Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: Brave for You
SERIES: Oahu Lovers #1
AUTHOR: Crystal Lacy
NARRATOR: Iggy Toma
PUBLISHER: Tantor
RELEASE DATE: December 12, 2018
LENGTH: 9 hours, 4 minutes
BLURB:
Less than a year after moving to Hawaii, construction foreman Nate Ellison’s wife leaves him and their infant son for another man. Months into single-fatherhood, Nate meets Andrew “An” Hoang and is slowly drawn into An’s life. Through An’s friendship, he finds himself finally enjoying his new home in paradise.
An Hoang hasn’t had a real relationship in years. With his pediatrics practice and a niece to care for on his days off, he doesn’t have the headspace for more than a simple roll in the sack. But when he meets Nate—who just happens to be the gorgeous construction worker he encountered in the lobby of his apartment building—something about Nate makes it impossible for him not to care. When Nate needs An’s help with his son, An doesn’t refuse.
What happens when Nate’s past and An’s old-fashioned parents interfere just as the two men begin to fall for each other? Will they find the means to be brave and give their love a chance to flourish?
REVIEW:
Nate Ellison’s life changed overnight when his wife left him and their infant son. Struggling to juggle it all as a single father he has little time to even think – let alone relax. When he meets his neighbour Andrew, An, a paediatrician not without his own struggles. The two forms a friendship that helps them both and from that develops something deeper, something new.
There were parts that I really enjoyed and parts that didn’t quite work for me. I love a good slow-burn romance, friends to lovers and braving the world coming out. We got all of that and more with this book. It felt like Nate and An had the time to really get to know each other and form a foundation before the physical part of their relationship took over. There was some back and forth on Nate’s part, but not to the point where it was annoying, it made it credible as a relationship with a man was something new for him. It made me believe in him and in them.
Something that just didn’t work for me was the food. There was entirely too much of it in this book, descriptions of foods; the looks and the taste of every single bite. Then there were the discussions of menus and dishes and what worked together and so forth. It’s every meal and it’s extremely detailed. It was just too much – especially since neither of them were chefs or worked in the food industry.
Then there was the whole Olivia (the runaway wife) business. He has no idea where she is or if she’s coming back. He’s also clearly worries about her lying dead in a ditch somewhere, that something is not right and might have happened to her. So if he’s so worried about her being hurt or dead, why doesn’t he try to find her or report her missing? I mean he did love her at one point in his life – and not that long ago. So ignoring that mess just didn’t sit right with me.
Sometimes it felt like drama was added for the sake of it. It felt unnecessary and is not something I particularly enjoy. As was the big misunderstanding and miss/non communication. Not a fan, but it was also something that I could live with.
I am a fan of Iggy Toma’s narrations. He brings the story to life with distinguished voices for the characters and adding feelings to the words. There were also a lot of foreign words that Toma handled really well, to my untrained ears they sounded authentic. He nailed the pacing of the story, it all flowed along nicely.
Okay for the moment but not a story that I’ll listen to again or one that will stay with me. I’m probably going to pick up the second book as there were god elements to this one. Who knows, I might like the next one better.
RATING: 
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