Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Out of Control
SERIES: North Shore Stories
AUTHOR: Lynn Van Dorn
NARRATOR: Michael Ferraiuolo
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 9 hours and 55 minutes
RELEASE DATE: December 9, 2022
BLURB:
Tomasz has been in love with Nik for as long as he can remember. Nik is gorgeous, intelligent, and sexy, and even Tomasz’s parents like him. He’s perfect for Tomasz, and Tomasz is perfect for him. Their love is meant to be and will be epic enough to make angels weep.
There’s only one problem.
Tomasz is just a teenager, and Nik is a decade older. And Tomasz is college-bound for a university halfway across the country. And Nik sees Tomasz as only a kid. Also, Nik is kind of a mess. A scorching-hot mess, granted, but the man has issues. Deep dark ones.
So maybe there are a few problems. But there’s nothing Tomasz can’t overcome to make sure their happily ever after comes true.
Nik and all his baggage don’t stand a chance.
Out of Control is the third novel in the North Shore Stories series. It’s got “the grumpy one and the sunshine one”, lots of found family, a little bit of particle physics, far too much food, and the happiest of happy endings.
REVIEW:
Note: This is book 3 of this series, and I don’t really recommend it as a stand alone. It contains major spoilers for the previous books which also set up a lot of the dynamics in this book and provide the backstories for a lot of the characters.
Tomasz is a high school senior who has been in love with his much older half brother’s best friend forever. He’s getting ready to graduate and head to MIT in the fall though. Nik has tried to ignore Tomasz’s crush, but it’s getting harder and harder now that Tomasz is growing into a man. Marek, Tomasz’s older brother is not oblivious to their attraction and just asks that they not do anything until Tomasz is 18. Well Tomasz has plans for his 18th birthday 😉
Nik is a nurse who has had a really rough life. His family immigrated from Russia and things did not go well 🙁 Turns out that Nik has a lot of trauma that has to work through. He also has deep abandonment issues. He really enjoys being with Tomasz, who turns out to be a very dominant personality. But what will happen when Tomasz leaves for Boston in the fall and Nik is left behind?
Things seem Ok at first. They talk and text and sext, etc. But Nik struggles. Despite the right things that he does to try to deal with his issues and trauma, he doesn’t handle things well when Tomasz is gone. Thanksgiving is a bit of a disaster and Tomasz thinks he’s so smart, but he really is over his head with how to handle Nik and his issues. Nik makes some really bad decisions – like potentially catastrophic decisions. Tomasz really has to decide if Nik is what he wants, and if he really does, then he is going to have to make some changes too.
Oh. My. God. This book. Such a hard story. Nik’s upbringing is not an easy thing to read. There is just so much that he has had to deal with that it’s not at all surprising that he is still in weekly therapy sessions. I actually loved that his therapist was so proactive and realized that Nik was going to really struggle without his partner and tried to do what he could to stave off the potential problems. I really loved seeing Marek and Ryan and how they did their best to support both Nik and Tomasz. Marek knew when he was over his head – he just didn’t know how far and how to get Nik the right help. Tomasz was a really mature young man who knew what he wanted and was will to do what it took to get it. These guys both had to work really hard for their happily ever after.
Michael Ferraiuolo. What can I say? This was a real triumph – of the human spirit and of this performance. There are a LOT of hard things in this story. As usual Michael does a stellar job of bringing the exact right emotional pitch to every scene – whether joyful, sad, tragic, tension-filled or tender. These guys go through some really difficult moments and make it to the other side. This is one of my favorite performances by this narrator – and there are many. Such a difficult tale but performed masterfully and with complete continuity of this series. Bravo! Highly recommended.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS: