Reviewed by Annika

 

TITLE: The Truth Within

SERIES: Pelican Bay #3

AUTHOR: Sloane Kennedy

NARRATOR: Michael Pauley

PUBLISHER: Self-Published

RELEASE DATE: December 19, 2018

LENGTH: 10 hours, 1 minute

BLURB:

I’m not a fighter. I never was. So how do I make the one man who might just be worth fighting for see that?

At 25 years old, Ford Cornell should have his whole life ahead of him but instead, the would-be artist is drowning in denial and just trying to get through each day. And the boy who once believed life was about following impossible dreams has finally come to accept that it’s really only about surviving a living nightmare…one of his own making.

But the bruises are becoming harder to hide.

So is the truth…

I refuse to fall for a guy who won’t accept the truth about who he is or what he wants. Not again…

They say bad things happen in threes.

For Sherriff Camden Wells, it’s more like fours…or fives…or dozens.

After an ugly lie destroys his career and the man he’d planned to spend the rest of his life with cuts him to the core with the ultimate betrayal, 40-year-old Cam is counting on his new job as sheriff of the quiet town of Pelican Bay to be the fresh start he needs. What he isn’t counting on is meeting a young man who makes him want to break all his own rules.

He wants me to accept something that will cause me to lose everything. I may not have much but it’s something and something is better than nothing…right?

Ford’s gotten used to his role as his older brother’s punching bag and being his mother’s never-ending disappointment. They may not be the Cleavers but family is family and Ford’s seen up close and personal what happens when you don’t have anyone in your corner…or when you go against family.

And there’s just no way he’s strong enough to survive that…

Nothing about us should make sense but maybe that’s why it does…

Two men… one living a lie and one knocking down the walls of the closet he was forced to live in for so long. When one white-hot encounter leads to another and then another, Ford and Cam are forced to accept that their need for each other isn’t going away anytime soon. But being together means one will need to go against everything he believes in.

So which man will bend and which will break? And what will the truth ultimately reveal?

 

REVIEW:

I’m a huge fan of the Pelican Bay series and can’t listen to the books fast enough.

I love stories with flawed or scarred character. Few things annoy me more than picture perfect people shallower than a puddle on a sunny day. In The Truth Within we have two wonderfully genuine characters to fall for – or well, there are plenty more but let’s focus on our two main characters. Sherriff Camden, Cam, Wells has been badly burned by his ex in the past. To the point he needed to re-locate to Pelican Bay and a new job. So to say that he’s less than thrilled when his new interest shares similarities with his old one – deeply closeted – is putting it mildly. Yet there is something that draws him to Ford and he can’t seem to be able to let the man go.

Ford Cornell… well, he’s had it rough, is still having it rough to be honest. Constantly being used as a punching bag and personal atm by his older brother. A deeply religious family that controls every aspect of his life. And I haven’t even gotten around to the homophobia. He’s so deeply closeted that he’s having trouble admitting he’s gay even to himself, being desperately afraid of his family’s reactions were they to ever find out. This time, they might just skip the conversion therapy and just kill him outright.

Cam and Ford are in vastly different places in life – at least in terms of their sexuality. While one is out, not shouting it from the roof tops mind you, but not hiding it either; the other is hiding himself every step he can, trying to make himself invisible. Yet they were still drawn to each other. And for some reason they make sense together, they each are what the other needs.

There are some back and forth between Cam and Ford, but what there is of it is fitting with the characters and story, to me it never feels like too much or when you get that “just get over it already” feeling. You feel the struggles they both go through, you feel for them and with them. Because ultimately, one of them needs to go against everything if they want to be together.

I can’t think of a single thing that I would change with the narration. Michael Pauley was as usual fantastic. He captured the moments, the feelings and the characters just right. He made the book come alive and brought you to Pelican Bay for those hours that you spent listening.

The Truth Within was another great instalment in this series, and I just want to know more, there are at least a few more characters that I want to see finding their happily ever after. So I’m hoping the wait won’t be too long.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

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