Reviewed by Stephen K.
SERIES: (The Midwest Series #1)
AUTHOR: Brigham Vaughn
NARRATOR: James Edward Jones
PUBLISHER: Two Peninsula Press
LENGTH: 7 hours and 15 mins
RELEASE DATE: June 30th 2020
BLURB:
Nathan Rhodes has put hockey first for most of his life, but as graduation looms, he has a different goal in mind. He needs to come out and reclaim his first love. If only Caleb will believe him…
Theater geek Caleb Stockwell gave up on love when his boyfriend chose the closet over being with an openly bisexual guy. Now, he hides his heartbreak behind a string of casual hookups. He loves the drama on stage, but he’s done with the drama of Nathan Rhodes. For good.
Nathan is determined to right the wrongs of four years ago, but the clock is ticking.
One month until he and Caleb go their separate ways. One month to take a final shot at winning Caleb’s heart back.
Win or lose, everything is on the line.
REVIEW:
Bully – A method used to start or restart play in informal hockey, played without a referee. The puck is placed between two opposing players. The players tap the flat sides of their sticks three times and then go for the puck.
Exit – A stage direction that’s pretty self explanatory. The most famous exemplar is in Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale (Exit – pursued by bear) – Though in our case, our “exit” is pursued by a Bronco.
As a Michigan emigre and a hockey fan, This author’s blurb sold me immediately. And, in most aspects, it delivered. I loved how Michigan trivia was included. I liked the “Sleeping Bear Mocha” and the continual references to “pop” rather than soda, but I was a bit disappointed that their special “pop” wasn’t Vernors Ginger Ale, particularly in that that stuff is still bottled in Holland, Michigan, not far from Kalamazoo, this book’s main locale. It’s one of those flavors that only true Michiganders get nostalgic about.
Unfortunately, this is a seriously flawed book. The core plot-line revolves around how two guys who fall madly in love in high school but haven’t even talked since some huge betrayal four years ago at their senior prom. College senior and hockey star Nathan Rhodes did something four year ago to theater geek Caleb Stockwell when they were in high-school. He’s truly sorry for it and wants to make amends. But the hurt and betrayal runs so deep that Caleb won’t give him the opportunity to apologize.
When I first read the first part of this, I couldn’t imagine any betrayal a closeted high-school jock-boy could commit that would emotionally scar then both so badly that they both still feel it so deeply four years later. Particularly when both have attend the same smallish university for four years.
Finally, eighteen chapters or so into this twenty four chapter book we’re allowed to learn what that betrayal was. And the way that it’s written, it does seem unforgivable. Problem is… at that point the betrayal just doesn’t seem believable to me. It’s totally out of character for Nathan we’ve seen both past & present up to this point. And though we’re told more later, the prom night behavior never felt fully motivated or justified. Although it’s clearly NOT the part of the story that the author wanted to focus on, more was needed. We needed to see more foreshadowing surrounding Nathan’s prom-night behavior before seeing that behavior if Nathan was to continue as a sympathetic character. Small plot anomalies are forgivable but this one is a major problem.
Aside from the glaring anomaly, I really liked both of the protagonists, I loved their friends, and I liked spending time with these folks. I loved seeing their initial courtship and seeing the popular jock trying to woo the nerd. And, until the “great reveal,” I was really enjoying this story. But for me the poorly considered, unbelievable betrayal is just this big sucking wound of a plot hole. Several other reviewers seem to have had similar feelings and gave this book abysmal ratings or even slated it as DNF (Did not finish)
I tried to dismiss what I construed to be a literary misjudgment, and just got on with the rest of the novel and I even enjoyed that. Their eventual reconciliation and the forgiveness scene are really well written. And the agreement that comes out of that seems realistic and hopeful. Personally I can’t understand some of the things people do, but I do generally forgive people and judge them by what I expect there future behavior will be. I do wonder how many people who panned this based on young Nathan’s prom night behavior would dismiss real people from their own lives as easily as they claim.
To put it in the Michigan vernacular of my childhood, this book is like a Classic Chris Craft Boat… with a softball sized hole in its bottom. If someone can patch the hole (or find some other way around the flaw) this is one of the best there is. Even with the hole, some folks will find a way to patch up the flaw, and find value here. Only those unable to accept flaws will dismiss it as worthless.
There’s also a tiny bit of disappointment toward the end of the book. There’s a brilliant set-up for book 2 but once again it’s somewhat spoiled by its poor presentation. Nathan once again acts in a way that seems uncharacteristic.
I fully recognize that every author has the right to tell their stories they wish to, but I do wish that these “writerly gaffs” could have been avoided or edited out. Without these flaws this could easily have been a five. I would suggest that this author would do well to find an additional “beta-reader” who’d be less supportive and more constructively critical than whoever is currently doing the job.
I do also need to mention the audio presentation by narrator James Edward Jones. Mr. Jones does a great job with the basic narration and pacing. The “voice acting” for the dialogue sections was mostly understated. This is set in the mid-west so there are no accents here to speak of. But what acting there was was sufficient to help differentiate and further define the characters. There are some sex scenes toward the end that get pretty graphic and Jones handles them without them sounding “porno-cheesy” as so often happens. I look forward to hearing more of his work in future.
RATING: 
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