Steele My Heart

Bridge to Abingdon Series, Book 1

By: Tatum West

Narrated by: Alexander Cendese, Tor Thom

I was tired of working the police beat in Northern Cali. Exhausted - my whole body was yearning for a place I hadn't been in years, my old home. When my mama died, I knew I had to come back, and a pay bump and new job as police chief sealed the deal.

I got away from heartbreak. From being so tired. From the constant, never-ending world of crime I'd come to know.

In Abingdon, I can relax, see all my old friends from Jackson Academy. Maybe I can even change this place a little, make it better for all the kids like me. The ones who were different, who always needed a place a little bigger and broader than a small mountain town could provide.

I always promised myself I wouldn't come back. But Kendall Vincent - he might just get me to stay for good. When I'm in his arms, I feel complete, whole again, like a man reborn to the world.

Everything seems perfect, right up until the moment that it's not. When two gay kids get hurt bad by a gang of thugs, I realize that Abingdon needs me far more than I thought. And I'm here to protect the town - and the man - that I'm growing to love.

Contains mature themes.

©2018 Tatum West (P)2019 Tantor

Best narrator ever

It’s amazing how can the narrator bring the story to life. By the way it’s beautiful, emotional and captivating MM romance between chef officer and food truck owner but the professional narrator made it different level. Love it 🥰

Sweet and intense story

I loved Kendall and Gill. Kendall is a sweet guy with lots of energy. And Gil is a beautiful soul. I loved the plot and the intense story that was full of heavy emotions and heartache. The narration was okay, Kendall’s character gave a lot of energy and change to his voice but Gil’s didn’t, it was pretty monotone. The biggest downside to the story is that even though it dealt with high emotional situations, we didn’t see a lot of that. We are told, but we don’t see the grief, which some scenes really called for it. But I thoroughly enjoyed this story and it brought tears and smiles to my eyes.

Afast-moving love story with several twists.

Both actors were phenomenal in portraying the parts with believability. The actor who portrayed Gil had a voice that I think anyone could easily fall in love with. both. had a wide variety of voices and intonation that helped make this story flow I listen to it from start to finish on a 7-hour drive. it kept me focused and awake.

Lgbtq+ (White Edition) Series

Okay, so this series is very particular in the areas it'll go and the areas it won't go. I can see an author being wary of attempting a perspective from a more-marginalized community. I still think it's worthwhile to explore some intersectionality in characters. Even going somewhere like disability or non-model-looks in one of the characters would be somewhere with more depth. LGBTQ+ novels are often so White and able/gorgeous-bodied. In a series that has so many main characters in all of them, and all are White men- its a lot. Story is nice and characters are well-developed.

Lawdy, Lawdy, that Tor!

Love it! Tor Thom for the score. Mhmm mhmm mhmm. I could eat that Tor Thom up all day long! Delicious voice.

Fun, Sexy, and Hot

Great Story. Wonderful narration. Tor's voice is simply delicious. Wow! Will look for more from him.

Just Right

just enough love, drama, spice and plot. Narrators did a great job. I'm coming to love Sandese. If you need something short and sweet, it's perfect.

An interesting storyline but...

I’ve read a couple of the Abingdon series books, and liked them very much. This is the first I’ve listened to, and while Gil’s voice was low and super hot, there wasn’t much emotion in it, and the contrast between the two narrators made it difficult to feel any real connection between them. They often spoke of a deep connection, but it seemed to have happened behind the scene, because we hear it about it second hand. As an example, *spoiler alert*, when Kendall is supposedly killed, Gil is very upset at the accident site, but then we shoot ahead to the next day, and all we hear is that Gil didn’t sleep the night before. That’s it? How about a little grief or anxiety over his missing lover?

The story had some very interesting aspects that were enjoyable to read. I think it would have benefitted from a couple of hours of fleshing out the relationship.

Monotonous narration.

The narrator don't give any changes of voice tone narrating the story. A little change of this depending of the story characters makes a lot of difference.

Two voices, one too many?

While I enjoyed the story, the two narrators very different voices made it hard to get a grip on how each MC ‘sounded’. It was distracting. Wished each MC would have been voiced entirely by their own narrator, splitting side characters between them. But I’m sure this would have been much more difficult to produce. Alternatively, just have one narrator with dedicated voice for each MC.
Lizzy May is a hoot.