Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: Touch the Lightning
SERIES: The Storm Boys, Book 3
AUTHOR: N.R. Walker
NARRATOR: Glen Lloyd
PUBLISHER: BlueHeart Press
LENGTH: 5 hours and 19 minutes
RELEASE DATE: November 6, 2023
BLURB:
Without a working office, Jeremiah is tasked with repairing the automated weather station on Oxley Island. It’s remote, only accessible by boat, and with there being a good chance of crocodiles, he’s dreading it.
Tully, on the other hand, can’t wait.
With a boat licence, his dad’s boat, and two days alone with Jeremiah—and with thunderstorms likely—to Tully, it’s another perfect adventure.
But their plans go awry when Jeremiah’s research gets far too close for comfort. Thirty years ago, the day his life was touched by lightning, he was changed forever.
It’s about to change again, only this time he’s determined to set things right.
REVIEW:
N.R. Walker’s The Storm Boys series has just gotten better and better. Walker’s secret sauce, beyond her terrific writing, is Tully Larson and Jeremiah Overton. This is a continuing series that should be read in order and if you have, you’ve seen their relationship blossom. In Touch the Lightning, the yin and yang of these two is on full display. The witty banter, shared crazy love of weather phenomena, utter devotion to each other and love … so much love. It’s unmistakable and we feel its strength. Tully does too even though Jeremiah struggles to say the words.
Walker puts the found family dynamic of the Larson clan front and center as they rally around the couple. They treat Jeremiah like their own son – it’s so damn sweet, and so adorable (with a side of poignancy) because Jeremiah cannot believe it to be true. The relationship between Tully and his brothers, especially Ellis, is heartwarming and humorous, and characters like the larger-than-life Doreen continue to prove to Jeremiah that he is loved by friends and family alike.
Touch the Lightning concludes the series with the perfect bookend to how the series started in the first book, Outrun the Rain. There, Tully and Jeremiah are the only characters for almost the entirety of the story – just them and Mother Nature in all her awesome, devastating glory. Touch the Lightning starts out similarly, with Tully and Jeremiah on a remote, deserted island trying to fix a damaged weather station. However, the story shifts and Walker opens the aperture to include almost every character we’ve met in the series before. She adeptly balances the tight focus on Tully and Jeremiah with the broader full-circle closure of the events that so deeply impacted Jeremiah’s life and the weather phenomena that brought Tully and Jeremiah together in the first place.
Glen Lloyd and his authentic Australian accent are spot on in the audiobook. He knows Tully and Jeremiah well at this point and he’s clearly connected to Walker’s intention. This story runs the emotional gamut and Lloyd captures all of those nuances through his invested vocal performance.
I listened straight through the Touch the Lightning audiobook and loved every minute of it. It’s my favorite book of the series and Lloyd makes it so easy to fall into the story and the characters. Highly recommended.
RATING: 
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