Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE: After Felix

SERIES: Close Proximity Book 3

AUTHOR: Lily Morton

NARRATOR:  Joel Leslie

PUBLISHER: Self-published

LENGTH:  8 hours and 27 minutes

RELEASE DATE: March 24, 2022

BLURB: 

Sometimes the best love stories come in two parts.

When Felix met handsome journalist Max Travers, it was lust at first sight. It was just his luck that he then had to develop a terrible case of feelings and got his heart broken.

However, two and a half years later, he’s over all of that. His job is going well, he has good friends, and he doesn’t lack for male company. Which, of course, is when Max has to come bursting back into his life.

Felix Jackson will always be the one who got away to Max. He’s spent their time apart regretting his actions and hoping for a second chance. When an accident lands him in Felix’s less than tender care, Max is determined to grab this opportunity. The only problem is that Felix is equally determined that he doesn’t.

From bestselling author Lily Morton comes a story of missed opportunities, second chances, and two very stubborn men.

This is the third book in the Close Proximity series, but it can be listened to as a standalone.

REVIEW: 

If I could give the After Felix audiobook more than five hearts, I surely would. It deserves every one of them and more. The third and final book in Lily Morton’s stellar Close Proximity series, After Felix is a beautifully written, well-crafted story, rich in detail and complexity. It’s vividly brought to life by Ms. Morton’s go-to narrator, the inimitable Joel Leslie.  Ms. Morton’s prose is crisp, evocative, and full of snark. Mr. Leslie’s narration is emotionally impactful, intuitive and immersive. Together, they create a wholly consuming story of love and loss, trust and forgiveness, all centered around Ms. Morton’s dynamic, fascinating characters, Felix and Max.  

As the blurb indicates, After Felix is a love story that comes in two parts. Literally. The unusual structure of this book has it divided into two sections: “Before” and “After”.  There’s a culminating event that causes a significant rift between Felix and Max at the end of the first part. Then we jump ahead in time two and a half years to see their second chance romance unfold, and we anxiously look forward to finding out what they do with it.  

While you can read After Felix as a standalone, I recommend you read the whole series in order starting with Best Man which features Zeb, the owner of the employment agency where Felix works as his assistant. Zeb is also Max’s step-brother. You’ll get glimpses of Felix and Max through Best Man especially since it partially runs contemporaneously with the storyline of After Felix. The snippets show Max and Felix in that middle place between “Before” and “After” … and it’s not pretty. Whatever caused their break-up has left them both in a very bad place, one that takes those two and a half years to bridge.  

As such, After Felix contains an undercurrent of melancholy, of persistent poignancy, throughout the book. There’s a decent level of angst in this story and the “Before” part of the book literally makes your heart hurt. It’s like watching an accident in slow motion. We know they’re going to crash and burn and there’s nothing we can do about it.  I felt like I was holding my breath waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

Things lighten and outlooks brighten in the “After” section. But even then, there’s a sad recognition of missed opportunities and time wasted. It’s tempered by some remarkable character growth, though, and acknowledgment that everything will work out fine. We are reassured there will be a HEA that Felix and Max can bask in, and we can rejoice in their happiness.

After Felix is a second chance love story, but it’s also an exposition on trust: How do you trust someone new when all you’ve had in the past is hurt and disappointment? How do you trust that you can settle down and live again after years of traumatic experiences? How do you trust yourself to recognize the difference between loyalty and love and not squander the latter for a misplaced view of the former?  How do you trust that you deserve a second chance with someone you love? How do you trust that the two of you will get it right the second time around?

Ms. Morton weaves a remarkable, memorable story here using her superb writing skills. One example of this is the enormous attention to detail she gives to the timeline.  She provides descriptions that might be considered minutia, but impressively line up perfectly with events in the other books. For example, in Best Man, there’s a scene where Max comes into Zeb’s agency looking disheveled and with a full messy beard. It’s during that “middle space” when Felix and Max are broken up and their interaction is nasty.  There’s a complementary scene in After Felix during that same time frame where Max is described in the same way – bearded and wild. Just perfect, detailed alignment of seemingly inconsequential facts and events that weave together in an unobtrusive way to create this highly textured, interwoven story.  

Joel Leslie is superb in his invested vocal performance of Max and Felix. He captures the essence of each character in the voices he uses – deep, growly, rumbling timbre for Max and a lighter, sharper tone for Felix. In both, we hear pain and vulnerability through Mr. Leslie’s inflections and intonations, the rise and fall cadence of his phrasing, and even the tremulous warble he infuses into particularly emotional scenes.  

As an oft collaborator with Ms. Morton, you really can’t ask for better narration. Mr. Leslie takes Ms. Morton’s rich, complex characters and gives them an indelible quality that lives long in our minds and hearts.

The After Felix audiobook is a remarkable listening experience. Truly auditory bliss. This title is one of Ms. Morton’s best and Mr. Leslie rises to the challenge and is wholly successful in creating an all-encompassing story. Eight and a half hours feels like no time at all. 

Give After Felix a listen. And then put it on replay and listen again. The bar is set pretty high here, but, like Felix and Max’s romance, the second time around may be better than the first.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Audible  

Amazon