Reviewed by Stephen K.
TITLE: I Can See For Miles
AUTHOR: Lisa Worrall
NARRATOR: Chris Patton
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press LLC
LENGTH: 5 hours and 58 minutes
RELEASE DATE: September 5, 2014
BLURB:
After a kayaking accident took Josh Donald’s sight, he’s faced with learning to negotiate the world as a blind man. In short order, his boyfriend leaves him behind, making it clear he’s not inclined to deal with special needs. Reeling from the blow, Josh flounders. In an attempt to help, Josh’s friends take him to a camp for the blind, where he falls for the camp organizer, Charlie Cooper.
Charlie seems to feel the attraction too, but when a horse named Dottie pushes them into a hot first kiss, Charlie resists. He believes he’s damaged goods, not boyfriend material. Since the accident, Josh has faced tough obstacles, but the most challenging hurdle of all may be getting Charlie to open up and take a chance on love.
REVIEW:
This has been on my must read list ever since it was recommended by one of my GoodReads friends and panned by another in the same week. One of my childhood favorites was Follow My Leader about a young guy who became blind through a firecracker incident. With the help of his “seeing eye dog” he eventually learned that in some ways he could do almost everything sighted people could do.
Part of me was hoping for a more grown up “boy on boy” version of that tale. This does have many of the elements, the great outdoors,and lots of guys at camp but no dogs.
There are some serious flaws here as well. The author did NOT do her homework about blindness. In this present day tale she has one main character becoming blind from recurring cataracts. From what I understand, that never happens. Also there’s a youngster who became blind from Trachoma, a disease that hasn’t been present in developed countries for decades. There’s also the problem that trained councilors are continually guiding blind people in this story in a non-optimal way. Perhaps it bothers me more than it should when authors don’t research something that’s significant to the main plot-line. I belong to the GoodReads M/M Romance group and there’s a group of members there that specifically volunteer their expertise in any number of subjects (including ophthalmology) in order to help authors with any technical questions they may have.
That said, this is a work of fiction, so if one can accept the ideas of interplanetary exploration and shifters, one should be able to dismiss some scientific inaccuracy as well. I decided that rather than letting this ruin the tale for me, I posited “Worrell’s Syndrome.” It’s an early 21st century condition whereby ridiculously hot men have recurring visual problems that were originally mistaken for recurring cataracts. Given that assumption, this is a touching tale of two young men who’ve both been hurt and let down by others after becoming blind. Their learning to trust someone else after that kind of betrayal is actually pretty idyllic here. Josh has amazing support from his gay friends and Charlie has amazing support from friends and family. It’s only the one nearest and dearest to each that let them down.
Also, the book’s main conflict, Charlie’s repudiation of Josh after a life threatening accident, felt trite. It’s a bit of an over-used trope. I suppose it can be forgiven somewhat when counterbalanced by the awesome friends that the author has created for Josh. There’s also Charlie’s terrific friends and family. Given that support, things are never all that bleak. I do wish that more of the friend’s backstory had been presented, and less time spent of the parts that didn’t work for me. But, I’m guessing others will find those parts, to be the parts they enjoyed the most. There is one issue that comes up in the epilogue that would easily have made for more interesting story fodder in my opinion.
But, this is a romance after all, and we do get the happy ending we need.
Chris Patton does the narration and his pacing is good. Chris delivers the text in a pretty straight-forward manner with only the vaguest suggestions of voice acting. It works pretty well but there are some confusing parts in the “dialogue heavy” sections when several of the guys are speaking to each other. For the vast majority of the book though, that’s not an issue.
Overall, this was an enjoyable experience but probably lacks the depth to make it into my frequent re-listen queue.
RATING: 
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