Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: Patchwork Paradise
AUTHOR: Indra Vaughn
NARRATOR: Craig Beck
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
LENGTH: 6 hours, 42 minutes
RELEASE DATE: July 14, 2016
BLURB:
Oliver and Samuel’s relationship is fairy-tale perfect. They share a gorgeous house in Antwerp, go out with their friends every weekend, and count down the days to their dream wedding. But their happy ending is shattered one late night, and just like that, Ollie is left bereft and alone.
The months that follow are long and dark, but slowly Ollie emerges from his grief. He even braves the waters of online dating, though deep down he doesn’t believe he can find that connection again. He doesn’t think to look for love right in front of him: his bisexual friend Thomas, the gentle giant with a kind heart and sad eyes who’s wanted him all along.
When Thomas suddenly discovers he has a son who needs him, he’s ill prepared. Ollie opens up his house – Sam’s house – and lets them in. Ollie doesn’t know what scares him more: the responsibility of caring for a baby, or the way Thomas is steadily winning his heart. It will take all the courage he has to discover whether or not fairy tales can happen for real.
REVIEW:
Patchwork Paradise is in a word heartbreaking and it is a good idea to have tissues nearby – you will need them. But it’s also beautiful. All the characters and the events in this book are all incredibly real, at times horribly and hauntingly so. And I think that’s one of the reasons why this story is so moving. It grips you, it’s relatable and it shows you that life never turn out the way you planned.
We go through it all with Oliver, the feeling of living his happily ever after with his first love. The devastating loss when it was abruptly and brutally yanked away. How he slowly starts to live again and going through the difficult firsts, first kiss, first Christmas, falling for someone new. I liked the fact that Ollie and Thomas’ romance was a slow burn one, and I mean really slow burn. But I also think it needed to be. There was history and friendship to consider. It wasn’t easy between them and the “rules” kept changing on them, but again that’s life. It never waits for you to figures stuff out it throws you for a loop and turn things upside down just because.
Craig Beck is a wonderful narrator and he really captured this book, captured Oliver. He made you cry and laugh and cry again. This book is narrated solely from Oliver’s POV, and Beck really fits him, really understands him. He makes you feel the joy of being in love, the loss of having it taken away in the most horrific of ways, and the struggle of finding your way back. There was so much emotion in his narration, so much passion, he made you feel everything and it was often painful. But there were also times that were funny and heartwarming. The cooing voices whenever Ollie talked to Milo, or the sarcastic lines about blue balls whenever Ollie and Thomas were interrupted by Milo’s cries. Then there was the first diaper change – it was priceless. To sum it all up, Craig Beck was perfect for this book and made it a wonderful listening experience.
RATING: 
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