Bring Me Home

Safe Harbor, Book 1

By: Annabeth Albert

Narrated by: David Lee Garver, Lance West

Help!

I've inherited my aunt's historic house in small-town Oregon, and I need to fix it up and sell it fast before I move on to my big-city dreams. I'm one of the navy's best investigators, but twenty years of living in base housing means DIY isn't part of my extensive skill set.

Luckily, my best friend has the solution: his twenty-three-year-old son. Knox recently graduated from college, needs a room for the summer, and comes with a giant cat and years of remodeling experience.

Not only is Knox all grown up and hot as sin, but I recognize him. He's the bossy, bearded guy I shared the hottest kiss of my life with. No way can my buddy find out I've got it bad for his son. But with all the stripping, hammering, and drilling, my defenses crumble one dance break at a time.

As our sexy secret summer fling continues, Knox also proves himself handy at fixing my grumpy mood and wounded heart. Now I can't imagine a future without him. I can solve any problem the navy throws at me, but I have no clue what to do about loving Knox or the damage this could do to my decades-long friendship.

Can we build a forever together, or are we destined to go our separate ways?

Contains mature themes.

©2023 Annabeth Albert (P)2023 Tantor

Another good book from Annabeth!

She always hits me in the feels! I've always liked an age gap romance, and this one was great. I love the time taken to develop trust between the MC's and the family angles. I wasn't overly fond of the narrators, but they got a bit better throughout the book. An all-around solid production.

wonderful storyline

voice changes seemed a little forced as if the teller was having to force their voice

Loved this book!

I’ve been waiting for this book and it didn’t disappoint! Annabeth does it again! I was really happy with this book!

I enjoyed the age gap romance and appreciated having an older character in the mix. Knox and Monroe were great characters, and I really appreciated the pacing of the relationship. It felt believable, and I was rooting for the characters the entire way!

I also appreciated the low angst in this novel. Especially with personal stuff going on, I’m glad the angst was lower level angst.

I really loved the theme of found family and the importance I’d that. I felt that was really special.

This book gave me all of the feels with a right balance of sweet and spicy! Overall, I really loved this book!

ARC received from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Choices

Monroe is recently retired and is dealing with the house his aunt left him. Know is at a crossroads deciding on what comes next for him. We see both men negotiating personal directions as well as their relationships. Hard decisions have to be made.

It comes close, too long, rough narration!

I generally find Albert dependable for thoughtfully different relationships. Sadly for this book, the relationship that matters most is the pair of narrators who make this title a complete drag.

When speaking of narrators, I try to temper my reviews to take into account narrating is tough. We don't just want someone to read us the story, we someone to bring the story to life. Not everyone can do that. In this case, we had two that were not only mismatched to be in the same book, but were just unlistenable. Garver is like a record on the wrong speed - so slow and monotone, it was painful. I tried bumping up the speed, but it was as if time stopped when he read Monroe. Even at 1.5 it still dragged, other characters were approaching comical. Besides channeling someone who wanted to be anywhere else and doing anything else, both narrators were given the challenge of an Australian accent for Knox's step mother and her family. Heretofore, I thought the WORST Aussie accent was from dream narrator Iggy Toma in the Kiera Andrews Valor: The Complete Duology. My god, Garver was soooo bad, West tried to be more convincing, but was only marginally better. Clearly no one at Tantor was home that day. West was the complete opposite. Having read that Knox had a man bun deciding that at 6'1 and built, he needed to sound soft and breathy. I understand why the other two books in the series didn't make it to audio.

Then there is the story. Albert really lets the idea of a series take control. The epilogue is a 13 minute set up for the next book - the MCs for this story, the one I struggled to get through are basically in the background while a character we knew of, but didn't really know much about grumbles about how unhappy he is. Lets take a minute for what happened between the dreadfully slow first chapter, and the epilogue.

Albert sets up a great age difference romance. The guys meet as at an event not knowing each other. They share time on the dance floor and an incredible kiss. When the meet officially a few days later Monroe, 41 and retired Navy, discovers his hot kiss is his best friend's son Knox, who is 23 - they only knew each other by nicknames. Monroe had already grudgingly agreed to allow the unknown Knox to stay with him in a family home he is renovating to sell before moving to San Francisco. After finding out who Lt Butter is, Knox is thinking it won't work to stay there. While trying to figure how to back out gracefully, Monroe says to move forward with the plan. It is all very sweet. Both men have struggled to feel a sense of belonging and home. Albert uses the rambling old victorian as a vehicle for our guys to learn about themselves and each other. Knox, shuffled between divorced parents tries to live up to his father's expectations, while longing to put down roots in this little Oregon town. Monroe, the military brat has never had stability and is afraid to risk his heart.

Where we get the first hint of trouble with the story is that another contemporary of Monroe's, Worth who's mother disappeared decades ago and, even though they couldn't prove it, police thought his father killed her. Monroe, former NCIS is working with Knox's father to clear cold cases, and another friend, Holden has a podcast and this mystery is the current topic. Does that make sense? No? You're not alone. It's a lot. Heads up, Holden is the next book, Worth is the third. This murder mystery is loosely woven throughout, even though its clear that resolution isn't the goal. It is what ties the series together. The series.

The story moves at the same pace as Garver's narrations. It needed to have been at least 50 pages shorter. There is a lot of repetition, and side stories. There is Knox's family. His step mother is expecting another baby, that family dynamic gets a lot of time. Had this been tighter, and had a proper epilogue that wasn't a blatant ploy to hook you into the next book, this could have been a four star title for sure. There is a lot to like here. However, the terrible narration basically makes this a non starter. If you're an audio book person like me, the rest of the series doesn't matter as its only print. If you are a print also person, then go that route for all three books if you like. This book is included in my membership, so all it cost was time as I walk to work and back. Not worth the credit.

Bad narration

I usually like stories from this author but The narrator killed this book for me and not in a good way. it took me almost a week to finish it. The voice was so monotone it kept putting me off to sleep and when i woke up, i didn't even rewind it. just wanted it to be over. I'm glad it's over now.