Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Beautifully Unexpected
AUTHOR: Lily Morton
NARRATOR: Joel Leslie
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 7 hours and 7 minutes
RELEASE DATE: July 15, 2022
BLURB:
Sometimes love comes when you least expect or want it.
Magnus Carlsen is determined to grow old disgracefully. At 52, he doesn’t believe in keeping anything. Men, sofas, books—everything gets jettisoned, eventually. He’s divided his life into happy compartments. A successful trial lawyer, he spends his days lecturing jurors, exasperating judges, and striding arrogantly around courtrooms. He fills his nights with a parade of handsome young men who want to make him happy. Why date someone his own age to discuss back pain, retirement planning, and corns when he can date men who don’t care to discuss anything at all?
However, when one of these sunny young men shows an inclination for dramatic scenes, Magnus meets his new neighbor. And his whole world implodes.
Laurie Gentry is nearly the same age as Magnus, but that’s where the similarity ends. He’s messy and creative and nosy and mysterious. He’s everything that Magnus has spent a lifetime avoiding. So, why can’t he get Laurie out of his head?
Luckily, Laurie is only in London for the summer. Magnus can uncover Laurie’s mysteries and indulge their annoyingly hot attraction, and Laurie will be gone before complications arise. A few months isn’t long enough to lose his heart. Is it?
From best-selling author Lily Morton comes a romantic comedy about two footloose older men and how one summer in London brings something quite beautifully unexpected into their lives.
REVIEW:
When a book’s opening scene features a naked man with a bow on his penis, you know you’re in for a sexy, hysterical treat of a story. Beautifully Unexpected showcases Lily Morton’s trademark distinctive, exceptional writing, snarky humor, vivid characters, and understated, complicated, utterly swoony love, but in a wholly different context from her prior works. Magnus Carlsen and Laurie Gentry are mature, older men who think they are set in their ways with the trajectory of their lives playing out on its current path, for better or worse. Yet one summer of unexpected friendship blossoms into a love that upends everything they thought they knew about themselves and what their lives would look like in years to come.
Mags is a 52-year-old barrister, one of the elite Queen’s Counsel. Laurie is a 48-year-old, exceptionally talented painter driven by his inner muse. They couldn’t be more different, yet they unexpectedly find they are exactly what the other needs. These two mature, uber-successful, very independent, stubborn men try to take the other’s measure. Neither of them needs to fall in love. Neither of them is looking to fall in love. Neither of them wants to fall in love. In fact, they both assiduously avoid it. And yet, love is unexpectedly what finds them, and the love that blooms between them is a beautiful thing indeed. In Mags and Laurie, Morton brings to life two multi-dimensional characters, unerringly lovable even with their flaws. Their friendship to love journey shows them grappling with the challenges and insecurities of falling in love, especially later in life.
Morton possesses a preternatural ability to create connections between her readers and her dynamic, complex, meticulously crafted characters. She can evoke myriad emotions in every phrase and scene she depicts. Morton’s unique talent is perfectly matched by Joel Leslie’s sublime narration of Morton’s work. Morton masterfully delivers Mags and Laurie’s story through textured dialogue, layered with nuance and intonation. And that is Leslie’s bread and butter. He gets into his characters’ heads. He researches them, thinks and connects with them and the story they have to tell. But he doesn’t go on to tell their stories. No, that’s not Leslie’s way. Instead, he lives their stories. He is Mags and Laurie. His performance is energetic, invested, and faithful to his characters. This, my friends, is a master at work.
The lifeblood of Morton’s stories is her characters. The action and events never overtake them because they are the heart and soul of her stories. As such, Morton achieves stunning depth in Mags and Laurie – depth that only a narrator of Leslie’s caliber can comprehend and translate in an accessible way without losing any of the vital details that make them who they are.
Mags is indulgent, excessively charismatic, and unapologetically himself. He soaks up life like a sponge, always watching, taking everything in, observing the people around him, missing nothing. His robust confidence and love of life make him a walking, talking encapsulation of the vibrant energy Laurie strives to capture on his canvases. Like Gabe from Morton’s Rule Breaker, his sardonic wit and grumpy, beleaguered external persona front a deep, inherent loyalty for those he loves. “I always look after what’s mine.” It’s not easy to get past his walls, but once inside, his deep, abiding love is unmistakable and unavoidable. Leslie’s spot-on delivery of Mags shows off his extraordinary range and the genius of his interpretation of the characters he plays. Leslie’s an all-around exceptional narrator with a particular strength for accents. Here, he captures Mags’ Danish heritage bastardized by years of living in the UK through an authentic accent delivered with precision.
In contrast to Mags, Laurie lives his life seemingly unhampered by rules and social constructs and not impressed by worldly trappings. He is rich in spirit and inspiration, clever, witty, kind, and generous. To quote Mags, Laurie is “like sunshine to be with”. But Laurie doesn’t see himself that way. He acts like he’s an island. He has burdens and secrets that he believes he has to carry alone. As a result, he struggles to accept that Mags can reliably bridge the gap.
Leslie clearly and consistently distinguishes Laurie from Mags, not just through the difference in accents but in their demeanor. Laurie’s voice is lighter yet oxymoronically heavier at the same time, and somehow Leslie manages to convey both his free-spirited personality and his latent anxiety and resignation. Leslie has such a vast repertoire of intonations, tones, and nuanced choices in pacing and dynamics that he comes well-armed for Morton’s complex characters, and he wields his vocal weapons with consideration and always for maximum impact.
Leslie finds all those places where Morton tucks love behind the words and actions Mags and Laurie share, and he brings them forth in his inimitable way so that we feel the love even though Mags and Laurie are oblivious to it. Like Morton’s After Felix, Beautifully Unexpected contains breathtaking happiness, laughter, and adoration between the male leads, but there’s a current of anxiety that runs beneath the narrative – a hint that all is not as it seems and that some level of heartbreak is sure to come. Leslie is so good at that dynamic because his vocal performances are fulsome – he captures everything from the literal words and phrasing to the emotion we expect from them and the hidden doubts and vulnerabilities that Morton seamlessly weaves into her story, and Leslie effortlessly folds into his delivery.
Beautifully Unexpected is a fantastic, absorbing read all on its own, full of complex, endearing characters and rapier-sharp wit. But Leslie is the Midas of narrators. Everything he voices turns to gold. When you listen to Leslie perform Beautifully Unexpected, you are hearing the best of the best. So applaud the magnificence of the Morton/Leslie pairing as you sink into the Beautifully Unexpected audiobook. It’s a wholly transfixing, wondrous story you won’t soon forget.
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