Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE:  To Hold a Hidden Pearl

SERIES:  Rossingley, Book 1

AUTHOR:  Fearne Hill

NARRATOR:  Richard Stranks

PUBLISHER:  NineStar Press

LENGTH:  8 hours and 23 minutes

RELEASE DATE:  May 19, 2022

BLURB:

Dr. Jay Sorrentino is getting married in 10 days’ time to the girl of his dreams, so what the hell is he doing in a gay London club with a stupidly handsome stranger? As if calling off the wedding and alienating his friends and family isn’t enough, Jay also has to contend with starting a new job at a new hospital. So the last thing he needs is for the bloke from the club to be his prickly supervisor. 

Dr. Lucien Avery is a difficult colleague. He’s also the unexpected and reluctant heir to the vast Rossingley estate. Reclusive and miserable, he hates most of his colleagues, people who eat packed lunches, and supervising junior doctors. That is, until the delectable Dr. Sorrentino turns up on his doorstep. 

A light-hearted M/M contemporary romance, Rossingley takes place in Southern England and is centered around a fictional country house and estate by the same name. The first in the series, it can be enjoyed as a stand-alone.

REVIEW:

Have you heard of Richard Stranks?  No?  Me neither.  Or at least not before listening to the fabulous audiobook for Fearne Hill’s complex, gorgeous contemporary romance To Hold a Hidden Pearl.  Write his name down now on your list of must-listen-to narrators. He is a young British voice actor with the chops of someone with many years of experience. That is pure talent mellifluously flowing out of the speakers as you listen to this tale of loss, isolation, heartbreak, and healing through love.  

Lucien Avery is a quirky, talented anesthesiologist who is also the reluctant sixteenth Earl of Rossingley, his family’s vast estate, thrust upon him when his beloved mother, father, brother, and pregnant sister-in-law were all killed in a helicopter accident. It was a trip that Lucien was to have been on, and only through the whims of fickle fate did he escape by being called away to cover for someone at the hospital.  Lucien is now crippled by grief and survivor’s guilt and, at times, wishes that he had died with them too.  Being the one left behind is no blessing.  Lucien’s barely holding it together on the surface, but beneath the varnish, he’s fractured – literally.  Lucien eccentrically embraces three distinct personas – his doctor’s persona – cold, callous, removed – his Lady Louisa persona – flirty, saucy, sensory-starved – and his Lucien persona – the real deal with all his fears, pain, and grief, and desperately in need of love, affection, and partnership. 

The story starts with the fairly common anonymous hookup-turns-out-to-be-new boss/employee/coworker trope when Lucien encounters Dr. Jay Sorrentino in a dark bar for a quick hookup that ends as quickly as it began.  It turns out Jay finally faces his fears and asks the question about his sexuality that he’s been avoiding his whole life.  His encounter with Lucien solidly answers his questions, confirming that he is, in fact, gay.  Unfortunately, this comes just days before his wedding to his now ex-fiancee, who he is rather uncomfortably and inconveniently still living with.  Jay is falling apart in his own way.  He’s alienated everyone in his life by embracing his truth, yet he refuses to explain it.  It’s this aspect of the story I appreciated the most.  The refusal of Jay, and then Lucien and Jay together, to be dictated to by society.  They don’t owe anyone an explanation or an announcement – “I’m gay” or “We’re together” – and they pursue their relationship in the same manner.

Hill’s triumph is in Lucien and Jay. They are endearing, multi-faceted, loveable, relatable men who will snag you in their thrall – hook, line, and sinker.  They are also very far from prototypical.  Lucien’s a grumpy bastard, or at least he is in his Dr. Avery persona, but he presents as a slight, androgynous, waif type with white-blond hair – almost fae-like. But while it may look like a stiff wind could blow him over, he has a backbone of steel and a well-honed practice of deflection.  No one gets to see or feel his pain but him.  

Jay, in contrast, is a big, imposing man with a marshmallow center. He’s a hot mess in his personal life, and he wears his vulnerabilities on his sleeve, and his feelings show on his face.  Despite Lucien’s harsh demeanor and borderline cruel professional attitude, Jay sees a kindred lonely spirit in pain and can’t look away.  His innate protective instinct rears its head, and he is driven to help Lucien, and he throws Lucien a lifeline that Lucien reluctantly, but then gratefully, accepts.

There’s a crucial subplot involving Lucien and a dying young boy in intensive care with whom Lucien forms a strong attachment.  It plays an important role in who Lucien is as well as what happens to Lucien in the story. There’s nothing lighthearted about this particular storyline and Stranks’ ability to capture that bittersweet relationship while not losing the overall lighter feel of the story as a whole is a credit to his intuitiveness and his skill as a vocal actor.

To Hold a Hidden Pearl is such an apt title for this lovely story. It reflects Lucien’s need to hold a strand of pearls hidden beneath his clothes. A strand of his mother’s pearls that he worries away on as a way to self-soothe. But the title is also a metaphor for Jay holding a gem, a pearl of a person – Lucien – who hides his true self away from the world, like a pearl hidden in a clam shell.  But Jay is able to get Lucien to open up, and he readily sees the fragile beauty he’s hiding.

So while To Hold a Hidden Pearl may start with a common trope, there is nothing common about the story that follows or the vocal actor who spins it out for our consumption and enjoyment. Stranks has a warm, engaging voice that pairs perfectly with the multi-facets of this story, which is humorous, heartbreaking, and heartwarming in equal measure. It’s a complex mix that both Hill and Stranks execute with precision. While overarchingly a  lighthearted story, some dark, distressing emotions swirl at its core. Ultimately, this story lives and breathes through its characters; Lucien and Jay are the story here.  Stranks gets that, and he throws himself wholly into embracing who they are with all their foibles. 

There’s almost nothing bad I can say about this vocal performance other than a few spots where Stranks slips slightly into Lucien’s voice when voicing Jay.  But those instances are few and far between and easily forgettable in light of the otherwise masterful performance he delivers.  All the fundamentals are there and executed perfectly – appropriate pacing, emotional emphasis conveyed through intonations and inflected phrasings.  He captures the essence of Lucien and Jay in his characterizations and consistently differentiates between the two (with the exception of the rare slips I previously referenced).  But where Stranks truly shines is with his three-persona portrayal of Lucien.  He captures his cut-glass, precise accent and delivers it with the snobby disdain of an aristocrat, and it lands with the lethal effect of a predator seizing its prey.  He gets Lady Louisa’s flirtatiousness just right, and when in true Lucien form, he conveys vulnerability, fear, and devastation in the texture of the voice.  He’s no slacker when it comes to Jay either, capturing his gentle-hearted, generous soul within his big, gruff body and all his own personal vulnerabilities, wonder at his attraction to Lucien, and helpless bumbling as he tries to find equilibrium.

Overall, To Hold a Hidden Pearl is a gem of an audiobook holding a hidden gem of a narrator in Richard Stranks. I highly recommend you partake in the wonder of this nuanced, sweet, poignant story of love, loss, and ultimately laughter, all wrapped up with a bow in the form of a beautiful, satisfying epilogue.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

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