Reviewed by Stephen K.
TITLE: Limelight
SERIES: Vino & Veritas #15
AUTHOR: E Davies
NARRATOR: Greg Boudreaux
PUBLISHER: Tantor Audio
LENGTH: 6 hours 30 Minutes
RELEASE DATE: November 30th 2021
BLURB:
Save the bees, ride a rock star.
Formerly famous…and planning to keep it that way.
After my band kicked me out, I ran away to Vermont, changed my name, and kept my head down. So far, it’s working and nobody knows who I am. Or who I was. Until I see geeky poet Caleb stumbling through his first open mic night and I can’t help rescuing him. He’s as sweet as the honey my bees make and sexy enough to make me rethink so many things. But I can’t tell him my secret, or I’ll lose the anonymous life I worked so hard to build.
Everyone warns me he’s too good to be true.
I can’t believe a gorgeous, successful winemaker like Tag is into shy, geeky little accountant me. But he helps me blossom and believe in my talent, and works his way into my heart and my bed…not necessarily in that order. I’m falling for a man for the first time, and now I know what the missing number in my equation has always been.
When lies are revealed, though, someone’s going to get stung…
REVIEW:
Part of the appeal of these books is their comforting setting. They are all set in and around Burlington Vermont and the gay bar/book store that is Vino & Veritas.
This installment centers on Titus, “Tag” Tyler former musician (turned beekeeper and mead brewer), and Caleb Holt an accountant who’d really prefer being a poet. Tag is smitten with slight somewhat nerdy Caleb when Caleb exhibits stage fright at an open mike night and Tag helps him through the worst of the nerves. Though the two hit it off immediately, Tag is reluctant to give up his recently acquired anonymity after his past run-ins with tabloids and fame groupies. Caleb has his own issues with his virginity and his sheltered status as the youngest of a brood of four brothers.
I started to lose interest part way through this tale and after reflecting on it, have decided that the main conflict in the story just felt too “manufactured.” Tag abandoned his fame in order to adopt a new identity in Burlington. His angst over not revealing his former identity just didn’t feel as important to me as the author made it for both main characters. Moreover the two main characters were never fleshed out with the kinds of details that really bring fictional characters to life. The supporting characters, even less so.
Also the best of the V&V Burlington centered books involve tying in characters from other books in the series. This book had almost none of that. This doesn’t make this a bad story. It does make it feel a bit cut and paste or run of the mill. There wasn’t anything to make it truly memorable. The two main characters are both likable enough. One even has a charming Labrador pup, but that’s not enough to carry the whole book. This is by no means a bad book. If you’ve enjoyed the other tales in in the Vino & Veritas series, you will probably enjoy this one as well. However I doubt you’ll remember it years from now as anywhere near the best of the series.
This Audio-book is narrated by Greg Boudreau who does his usual stellar, if not always perfect, job of bringing the story to life. This story unfolds as narrated by the two main characters in alternating chapters. With books of this type, the perfect audio-book adaptation requires six “voices.” Each character has a “narrator” voice, an “inner monologue” voice and their spoken word voice. Greg uses two very distinctive voices to separate the characters, but there is often little to separate what is spoken, what is inner monologue, and what is just narration. Whilst this generally works, there are spots where it gets confusing as to what we’re hearing. Greg also suffers from a bit of a handicap with me in that my first exposure to him was the four book series Guardians of Camelot. No matter who he’s voiced since, I tend to hear Lancelot and Merlin in all of his other characters.
RATING: 
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