Reviewed by Stephen K.
TITLE: Born Again Sinner
SERIES: Spruce Texas #2
AUTHOR: Daryl Banner
NARRATOR: Chris Chambers and Sean Crisden
PUBLISHER: Tantor Audio
LENGTH: 10 hours and 2 minutes
RELEASE DATE: December 2018
BLURB:
“Cody Davis is gonna make a sinner out of me.”
Yes, I know exactly who he is. The wounded soldier at the end of Willow Street. Intimidating. Devastatingly handsome. Muscular body chiseled from stone. Deep dark eyes that dare you to come near. Attitude for days. And I just became his caregiver.
Everyone warned me to stay away from him – including my father, the respected minister of our small town of Spruce. But clearly, I’m too stubborn to heed good advice, especially when Cody Davis is as frustratingly attractive – and persistent – as they come.
As the preacher’s son, I have strict morals I must live by. But each day spent with that aggravating hunk makes me question them. My safe and fragile world is turning upside down, and I’m not sure I have the strength to stop it.
And even worse: I’m not sure I want to. Temptation this bad never looked so good. This soldier is gonna make a sinner out of me.
Contains mature themes.
REVIEW:
Daryl Banner really knows small town life, particularly that of a small Texas town. There are some personalities that folks will recognize from episodes of Friday Night Lights. He’s also got a particularly masculine POV when it comes to describing sex scenes.
In this tale Trey Arnold, the preacher’s kid, is openly gay (albeit theoretically) while living under his father’s eye. He’s also a nursing student, and comes to the aid of Cody Davis. Cody is a veteran, who’s returned to their small-town of Spruce Texas, and has a reputation as the town bad boy. Cody is embittered by his injuries, and is having trouble doing his rehab and resuming a normal life.
As can only be expected, the two become involved. Trey has trouble reconciling his more carnal urges with the virginal life he’s previously been living. Trey also has trouble learning to act independently as an adult. His reverend father, while preaching acceptance and Christian charity, myopically fails to fully practice those virtues toward his son. Both Trey and Cody are good men at heart. It’s a pleasure to spend time with them in this tale. It’s even better to see how both men are good for each other.
This is the second book in the Spruce Texas series. The narrators are once again Chris Chambers and Sean Crisden. In some ways the two main characters here are quite similar to the two main characters in book one. The guys once again do a good job with voicing their respective main characters, and the assorted secondary characters. It’s really nice to see the two main characters from book one have cameos here. Having the same narrators added no confusion in that regard.
Sean Crisden once again channels Christian Slater a bit in his “inner monologues” and does tend to mumble a bit when his character, Cody, questions himself. But I can clearly understand it all. At this point its more than a bit endearing. Chris Chambers voices Trey with the same skill that showed when voicing Billy in book one. While it works perfectly well, I did find myself wondering at times if a bit more variety might not have been in order. In the end I decided that that was actually something of the fault of the author. The characters voiced by Chris are perhaps a bit too similar in their viewpoints.
I’m not sure whether it’s my perspective (or maybe just all the fancy desserts) but I actually enjoyed the first book better. This one doesn’t quite give me that “Let’s read it again now” feeling that my five star reads generally do. However this one laid the groundwork pretty well for another book, and (based on the blurb for book 3), I’ll soon be enjoying that one as well.
RATING: 
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