Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE:  Devilry

SERIES:  King University

AUTHOR:  Marley Valentine

NARRATORS:  Cooper North and Hayden Snow

PUBLISHER:  Tantor Audio

LENGTH:  9 hours and 41 minutes

RELEASE DATE:  May 4, 2021

BLURB:

Attending King University was at the top of my bucket list. Falling in love with my professor wasn’t. 

Earning a full scholarship to King University was my hard-earned ticket out of hell. I’m happy to be away from the small town I grew up in and all the equally small-minded people who live there.

King was going to be my safe haven. A place where I could leave the old me behind and finally grow into the young man my family had desperately tried to hide away.

Diving head first into new experiences, new friends, and parties, I didn’t expect to run straight into the one thing I wasn’t ready for.

His arms are welcoming, his body is addictive and his lips are heaven. Cole Huxley is everything I could fall in love with, except for one problem…I never wanted to fall for my professor.

Contains mature themes.

REVIEW:

Elijah Williams begins his college career at King University.  The full scholarship he’s earned is his ticket out of the backwater Texas town he’s from where he has not had an easy time of it.  He’s the only child gay son of a homophobic minister who has no real relationship with his family at this point.  He’s excited to move on with his life.  His first day at the college though, he goes running and he literally runs into a man.  Of course that man turns out to be Cole Huxley, his professor for his comparative religion course.  And it’s obvious that the chemistry between them is off the charts from their first encounter.

Cole is very impressed by Elijah in his class.  Since he’s a star student, Cole asks him to participate in a research project run by in tandem with the History department.  It would be a HUGE boost to his academic career and while Elijah wants to say yes, he’s worried about this thing between him and Cole.  Cole insists that he can keep things separated – their academic relationship and their potential personal relationship.  They are so compatible on a personal level – although there is a fairly substantial age gap and of course that little issue of Cole being Elijah’s professor.

As much as Elijah tries to keep things platonic between them, Cole is pretty determined to make Elijah his.  Elijah has had a very rough time of it though and has never been out at all and doesn’t make his sexuality a thing given the way his family and town treated him after his was outed.  He’s carrying a lot of baggage from his upbringing along with him.  But he and Cole are like two magnets that can’t seem to stay apart.  And even though they know they are playing with fire, they can’t turn off their feeling and so they just get in deeper and deeper.

On top of all this, Elijah is navigating his way through friendships with his roommate and his roommate’s best friend.  They have a very odd relationship from Eli’s perspective and since he’s not had friends for quite a while, he doesn’t know what to make of it.  And his roommate, Aiden, is a different cat.  He appears jealous of Elijah, but then he’s always on the prowl.  But in the end he has Elijah’s back.

At the end of the semester, there is am unexpected appearance that has the potential to derail everything.  Elijah’s scholarship and work on the history research project and Cole’s job as well as the academic standing of others close the Elijah are all on the line.  It’s clear that something drastic will have to happen in order for Cole and Elijah to make this work.

I liked a lot of this story, and so I’m giving it 4 stars.  All of the characters in this story are believably written, although I had some issues with this professor pursuing a relationship with a young man who is clearly naive and inexperienced and uncomfortable on so many levels.  The power dynamic between these two is way off balance.  I did appreciate that their relationship was not just built on lust and that they had a real meeting of the minds.  i also LOVED Cole’s family while also detesting Elijah’s family.  There are some really great moments with Cole’s mom and sister and her BF who is also Cole’s BFF.  The nice little twist at the end I also hopes mean we will see more of some of these characters.  I never did get a read on Elijah’s room mate, but maybe he’ll show up again sometime 😉

Neither of these narrators was familiar to me.  I loved Cooper North’s voice, but for some reason I had a really hard time with Mr. Snow’s voice.  His pitch is very low and I had trouble understanding him all the time.  I had to turn up the volume and listen really carefully – so not sure if it’s a me thing or a recording issue or what.  But I found his chapters harder to focus on.

Overall, I enjoyed the story once I was able to let go of my misgivings about the student/professor thing.  Recommended especially for those who really enjoy college age/new adult stories and those stories overcoming parental rejection and finding true love.  These guys did have to work for it 😀

RATING: 

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