Reviewed by Tori (Vicki)
TITLE: Leaning Into the Fall 
SERIES: Leaning Into Stories #3
AUTHOR: Lane Hayes
NARRATOR: Nick J. Russo
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 7 hours, 44 minutes
RELEASE DATE: February 14th, 2018
BLURB:
Nick Jorgensen is a quirky genius. He’s made a fortune in the competitive high tech field with his quick mind and attention to detail. He believes in hard work and trusting his gut. And he believes in karma. It’s the only thing that makes sense. People are difficult, but numbers never lie. In the disastrous wake of a broken engagement to an investor’s daughter, Nick is more certain than ever he isn’t relationship material.
Wes Conrad owns a thriving winery in Napa Valley. The relaxed atmosphere is a welcome departure from his former career as a high-rolling businessman. Wes’s laid-back nature is laced with a fierceness that appeals to Nick. In spite of his best intention to steer clear of complications, Nick can’t fight his growing attraction to the sexy older man who seems to understand him. Even the broken parts he doesn’t get himself. However, when Wes’s past collides with Nick’s present, both men will have to have to decide if they’re ready to lean into the ultimate fall.
STORY REVIEW:
This book features Nick, who we meet in the first book. He and Eric started a high-tech business right out of college, and are now millionaires. Eric is the sales/business half, Nick is the quirky genius who hides in the lab and designs their programs. Nick, who is bisexual, randomly proposes to his girlfriend, who happens to be the daughter of one of their investors. This proposal takes place at a fancy winery in Napa. Nick wasn’t really in love, and was sort of playing a game of please-the-father-so-we-get-more-money. Fortunately Nick pulled his head out of his ass and ended the engagement, hurting the girlfriend and royally pissing off the father, and giving himself a reputation as an asshole. Which he kinda is…
So when he and Lisa were at the winery in Napa, they ordered a shit-ton of wine with custom labels for their wedding. The wine was delivered to Nick, who promptly returned it. Only to get it back! I think this happened a few times before Nick has had enough and drives to the winery to give it back.
Wes Conrad was in the tech industry until some bad shit when down and he and his business partner/sometimes lover Mike, sold out and invested in a winery in Napa. Mike ends up in a relationship with a flamboyant man named Geordie, but he dies after ten years, leaving Wes with the winery and a heartbroken Geordie. The two settle in to continuing the successful the winery. One day, a pissed off man arrives….
The meeting of Nick and Wes at the winery to return the wine with bad juju goes about as well as you would expect, given Nick’s tendency to be an asshole, and Wes’s conviction that the wine has nothing to do with Nick’s bad luck. Nick leaves and gets in a car accident, destroying his car and the wine, proving in his own mind that the wine is the problem! He ends up back at the winery where he spends some time with Wes and the sexual attraction between the men is very apparent.
There is also a whole business thing happening in this book, which causes lots of drama due to Nick’s paranoia and the aforementioned tendency to be an asshole. A man named Finn starts sniffing around Eric and Nick’s business, wanting in on a deal, along with a man named Norm, who really doesn’t like Nick. Nick is immediately suspicious and ends up pimping out one of his friends at a party to get close to Finn and see what’s up! At this same party, Nick runs into none other that Wes Conrad. This gets two things started… The some-what long distance relationship between Nick and Wes, and Nick’s conviction that everyone is out to get him. Or get his business.
You will have to read this book to get the rest of it!
So I had a bit of a hard time getting in to this one at first, I was not loving Nick and Wes together. Nick is a hard guy to appreciate, both by me as a reader and by Wes as a character. Nick is a genius, but that brings some mental health issues, and at first Wes doesn’t seem to see that. Eventually Nick opens up about his past and his issues, and Wes does better about dealing with him. But Nick just has to push it, and causes lots of pointless drama. I wanted to shake him! I was probably half way through the book before I started to appreciate them as a couple and not just fuck-buddies. And speaking of which… the sex. Oh my goodness! Plentiful and hot! But anyway, both of these guys are complex characters with lots of shit in their backgrounds. It takes a while for all of that to come out. I did like the relationship between them once they do sort their shit out.
Since this is a Lane Hayes book, you can assume there is a happy ending! And I liked it! I just love Lane’s writing, she does these rich guys really well. They are just on the edge of pretentious with their expensive clothing, homes, cars, wine, helicopter rides and such, and I did occasionally roll my eyes. But I like them! I love the ensemble series she writes, I’ve read all of these and I’m looking forward to revisiting them as they come out in audio format. There’s also a brand new one out I need to read!
This one was very good, but Nick isn’t my favorite character, so I rated it slightly lower than I did the first two books. It’s all on the sliding scale of like, but I didn’t like this one QUITE as much as I did the first two.
I do recommend this book, I’d say you probably should read them in order, so if you haven’t read the first two, go get them first. This is all around a great series!
NARRATION REVIEW:
I am a fan of Nick J. Russo, especially his narration of a couple of Amy Lane books. That’s really where I go when I hear his voice… He did fairly well with this narration, my only issues were Finn’s Irish accent wasn’t great, and there were some oddly pronounced words. Of course I can’t think of any examples at the moment, but there were several times I was thrown by his pronunciation. But those were minor things, overall I think he did a good job. There was enough difference between Wes’s voice and Nick’s voice so I could keep track of them. Some emotion came through in his voice, especially during the naughty scenes. His voice for Geordie was perfect, oh, and there is a scene with Geordie and Nick that worked really well. The sadness and confusion came out in Nick’s (the narrator not Nick the character) voice. I enjoyed listening to this one!
RATING: 
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