Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: Ever the Same 
SERIES: Love is Blind #1
AUTHOR: BA Tortuga
NARRATOR: Paul Morey
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
RELEASE DATE: July 6, 2015
LENGTH: 7 hours, 32 minutes
BLURB:
Audie Barrack is in it up to his elbows with a sick calf when his son’s school calls. Seems Grainger has gotten into yet another fight. When he walks into the principal’s office, he’s shocked to find his son has been fighting with a little girl named Randi.
A little girl with one blind dad and one dad who recently passed away.
Dixon has lost his sight, his career, and his husband. Thank God for his brothers, Momma and Daddy, and his little girl, or he would simply give up. The last thing he needs is for Randi to start trouble at school, especially trouble that puts him in contact with another dad who might expect him to be a functional human being.
Dixon is struggling to live as a blind man, Audie is terrified someone might see he has a closet to come out of, and everyone from the school to both men’s families is worried for the men and their children. Unless they get themselves together and commit to change, neither of them stands a chance.
REVIEW:
Ever the Same is a family drama, about two single dads, one closeted and one recently blinded from an accident a couple of years back. When their kids are caught fighting in school it signifies the start of a friendship that slowly develops into something more. But homophobia runs deep, near and far and a relationship between them is filled with a lot of challenges to overcome.
Sadly I can’t in good conscience recommend this book for many reasons. The main one being the sound quality, which was beyond poor. This audiobook definitely needs some extensive editing. Because there were times (so many, many times) it sounded like Morey’s was talking into a tin can, and it had this weird echoing and metallic voice. It could be a sentence here and there or it was long chunks. It always threw me out of the story and unfailingly made me very annoyed. To me this was very surprising as DSP usually produces quality audios.
About the narration itself: I didn’t enjoy Paul Morey’s narration of this book. It might be the editing, and it might not, so I’m leaving that a bit open. He did try to have distinguished voices for the different characters but didn’t always succeed. I also felt like his voice might not have been the ideal for this story – but that might just be me. And while I might not actively avoid him, I won’t go out of my way to pick up more of his narrations in the future.
It’s always a good thing when books evoke feelings with the reader, when you get invested in the characters and the plot. Mostly this book fell short on that part – except for one part. And boy did that evoke emotions – mainly outrage and anger and the such. I absolutely hated how almost everyone treated Dixon. Just because he was blind it doesn’t mean he’s worthless or useless. I was so angry on his behalf when everyone picked on him. They truly told him that he was useless and couldn’t be trusted to be alone without killing himself. This kind of attitude makes me scream and I seriously considered throwing or breaking something on his behalf. The truly sad part? This is the mind set of so many people out there and don’t only exist in fiction.
The ending came out of the blue, just when everything got good and they finally started to stand up for themselves the book flashes forward two years and the happily ever after. I wanted to be there when they took those steps, when they really became a family and not only be there for the beginning of it.
This book disappointed me on several levels. I know that the sound quality coloured my feelings a bit and really sunk it for me, but there were still issues with the plot that I had a hard time getting over. So sadly this was not a book I’d recommend.
RATING: 
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