Pansies

Spires Series, Book 4

De: Alexis Hall

Narrado por: Cornell Collins

Alfie Bell is . . . fine. He's got a six-figure salary, a penthouse in Canary Wharf, the car he swore he'd buy when he was 18, and a bunch of fancy London friends.

It's rough, though, going back to South Shields now that they all know he's a fully paid-up pansy. It's the last place he's expecting to pull. But Fen's gorgeous, with his pink-tipped hair and hipster glasses, full of the sort of courage Alfie's never had. It should be a one-night thing, but Alfie hasn't met anyone like Fen before.

Except he has. At school, when Alfie was everything he was supposed to be, and Fen was the stubborn little gay boy who wouldn't keep his head down. And now it's a proper mess: Fen might have slept with Alfie, but he'll probably never forgive him, and Fen's got all this other stuff going on anyway, with his mam and her flower shop and the life he left down south.

Alfie just wants to make it right. But how can he, when all they've got in common is the nowhere town they both ran away from.

Contains mature themes.

©2018 Alexis Hall (P)2020 Tantor

Poetry - and a lovely performance by C. Collins

Classic, classic Alexis Hall! All my favorite aspects of their writing come together in Pansies. I have been enjoying Hall's recent stuff as well, but I've been holding onto Pansies for the right moment, and I treasured it like a greedy child. Poetry!

I listened to the audio version, and Cornell Collins does a stunning job with these characters. Simply a beautiful performance.

… Alexis Hall, what a way to write…

I’ve become a fan of his stories, very simple story lines very relatable! Very enjoyable… and when I say simple I do not mean it in a bad way… rather the contrary… OMG! I think this one in particular might be in my top 5! Great job!

Lovely Intro to this Author

I think this is my first book by Hall, but I found it through the incredible narrator, Cornell Collins. this seems to be the only book he read by her, so I'll have to see how the others are.

That said, I really enjoyed the characters. Hall's prose and descriptions are beautiful, and it seems she did a lot of reasearch or knows the area of South Shields well.

I will relisten to this book for sure, and look forward to seeing if I enjoy Hall's other work as much, even without Collins's stellar talent.

great narration but hard to hear on the highway

I love every single queer book that MLD/Cornell Collins has narrated. especially this one but their is one big thing that made this hard to listen to. I like to listen in the car while driving and generally this involves highways. Every single MLD book is hard to hear while driving on the highway. My phone is turned all the way up and I have to turn up the stereo so loud it's uncomfortable. This isn't an issue with other books. It could be a sound mixing issue or my car who knows but it's frustrating

Voices

The only thing I didn’t like is I couldn’t always distinguish Alfie’s voice from Fen’s.

Love is love

I loved the listen. Narrator was so good. The story was heart warming. Too much fun.

An amazing listening experience!

I loved everything about this book. It made me cry and laugh, so hard I almost fell out of my bed. A heartfelt journey of two partly broken men. And the narrator made this an extraordinary experience, completely wonderful.

Gorgeous story of redemption and forgiveness

I'm not sure why I hadn't re-read this previously because this book is really gorgeous, no surprise. It's about redemption and forgiveness and acceptance like most of Alexis Hall's books, but this one feels personal in a way that some of the others don't achieve. I may only feel that way because of some of his background that he's shared, but regardless it's just beautiful. I love that all of that is tied up together, Fen forgiving Alfie, both of them forgiving the town they grew up in, and recognizing that there is good with the bad in all of our backgrounds. Finally I think it's Alfie forgiving himself for all the things that he did, and accepting everything that makes him who he is. I love the idea that Fen always saw the parts of Alfie that he did his best to hide and reject.

The common saying of "You can't go home again." has always meant to me that it doesn't exist anymore, but this felt that while the home you grew up in may not exist as it was you can go back to the parts of your home that you choose to remember. You can create new memories that layer over the good and the bad parts of your past, and that all of that can help heal the wounds you live with.

I really like that Fen's parents were always there for him, always supported him, and always recognized the true jewel they had in their midst. I like that it was, in the end, Alfie's dad that actually ended up being the more supportive of his parents, that doesn't seem to happen often in mm romance. Although supportive is probably ... too generous, but nonetheless. It's unfortunate though probably more realistic that they couldn't open their hearts and minds to accept Alfie as he is.

I love them together, I love that on the surface they seem like they'd have nothing in common, nothing to bind them together, but that their shared past was enough for them to find those things that made them possible.

Audio: Cornell Collins did a lovely job with the Geordie accent, I know that was a big concern and reason for this not being released in audio sooner. I'd love to listen to more books with that accent although I don't think it is reflected that commonly in books. I enjoy his ability to make different characters distinct and that he, although sometimes a bit too exuberantly, actually acts out the emotions of the characters. Two things especially make me hate some audio, mispronunciation and reading at me, neither of which he ever does. I look forward to listening again soon.

Love Alexis Hall

I love everything AH writes! These characters were well-suited to each other and tugged at the heartstrings.

loved it

This will definitely be a relisten for me. I absolutely adored it, and I think this is my new favorite Alexis Hall book!