men he ever loved. But he might get a second chance with one of them – if he’s willing to take the risk.
Following the death of his husband, Evin is living in Portland and raising the infant son they had through a surrogate. Six-month-old Micah is his life, and if it means no time for activities or friendships beyond his minuscule support network, that’s a sacrifice Evin is willing to make. When he suffers a burn baking teething biscuits, the last person Evin expects to encounter in the ER is Ben, his lover from college – and the man who left him without a word of explanation.
Ben knows it won’t be easy to earn Evin’s trust and prove he’s not the same man Evin once knew, but he can’t bear to watch Evin struggle to care for Micah, hurting and alone. He wants back in Evin’s life, as a friend and hopefully more, but Evin’s heart is fragile, and the years have changed him too.
REVIEW:
Some things I really love are the friends-to-lovers trope, slow burn, and second chances at love. This story delivers all three.
Evin is a single dad with minimal support doing the best he can to raise his baby. After suffering some devastating losses, he’s closed himself off from people and doesn’t trust easily. Encountering Ben again is the last thing he expects or even wants. But Ben sees it as a second chance to have Evin back in his life. And he starts small by offering to help Evin with watching Micah so he can get some much-needed rest and bringing some teething biscuits from a specialty bakery while Evin’s healing from the burns.
I found it very easy to relate to Evin. I know exactly how it feels to be a single parent of a baby with very little support. And although I haven’t lost a loved one to death, I have had relationships end with no explanation.
I really liked that the romantic relationship between Evin and Ben took time to rebuild. Evin was hurt when Ben left after college graduation without explanation and he moved on with Daniel only to lose him unexpectedly as well. I liked that Ben understood that grief doesn’t have an expiration date and didn’t push Evin to try to get over his pain of losing Daniel. There were just a couple things that stood out not quite as positively for me: one was right after Evin was home with the concussion, the guys were watching movies that night. Watching TV and playing video games are two of the things not recommended for people who’ve suffered head injuries. I remember my son complaining about that after he had a mild concussion. I felt like the trauma was resolved too quickly/too easily after the incident that caused the head injury. And I was also bothered by how Evin was devastated by grief over Daniel’s death, then he thought maybe he didn’t really love Daniel – he was only projecting because Daniel really loved him, then yeah he really did love Daniel.
I recommend this for anyone who enjoys slow burn, second chance, and/or friends-to-lovers romances.
Mickey Hamm is a new-to-me narrator whose voice was pleasant and enjoyable. I thought he did a good job distinguishing the characters’ voices, although the women’s weren’t as smooth as the men’s. He did make pauses in his speech patterns quite frequently where there shouldn’t have been any and I found that distracting from the story but otherwise I liked his performance.
RATING: 
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