Off Balance

Painted Bay, Book 1

By: Jay Hogan

Narrated by: Gary Furlong

When Judah Madden flees his tiny suffocating home town in New Zealand for the dream of international ballet stardom, he never intends coming back. Not to Painted Bay. Not to his family’s struggling mussel farm. Not to his jerk of a brother. Not with his entire life plan in shreds. And certainly not into the tempting arms of Morgan Wipene, the older ruggedly handsome fisheries officer who seems determined to screw with Judah’s intention to wallow in peace.

But dreams are fickle things. Shatter them, and it’s hard to pick up the pieces. Hard to believe. Hard to start again.

And the hardest thing of all? Finding the courage to trust in love and build a new dream where you least expected to find it.

©2020 Jay Hogan (P)2022 Jay Hogan

Great Story, Narrated wonderfully

I’d never heard of Judah’s disease before so that, combined with him having had a ballet career, piqued my interest. Judah’s struggles to come to terms with his life as it is rather than what it was, came across as very realistic. Add to that stress the brother tension and it makes you want to just hug the poor guy. Morgan was more than willing to give him all the hugs and love, despite dealing with his own loss. Their witty banter always made me smile, Morgan giving as good as he got.

The narration was masterfully done, proper inflections where they’re supposed to be. He made it sound as if each character was literally sitting with you and telling their parts of the story.

Ballet and true love.

Judah’s professional struggles after developing recurrent vertigo symptoms have put an end to his brilliant ballet career. His struggles to find a place after losing such a huge part of his destiny comes when he meets Morgan. Both men have lost so much but their developing feelings happen as Judah begins to find his future again. I loved watching Judah bravely struggle to find acceptance both within himself and the town the spurned him as a teenager.
A beautiful story of love, acceptance, fate and the beauty of our obstacles creating the path we were meant to follow. The narration is fantastic as well. Loved it!

Humor, good story, and the best narration

These two MC’s are great together and both of them immensely likable. Judah’s back story is especially poignant and the author does a good job of painting a man at the pinnacle of his dancing career, brought down by something completely beyond his control.

Gary Furlong’s narration is, as always, on point. I’ll listen to damn near anything he reads.

so romantic

loved the story, loved narrator , great amazing characters, beautiful love, courage, recovery, family story. i enjoyed it so so so much. great read.

Excellent low key love story

I have never found a book about a character having Ménière’s disease, and the fact that he was a dancer emphasizes the impact. All the information was correct, as I live with Menieres myself. I loved both characters and the overall story. Great narration.
Well done!

Sur la pointe !

What an amazing story of heartbreaking loss and beautiful love, of finding your place in the world when your dreams are dashed and you aren’t sure who you are and where you belong. Judah and Morgan are perfectly balanced. I read the book, but Gary Furlong brought it to life. He does an excellent job of putting all of the characters’ emotions into this recording.

SO GOOD!

This is what hurt/comfort dreams are made of. Omg I devoured this book. This was my first book by Jay and it will not be my last!

wonderful relationship between mains.

the accent used by narrator was a bit distracting for me for the first 2 or 3 chapters...until I got used to it. Otherwise narrator is very good and I would happily listen to him again. loved the story...author bypassed what would have been an obvious direction and made the book unique.

Stunning! Gorgeous Performance by Gary Furlong

I enjoyed the descriptions of New Zealand, Painted Bay sounds magical.

Jay Hogan writes a lovely hurt/comfort romance, and Judah's story is a heart wrencher. Really beautiful. What a marvelous happy ending.

The audio is flawlessly performed by Gary Furlong.

Fantastic.

I loved every bit of this audio. First off we had a great story about wonderful emcees wonderful side characters, and yes there were some good steam, Just enough. Gary for long is an absolute master and really brought it to life. Highly recommended.