Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE: Off Balance

SERIES: Painted Bay, Book 1

AUTHOR: Jay Hogan

NARRATOR:  Gary Furlong

PUBLISHER: Southern Lights Publishing

LENGTH: 10 hours and 26 minutes

RELEASE DATE: August 16, 2022

BLURB: 

When Judah Madden flees his tiny suffocating home town in New Zealand for the dream of international ballet stardom, he never intends coming back. Not to Painted Bay. Not to his family’s struggling mussel farm. Not to his jerk of a brother. Not with his entire life plan in shreds. And certainly not into the tempting arms of Morgan Wipene, the older ruggedly handsome fisheries officer who seems determined to screw with Judah’s intention to wallow in peace.

But dreams are fickle things. Shatter them, and it’s hard to pick up the pieces. Hard to believe. Hard to start again.

And the hardest thing of all? Finding the courage to trust in love and build a new dream where you least expected to find it.

REVIEW: 

Off balance. Everything you need to know about Off Balance, the first book in Jay Hogan’s Painted Bay series is packed into that very apt title. There’s the obvious “off-balance” reference: Judah, an extremely talented ballet dancer who is starting to soar in his career, both literally and metaphorically, is harshly sidelined by a debilitating, chronic inner ear disorder called Meniere’s disease that affects his balance.  But Hogan packs much more into this book to keep her well-crafted, multi-dimensional characters, and her readers, off balance.  Off Balance makes for a truly captivating read, and an even better listen.

Gary Furlong, Hogan’s go-to narrator, is excellent almost universally, but he’s at his best when he is voicing Hogan’s works.  Hogan and Furlong have an intuitive understanding of what the other seeks to accomplish, and they both are excellent storytellers.  Given a chance to flaunt his excellent Kiwi accent, Furlong is in his element, especially when he has a complex character like Judah to work with.  Judah is one of those characters you want to embrace but don’t always like, yet Hogan somehow makes him loveable despite his flaws. Furlong expresses all of that complexity, displaying his exceptional fundamentals and accuracy in pacing, timbre, and dynamics.  He acts the hell out of this story, and it’s easy to forget that he’s there because what we experience is Judah and Morgan without any translation through a middleman.

Judah’s dreams and everything he’s worked for are shattered, so he returns to his tiny hometown of Painted Bay – a town full of people who shunned and scarred him as an out gay teen. Judah leaves behind his ballet “friends” and ex-lover, who dropped him as fast as one of Judah’s dangerous Meniere-induced drop attacks after his ballet career fell apart.  Judah’s whole life has been turned upside down.  He doesn’t have anyone or anything to tether him, and he doesn’t know how to get things back on an even keel again. Enter the gorgeous, loving, open-minded Morgan, who throws everything Judah thought about love and trust into a tailspin. Unexpectedly, Judah finds himself grappling with the possibility, and then reality, of falling in love. 

Morgan, for his part, has been grieving the loss of his wife for the past five years and has finally emerged ready to try again.  But he’s shaky and timid and doesn’t feel like he’s on solid ground as he grapples with the force of nature that is Judah – a man who is the opposite of everything he thought he wanted, but is exactly what he needs. Judah sends all kinds of mixed signals to Morgan as a defense mechanism, to keep Morgan off balance so he can’t get too close.  Well, Morgan is not to be put off, and he does his best to keep Judah off balance as well, by constantly defying Judah’s expectations and continuing to engage with him despite Judah’s (half-hearted) attempts to drive him off.

The relationships in this story are deep, complex, and authentic, particularly Judah and Morgan’s, but the side characters are not window-dressing. They are integral parts of the story, of what makes Judah and Morgan who they are, and what helps their love for each other grow and settle into something beautiful and lasting.

All I’ve described is due to Hogan’s exceptional writing, but the highlight is the dialogue.  Witty, snarky, laden with emotion, and so very real. Expertly honed descriptions and phrasing, layered with meaning. And all of it is presented in a way that keeps the reader just slightly off balance, not allowing us to rest on what we think will happen or what we expect will come next, and bringing us along on a journey that unfolds as we go. 

Don’t miss this lovely romance in its audiobook format. This combination of great writing, great vocal acting,  great story, and great romance is everything you could ask for, plus it sets us up for the next two books in the series, On Board and In Step, which I can happily report are both available in audio now.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Audible 

Amazon