Audiobook Review: Soul to Keep by Garrett Leigh, Narrated by Dan Calley

10 July of 2020 by ButtonsMom2003

Story: 5

Performance: 4

4.5Overall score

I loved Jamie's story.

Soul to Keep By Garrett Leigh, Performed by Dan Calley

Genre: Contemporary Romance, GLBTQ, MM

Released: Audio-June 28, 2020; eBook-April 2, 2018

Publisher: Fox Love Press

Series: Rented Heart, Book 2

Length: 6 hrs, 2 min / 238 pages

Cover Design: Garrett Leigh @ Black Jazz Design

Synopsis

STANDALONE second book in the LAMBDA nominated Rented Heart series.

Recovering addict Jamie Yorke has returned to England from California. With no home or family to speak of, he sticks a pin in a map and finds a small town in the Derbyshire Peak District. Matlock Bath is a quiet place—he just needs to get there, keep his head down, and stay clean. Simple, right? Until a chance meeting on the flight home alters the course of his so-called life forever.

Ex-Army medic Marc Ramsey is recovering from life-changing combat injuries while pulling nights as a trauma specialist at the local hospital. Keeping busy is a habit he can’t quit, but when Jamie—so wild and beautiful—bursts into his life, working himself into the ground isn’t as compelling as it used to be.

Marc falls hard, but chaos lurks behind Jamie’s fragile facade. He’s winning his battle against addiction, but another old foe is slowly consuming him. Both men have weathered many storms, but the path to the peace they deserve might prove the roughest ride yet.

Review

Reviewed by ButtonsMom2003

I loved Jamie’s story.

This book can be read as a standalone but I am really glad that I listened to Rented Heart first. That book is where we first meet Jamie and learn all about his problems with addiction. After I listened to Rented Heart I couldn’t wait to listen to Soul to Keep but life had other plans so it’s taken me a few weeks to get to it.

Jamie has changed a lot from how he was in Rented Heart. He’s spent the last year or so in California rehabbing from his drug addiction but we don’t get any real details about that in Soul to Keep. It’s a year later and Jamie’s now returning back to England to make a fresh start. He meets Marc on the flight back and Marc helps him curb his fear when the plane runs into some turbulence. They have a friendly conversation during the trip but Jamie never expects to see Marc again.

Marc and Jamie are both shocked when they run into each other outside the hospital where Marc works. This is the beginning of their friendship that eventually turns into more.

Dan Calley’s voice is so nice and mellow and very easy to listen to. I did have just a bit of trouble differentiating between Jamie and Marc’s voices with this one but the way the dialogue was written it wasn’t difficult to know who was speaking.

The story gets really hot once Marc and Jamie start getting it on but it takes several chapters for that to happen so there’s a nice build up to the sexy time.

While Jamie is doing great at fighting his addiction, we learn that he has another problem he must overcome. Marc loves him and wants to see him get better and he is so patient with Jamie.

While this book wasn’t as heartbreaking or angsty as Rented Heart I still enjoyed it very much. I spent a lovely evening listening to it straight through. And I loved the Epilogue where Jamie is visiting with Zac (from Rented Heart).

Story: ♥♥♥♥♥

Narration: ♥♥♥♥

O Factor: Scorcher

Rented Heart Series

♥ Amazon US ♥ Amazon CA ♥ Amazon UK ♥

About Author

Garrett Leigh

Garrett Leigh is an award-winning British writer and book designer.

Garrett’s debut novel, Slide, won Best Bisexual Debut at the 2014 Rainbow Book Awards, and her polyamorous novel, Misfits was a finalist in the 2016 LAMBDA awards.

When not writing, Garrett can generally be found procrastinating on Twitter, cooking up a storm, or sitting on her behind doing as little as possible, all the while shouting at her menagerie of children and animals and attempting to tame her unruly and wonderful FOX.

Garrett is also an award winning cover artist, taking the silver medal at the Benjamin Franklin Book Awards in 2016. She designs for various publishing houses and independent authors at blackjazzdesign.com, and co-owns the specialist stock site moonstockphotography.com with renowned LGBTQA+ photographer Dan Burgess.

Author Links