Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: What You Own 
AUTHOR: A.M. Arthur
NARRATOR: Michael Pauley
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
RELEASE DATE: December 1, 2014
LENGTH: 5 hours, 38 minutes
BLURB:
For Ryan Sanders, the Paige Community Center is more than a place where he teaches at-risk teens about musical theater. He found a sense of belonging there during one of the hardest times of his life. With the center facing a financial crisis, he’ll do whatever it takes to keep the doors open—even soliciting fundraiser donations from Langley-Quartermaine Financial.
Adam Langley has a plan: survive an internship at his father’s company, finish college, get his trust fund, and find his former high school best friend Ryan and beg his forgiveness. In that order, because if Ryan does forgive him, Adam believes he’ll finally find the courage to come out to his wealthy, bigoted father.
Adam’s carefully considered plan is shattered when Ryan appears at the office a full ten months before Adam is ready, and Ryan is just as stunned. Against his better judgment, Adam gets involved with the fundraiser—and Ryan. Old feelings won’t be denied, and as Ryan and Adam reconnect, they realize neither knows the entire truth about the horrific night three years earlier that tore their friendship apart.
REVIEW:
A friends to lovers and a second chance story makes me a very happy girl.
From the first moment they met Ryan Sanders and Adam Langley were best friends. They were thick as thieves and hung out as much as they could. Until the day when it became public knowledge that Ryan was gay and Adam’s father forbade all contact between the boys. For a while they listened and obeyed, but one night that all changed with a first kiss. Unfortunately the kiss wasn’t as private as they hoped and resulted in a bashing that changed both their lives. Their new and budding relationship was shattered and for three years they were never in the same room again.
Until the day when Ryan and his best friend Ellie is on a mission to secure founding for the Paige Community Center. A mission that lands them face to face with Adam. Old secrets and feelings surfaces and it doesn’t take long for Ryan and Adam to get involved again.
I liked how the characters felt so genuine, both in terms of their strengths and flaws. I also felt like their behaviour matched their age (early twenties). I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read books where young characters feel like they are in their mid-forties, or when older characters comes across like immature teenagers. These characters were portrayed beautifully. Their feelings came across so clearly that it felt like you were right there beside them. Sure, at times I felt like it was a little on the dramatic side but then again that still fit with the story and the characters.
I like Michael Pauley as a narrator – I love his voice, it gives me this warm and cosy feeling that makes me wish I could just cuddle on the couch and listen. Well, not really, because I’m far too restless to just sit and listen, but I wish I could. Anyway, I love his voice and pacing of his narration. It is easy to follow along with the different voices he has for the characters.. That being said, there were times where this book was very confusing to listen to. It jumped between two timelines; the back in high school where the boys met, the friendship, falling in love, the bashing, then there is the main timeline – the now. That in itself isn’t a problem, but when you listen to the audio you need some que that the time line changed; “Three years ago” etc. We never got that so when these jumps in time happened the story rarely made sense for a while. In the written book I’m guessing the past might be written in italics, just to highlight the change, a visual change that the listener never gets.
All in all it was a sweet NA story that I think works better in written form. That being said, I still enjoyed the time I spent listening to this story.
RATING: 
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