Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE:  His Compass

SERIES:  His, Book 2

AUTHOR:  Con Riley

NARRATOR:  Cornell Collins

PUBLISHER:  Tantor Audio

LENGTH:  9 hours and 9 minutes

RELEASE DATE:  January 18, 2022

BLURB:

Tom has one rule: Don’t sleep with the crew. A second chance with a younger, gorgeous deckhand tempts him to break it.

After a busy season as a charter-hire skipper, Tom yearns for some downtime. His lonely heart also aches for adventure with someone special, but paying his bills has to come first. A surprise sailing contract and huge bonus offer his first glimpse of freedom for years. There’s only one catch: he must crew with Nick, a deckhand who jumped ship once already.

Nick’s as young and untested as the new yacht they’re contracted to sail, and he’s just as gorgeous. Forced to spend a month as Nick’s captain, Tom discovers depths he hadn’t noticed. He’s captivated, and happier sailing with Nick than he’s been in forever. However, their voyage is finite, and both men keep soul-deep secrets.

As the contract draws to an end, they must get honest about what’s in their hearts if they want to share a life at sea, and love, forever.

Contains mature themes.

REVIEW:

His Compass is the second book in Con Riley’s lyrical His series. Like its predecessor, His Horizon, it’s a complex, emotional story written in lyrical prose with exceptional world-building.  This story contains an age-gap, May/December, grumpy/sunshine romance featuring Tom Kershaw, skipper of the charter yacht Aphrodite that Jude Anstley crewed on before returning home to Porthperrin, Cornwall at the beginning of book one, His Horizon.  Tom replaced Jude with Nick, a gorgeous, gregarious layabout who grossly exaggerated his skills and familiarity with crewing and boats.  While sociable and terrific with people, Nick was unreliable and incompetent, and then just left without warning or explanation.

When His Compass opens, Tom seems unable to let Nick go.  Tom’s worried about Nick’s well-being because Tom has no idea what happened to him, and hopes he is safe and sound. Yet at the same time, Tom’s frustrated by his lingering attraction for Nick and his inability to get him out of his thoughts.  His anger over Nick’s mysterious departure still simmers just beneath the surface.  So when Nick unexpectedly turns up again, assigned as Tom’s deckhand for a month-long sea trial of a new yacht, Tom is less than pleased. Nick implores Tom to keep him on board and promises that he’ll do better, that Tom’s the only one who ever believed in and challenged him to live up to his potential.

Ms. Riley gives Tom and Nick dimension and depth of character, with vulnerabilities and past hurts in need of healing which they are improbably able to do for each other.  Like her scenery, Ms. Riley’s characters are drawn with exquisite, thoughtful detail.  She is remarkably able to show us how each man changes as their journey together, both literal and figurative, unfolds, while only providing one point of view throughout the story – Tom’s.  Yet we understand through Tom Nick’s motivations and feelings. The storyline is poignant but ultimately heartwarming, and it never gets too heavy because Ms. Riley balances the emotion with some humor and light-hearted moments as well.

Ms. Riley’s stories are exquisite works of art all on their own, but she enhances them by employing Cornell Collins to breathe life into the characters and their story. Mr. Collins is back in the narrator booth for this on the His Compass audiobook. He superbly narrated His Horizon, and he continues with that excellence here as well.   

Mr. Collins’ narration is clearly enunciated, expressive, and emotionally nuanced. His accents are exceptionally executed. Tom is described just like the silver fox on the cover, and the voice Mr. Collins gives him reflects that appearance and his personality.  He uses a resonant tone that he strongly emphasizes at all the right times. Nick’s accent and the timbre of his voice come across as flighty, young, and so very opposite of Tom, the lovely, highly responsible, sweet, lonely man who we just want to find love and happiness. The improbability of their relationship is crystal clear in the voices Mr. Collins uses and the consistent way he delivers them. Mr. Collins is expressive, invested in his performance, and on point with his translation of Mr. Riley’s wry humor. Tom and Nick come alive through his voice.  

His Compass is a swoon-worthy love story of hope, healing, and transformation. The audiobook is substantial and pairs an expert author with a talented narrator to produce a wholly immersive, memorable listening experience that I highly recommend.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS: 

Audible

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