Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: Outlast the Night 
SERIES: Lang Downs #3
AUTHOR: Ariel Tachna
NARRATOR: William James
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
RELEASE DATE: April 16, 2014
LENGTH: 6 hours, 20 minutes
BLURB:
Office manager Sam Emery is unemployed and out of luck. When his emotionally abusive wife demands a divorce, he contacts the one person he has left, his brother, Neil. He doesn’t expect Neil to reject him, but he also doesn’t expect the news of his divorce—and of his sexuality—to be met with such acceptance.
Neil takes Sam to Lang Downs, the sheep station Neil calls home. There, Sam learns that life as a gay man isn’t impossible. Caine and Macklin, the station owners, certainly seem to be making it work. When Caine offers Sam a job, it’s a dream come true.
Jeremy Taylor leaves the only home he’s ever known when his brother’s homophobia becomes more than he can bear. He goes to the one place he knows he will be accepted: Lang Downs. He clicks with Sam instantly—but the animosity between Lang Downs and Jeremy’s home station runs deep, and the jackaroos won’t accept Jeremy without a fight. Between Sam’s insecurity and Jeremy’s precarious position, their road will be a hard one—and that’s without having to wait for Sam’s divorce to be final before starting a new life together.
REVIEW:
This book starts with a phone call from Neil’s brother Sam, who asks him if he could come and stay with him for a while as he’s getting a divorce and needs to get back on his feet. More than happy to help Sam out, Neil drives to town to pick him up. It’s not long before Sam admits to being unhappy and only marrying his wife because he felt forced to. At the time he couldn’t imagine living like he wanted; as an out and proud gay man. When Sam told Neil this I was so proud of how he handled it. It shows how far he’s come, it made me smile and believe that people could change.
I enjoy Neil’s character. I believe in him. Don’t get me wrong, he’s not a book boyfriend in any way shape or form. But he’s wonderfully human, he’s flawed. When we first met him in Inherit the Sky he was a giant pain, and an even bigger homophobe and not shy to voice this fact. Things changed when Caine saved his life and he’s now their biggest supporter. What I love is that even though he changed, and changed a lot, he didn’t get a personality makeover. He still holds grudges, is still quick to temper and his newfound open mind doesn’t apply to everything. And just mentioning the name Taylor is a sure way to fire him up. Like I said, I believe in his character and he has things yet to learn.
Jeremy Taylor is getting fed up with his brother in so many ways. How he runs the station, the feud with the neighboring station, Land Downs, but more importantly he’s fed up with all the homophobic slurs rants. And when he’s given an ultimatum; get married or get out, Jeremy packs a bag and leaves. He doesn’t go far though; he goes to Lang Downs and asks for shelter for the night or a job as a jackaroo if they’ll have him. He’s not there to cause trouble, he just wants the chance to start over.
Sam and Jeremy are drawn to each other from the beginning. It started with curiosity that morphed into a friendship. Something they both needed. I loved how Jeremy was building Sam up again, encouraging him, and showing him that he was important and made a difference. Throughout we followed how Sam grew, gaining the confidence to stand up to his brother for what he wanted, for Jeremy.
There are very little sexy times in this book. Mainly because when Sam and Jeremy meet and fall for each other Sam is still technically married, and the divorce won’t go through for another six months or so. And deciding to hold off on anything physical as to not give the soon to be ex-wife any ammunition to use in the settlements, they spend the time to really get to know each other. Building a strong foundation for the future.
So while an Aussi narrator would probably be preferable for this book William James does have a nice Aussie accent. This coming from a non-native English speaker, so I can’t tell you if it will sound authentic to natives. There is no doubt that he is a very talented narrator has a range of voices for the characters, adds in feelings and passion to his work. My only niggle, and this is a small one is his pronunciation of some words that were completely off – even to me. They weren’t many, but at times very noticeable and this distracted me from the story a bit. All in all though, I really enjoyed his narration of this book as well and am looking forward to listening to the next one.
RATING: 
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