Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: Rebound
SERIES: Pucks & Rainbows #1
AUTHOR: L.A. Witt
NARRATOR: Michael Ferraiuolo & Nick J. Russo
PUBLISHER: Tantor Audio
RELEASE DATE: August 20, 2019
LENGTH: 9 hours, 47 minutes
BLURB:
A 40-something single dad, a 20-something hockey star, and a whole lot of baggage. No, this couldn’t possibly blow up in their faces.
Officer Geoff Logan has his plate full. His cop’s salary and Marine retirement aren’t enough to make ends meet. He’s got war wounds and demons that are in it for the long haul. His teenagers are, well, teenagers, plus they’re pissed that he left the boyfriend they loved. Can’t a guy catch a break?
Seattle Steelheads center Asher Crowe has it all. A seven-figure salary. A literal house on a hill. A stable, loving relationship with an amazing boyfriend. At least, that’s what the world sees. Behind closed doors, he’s been living in a private hell, and when he finally works up the courage to end things, his boyfriend refuses to go quietly.
One call to the cops, and suddenly Geoff and Asher’s paths cross. But is the connection between them simple chemistry? Kindred spirits? Or just a pair of lonely hearts looking for a hot distraction?
And even if it’s more than physical, is there really a future for two men from such vastly different worlds? Especially when the past comes knocking?
REVIEW:
Can two wrongs make a right?
Well, no. But in this case two epically wrong relationships and a public break-up is the starting point for Ash and Geoff and their road to something better.
Geoff and his partner are called out on a disturbance at a restaurant where a couple braking up have turned violent. It’s not long until they realise that one; one of them is the famous hockey player Asher Crowe, and two; said player was trying to leave an abusive relationship. Knowing from experience how an abusive relationship breaks you down, Geoff goes out of his way to make Ash feel safe and support him where he can. It’s not long before they both realise they have more in common than they thought. What might have started as a simple check-up quickly grew into a supportive friendship, and later something more.
Their relationship might have developed fast – at least going by how gun shy they both were after having left their long-term abusive partners and how recent the splits were. However, it never felt that way. It grew slowly and organically and they both were what the other needed, were there for each other. It wasn’t always perfect, but they worked. They had a genuine understanding of each other, and how their past relationships messed them both up. They felt genuine and so did their relationship.
Rebound was narrated by Nick J. Russo and Michael Ferraiuolo. Both are widely talented narrators that I’ve listened to and loved in the past. Ferraiuolo’s narration was the one I preferred the most – I love his voice for one and he really made the characters come alive. There was one line, delivered by Geoff’s ex-wife that particularly hit the mark for me. It was just so spot on and perfect in every way, the timing, the feel of it; it had me snorting – and I very rarely have any kind of verbal reaction while listening, smiling and tearing up sure – sounds no. Those are few and far between.
The narration on Nick J. Russo’s part had some issues. There were a lot of awkward and long pauses between sentences. They became especially noticeable when there was a dialogue. There was no natural flow of the sentences and the conversations felt stilted and off. It almost felt like he had to stop and think about the voice and tone to use for that particular character. To find the emotion of the moment. This is new to me with Russo’s narration, I’ve never experienced this hesitation from him before and can only hope he had an off week (or however long it takes to record a book) when he recorded Rebound.
With dual narrations I find that more and more there are differences in volume and sound quality when narrators switch off. Maybe there have always been differences and I just haven’t noticed or paid enough attention to it in the past, but for whatever reason it seems to be a more common phenomenon recently. I can’t imagine that it’s easy to get the different narrations to match, but some things are more noticeable than others. There weren’t any huge differences in volume or sound quality in Rebound, but it was definitely there and it was noticeable.
But as a whole I enjoyed listening to this book, and watching these men falling in love, daring to love, and I will definitely look for more titles in this series in the future.
RATING: 
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