Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Powder and Pavlova
SERIES: Southern Lights, Book 1
AUTHOR: Jay Hogan
NARRATOR: Gary Furlong
PUBLISHER: Southern Lights Publishing
LENGTH: 9 hours and 13 minutes
RELEASE DATE: May 25, 2023
BLURB:
Ethan Sharpe is living every young Kiwi’s dream—seeing the world for a couple of years while deciding what to do with his life, no rush. Then he gets a call. Two days later he’s back in New Zealand. Six months later his mother is dead, his 15-year-old brother is going off the rails, and the café he’s inherited is failing. His life is a hot mess and the last thing he needs is another complication—like the man who just walked into his café—a much older…sinfully hot…epic complication.
Tanner Carpenter’s time in Queenstown has an expiration date. He has a new branch of his business to get up and running, exorcise a few personal demons while he’s at it, and then head back to Auckland to get on with his life. He isn’t looking for a relationship especially with someone 15 years his junior, but Ethan is gorgeous, troubled, and in need of a friend. Tanner could be that for Ethan, right? He could brighten Ethan’s day for a few months, help him out where possible, and maybe offer some…stress relief, no strings attached.
It was a good plan, until it wasn’t.
REVIEW:
Powder & Pavlova kicks off Jay Hogan’s Southern Lights series, a sweet, creative, sexy-with-a-twist series of books written with Hogan’s typical flair. I read this series some time ago and am revisiting them now on audio. With Gary Furlong narrating, my fond memories of these romances are amplified as the stories are brought to life in Furlong’s inimitable way.
Hogan is a terrific scene setter, and her world-building in this series is top-notch. It’s hard to imagine a place more beautiful than Queenstown, Lake Wakatipu, and the area at the foot of the Southern Alps on New Zealand’s South Island. Her details are lush and vivid as are her characters.
In Powder & Pavlova, we meet Ethan Sharpe, a man staggering under the weight of grief and obligation from his mother’s passing due to terminal cancer, and crippling guilt that he left home and wasn’t around to help or be with her until shortly before her death. His teenage younger brother Kurt spits nails, never letting Ethan forget that he abandoned his family in their time of need. He’s understandably angry and lashes out at the easiest target – Ethan. Meanwhile, Ethan is trying to keep his mother’s beloved bakery/coffee shop afloat out of a sense of duty. It’s easy to relate to Ethan and his pain, especially as compounded by the dire state of the bakery and the disintegrating relationship with his brother. Yet Hogan doesn’t drown us in angst and sorrow, keeping things poignant yet also funny with heartwarming, real events, feelings, and conflicts.
Ethan improbably crosses paths with Tanner Carpenter, a former champion snowboarder sidelined by a career-ending injury in the prime of his career. Fourteen years later, that pain still lingers barely beneath the surface, but Tanner hides it well. Now he’s in the Southern Alps surrounded by the fresh powder he used to love to snowboard on, and still feels the soul-deep pull towards it. He’s an up-and-coming exec at a PR company looking to expand into the winter sports world, and Tanner is just the guy to secure contracts for the Audi Quattro Winter Games. His time in Queenstown has an expiration date though – five months. Just enough time to meet and fall for a charismatic bakery/coffee shop owner and break both of their hearts.
Hogan throws some minor wrinkles into this love story – a significant age gap, Ethan’s predicament, Tanner’s increasing dissatisfaction with his life and career, and his nonsensical belief that he and Ethan can’t be together long-term. But the attraction and chemistry between Ethan and Tanner are undeniable, and it’s hard to imagine them ever separating. They become friends, friends who hook up, and then so much more. Ethan is young but has an old soul whereas Tanner is older but lacks maturity to some degree, especially in the realm of love and relationships. It’s a balance that works quite well and Hogan shows us that without being heavy-handed about it.
As good as Hogan’s stories are in text, in audio with Furlong’s exceptional talent and textured voice, they become something even better. He is one of my favorite narrators quite simply because his voice is magical. He gives a barnstormer of a performance every time, no matter the story or its tone. His synergy with Hogan’s work is evident and seamless. He intuits what she intends and brings her characters to life with depth and complexity. The most emotional component of this story is the relationship between Ethan and Kurt, and Furlong nails it, capturing all of the nuances of Kurt’s love/hate towards Ethan and Ethan’s need to redeem himself and repair his broken relationship with Kurt at all costs.
Powder & Pavlova isn’t a light story, but it is balanced well in Hogan’s skilled hands. Furlong knows how to play up the humor and capture the warm fuzzy feelings while also fully engaging with the inevitable pain and sadness of the plot. Furlong’s dynamic, impactful vocal performance is full of clear thought and intention in his delivery of emotional content, appropriate inflections, intonation, and emphasis to match the physical actions and reactions that accompany them. It makes the Powder & Pavlova audiobook a winner – one I highly recommend.
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