Reviewed by Stephen K.
TITLE: Skyler Phoenix
SERIES: Love Grows in Honest Places #1
AUTHOR: Damien Benoit-Ledoux
NARRATOR: Ben Palacios
PUBLISHER: Purple Spektre LLP
LENGTH: 14 Hours 30 Minutes
RELEASE DATE: August 31st 2021
BLURB:
Skyler finally had it all…
…but for the third time, the state had taken everything away from him.
It wasn’t his fault, though, or was it?
If only he hadn’t been so stupid…
If only he hadn’t been so careless…
If only he hadn’t fallen in love with his best friend, Cameron.
Now, sitting in the social worker’s SUV, he stared at his new house and the strangers standing on the front steps. His life had been an uphill climb, and now he had to start over.
Again.
One day, he might call them family, but he had finally learned his lesson.
This time, Skyler wouldn’t be stupid.
This time, Skyler wouldn’t be careless.
And no matter what, he definitely, absolutely, wouldn’t fall in love with another cute boy.
REVIEW:
Lately I’ve been reading a wide variety of things at once, so I’d forgotten what was said in the book blurb when I started listening to this. I was a bit surprised at the way this developed. From the moment we meet the Tinsdales, Skyler’s second foster family, it felt a bit like boarding the Titanic. It seems very posh, but there are clues that this is going to end with him on the outside in the cold. Skyler’s and Cam’s sweet stumblings into a relationship were heartwarming, but I felt a continual sense of dread at what might happen if the boys were outed.
When that does happen, the novel quickly devolves into the struggle between the ultra-religious foster-mother Rachel Tinsdale and freshly outed Skylar. After dismissing the laughable attempts of the church’s “prayer warriors” to convert him, Skyler is sent packing again. Finally, the tale switches to a hopeful one of recovery and growth. In his third placement Skyler is incredibly lucky.
His new family, the Kellys, are completely accepting. His new foster bother CK is overjoyed to finally have a sibling, and is incredibly supportive. Perhaps, it’s a bit unbelievable just how supportive almost everyone in his new New York home is. …Not to mention how gorgeous all the guys are. Skyler feels like it’s “to good to be true” and is initially untrusting in his new environment. Given his history, that’s completely understandable. Worrying about remaining closeted as long as he does, almost ruins some of his best possibilities, but once he truly realizes that he’s safe, he really starts to blossom.
Skyler’s first “real date” is about as romantic as any I’ve ever read. And his confrontation with the lone bully in his new environment is satisfying as well. Some critics have even panned this as being unrealistically positive. I’d like to believe that it does, in fact, get better and what we see here is just modeling some of that attitude.
Ben Palacios does a workman-like job as the narrator in what appears to be his first performance. This story is told in third person from the POV of Skyler. If we infer that the voices we hear are Skyler’s renditions of the those voices, parts of this work better. As read, Ben Palacios’s voice no way sounds like a 7 year old girl’s, or her sanctimonious 30-something mother. But they’re not that far from what they’d sound like as imitated by Skyler.
Overall, the narration works but it’s not without flaws. Tracy, a particularly irrepressible character, calls for a voice actor to dial up the characterization to 10. Problem is here it’s been dialed up to 15. It still works to a degree, and can be discounted for the most part. Some other characters are voiced pretty boisterously as well, but generally it makes the tale just that much more appealing.
A little overenthusiastic dialogue can really spice up a story. Unfortunately the Audible sample audio-clip uses an excerpt with Tracy at her most irrepressible. It nearly put me off selecting this book. 14 hours of dialogue at that level would NOT have been enjoyable at all. Cinnamon is a great spice, but one will never know that, if one first samples cinnamon by swallowing a tablespoon full of it.
There are some times in the narration where it’s tough to tell what Skyler’s thinking versus what he’s saying aloud. There are also a few minor moments when the voice characterizations become inconsistent, or vary from what’s described in the text. Also the voice of Liara didn’t feel quiet natural to my ear. I felt that both Liara and Tracy would have sounded better as voiced in my head if I’d been reading the text than as I was hearing them. Conversely CK and Kalen both had moments in the audio-book that were better than what I would have imagined. For those that tend to be particularly demanding listeners, this might actually work better as text than as an audio-book.
Either way, if you like YA fiction, and are ready for really romantic tale; one that pulls no punches when depicting evangelical Christianity, and the damage than can be done by over zealousness, this might be the book for you. It’s a bit preachy in spots but then so’s the opposition.
Content warning: Some scenes of domestic abuse (to the point of summoning ambulances) are depicted in this tale.
RATING: 
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