Sol's Solstice

New Beginnings, Book 1

De: Leona Windwalker

Narrado por: Matt Standley

Sol is used to flying under his family's radar, unless focusing unwanted attention away from his more outgoing, older twin. The day comes when he pays a steep price for attempting to shield his brother. Running for his life, he is nearly run down by a car driven by Seth. Can Seth help Sol find his way back from the darkness?

©2014 Leona Windwalker (P)2018 Leona Windwalker

Dark & Twisted

This is an angst filled and sometimes depressing story. Sol's life is full of danger and abuse because of his parents and the "church" they belong to. It was really sad how not only his parents are his biggest enemies, but his twin brother Ben basically abandons him too. The only light in his life is Sean who loves him and helps him heal.
The narrator was okay but some of the character voices just didn't work and didn't give much life to the story.
I was provided a complimentary copy of this audiobook at my request.

Suspenseful

This book keep you on the edge and you just need a bit more and a bit more.
Great story well executed.

Angsty story

I have kind of mixed feelings with this book. On the other hand I was captivated with the story. It is really angsty and the story kept me on the edge of my seat all the time. I needed constantly tell myself that there's going to be HEA in the end. All the suffering Sol had to go through was really hard to listen. On the other hand, the love story did feel a bit forced.

I didn't like the narrator at all. It was like he was telling the story to a child. The rhythm was weird. I hope he does better with the next book.

And yes the cover of this book does not fit to the story at all.

liked story

i enjoyed the story but the narration was not to my liking. kind of just droned along. so thinking i should have just stuck to the written word.

Great love story

Sol was trying to make his way through life after leaving the foster care system, when his biological family kidnaps him and keeps him locked up in a room or forces him to attend "church meetings" to set him straight from what they see as deviant ways. He escapes and stumbles into Seth who takes him into his home and shoes him what love and family really is. But sadly his family won't leave him be and he is once again abused and held captive. Luckily Seth won't give up on Sol or their love.

Great story and characters you can care for.
Definitely recommended.

very good narration.

Good story, terrible narration

Nice to see a story dealing with love through trauma and disability, without a magic cure, but the narration is terrible - flat, mispronounced words, almost robotic.

Read this one instead of listening if possible.

as good as the ebook

The story is always 4 or 5 star, because if I wouldn't like the story as ebook, I wouldn't listen to the audiobook.

The performance from the narrator is also very important for me. I can't listen to a lot, because my English as a non-native-speaker isn't so perfect to follow a whole story over hours, when the narrator speaks too fast or too sloppy. Normally I have to SEE the person, who is talking to me in English. It took me a little bit, to come into the narrator, but at the end, it worked. I only have to take a few breaks between. I'm just not yet finish with the book, but I listen enough to give a review.

PLEASE READ MY RATING SYSTEM!!!

To my ratings:


5* - very very good
it's like an A+

4* - very good and will be often re-listening
it's like an A

3* - it's more then a one-time-listening, but not more then twice a year.
it's like a B

lol

to think parents could such unthinkable things to their own kids! thank god for seth.

New Beginning

An interesting M/M story. This is my first book written by Leona Windwalker and because of the short length of the audio book, I was able to finish it on one sitting from beginning to end.

Good story, narration not as enjoyable

Don’t be fooled by the bucolic cover depicting a beautiful small town street. This is an angst-filled novel about a dangerously mentally ill woman and her husband, and the crimes the commit against their twin sons in the name of a religious cult.
Sol and Ben are twins but Ben is the more outgoing son while Sol is a more timid soul. As their mother’s psychological illness progresses over the years the boys are shunted to foster homes. Sol’s situations are usually more bizarre and dangerous than Ben’s and eventually Sol ages out of the system and finds himself on the streets. He is kidnapped by members of the church that his father attends and locked up. One night he escapes and is found in a pitiful state by a wealthy young man named Sean who takes him home.
Ben has landed in better circumstances but is separated from Sol. Sol must continuously hide from the cult and somehow they keep tracking him down, despite the efforts of Sean to protect him. Ben, Sol, and Sean are all gay but their lives are very different.
This is a dark, twisted plot but has an HEA so it is worth reading as a romance. So, the book earns 4 stars as a novel. I listened to the audio book and that’s where my review takes a bit of a dive. I did not care for the narrator. His pace slow as if he is reading to a child, and the character voices were odd. This is not my favorite audio book but the story is interesting enough for me to remain attentive to the end.