Straight from the Heart

Wilde Love, Book 1

By: Sam Burns

Narrated by: Gabriel Amari

On the same night that Alex finds himself disowned and sleeping on his best friend's couch, he meets Liam, who saves him from being mugged. It's a strange time to start a relationship, but everything about Liam feels right. When it becomes apparent that Liam isn't the prince charming he seems to be, Alex has to deal with some hard truths about not just his new boyfriend, but his own history as well.

Liam is just trying to do his job, but everything keeps getting in the way. First he gets assigned to watch some stranger, then somehow, he finds himself dating the guy. Even if it doesn't offend the boss, Liam knows the wrong thing to do when he does it. He finds himself wondering, though: is his job really the most important thing in his life, or can he walk away from it all for a brand new relationship?

Straight from the Heart contains sexual scenes, and is intended for an audience age 18 and up.

©2017 Sam Burns (P)2019 Sam Burns

Action, Humor and Steam...

Straight from the Heart is the first book in the Wilde Love series by Sam Burns. The contemporary m/m romance is filled with humor, action, suspense, secrets, steam and romance. The story grabs your attention and keeps you interested. It's well written and exciting. The characters are fun and you really find yourself liking them and enjoying the ride. Supporting characters are fun and the main characters are great.... their chemistry is hot!. Liam and Alex instantly connect and I personally love stories like that. This book makes me want to read more from this series.

Narrator is Gabriel Amari who does an amazing job bringing the story to the audio audience. Each character gets their own voice and they seemed to flow and fit the personalities. Great job!

Nice

Enjoyed this one from a new to me author and a new to me narrator! The storyline was solid and I liked the main characters. I liked the narrator but felt he was a tad stiff...I think he has a lot of potential and will seek him out in the future!

Great story!!

The story is wonderful! Not only the plot is interesting and page-turner, full of action and danger situations, but also the love story between Alex and Liam is cute and endearing with an amazing HEA. Of course an amazing story deserves a great reading voice and Mr Amari’s is just the one for the job. Great combination!!

Sweet story.

Liam and Alex's story is so sweet and funny story. I enjoy listening to this story. This definitely kept my attention throughout this story and I just couldn't stop listening. Gabriel Amari does a great job in bring this story to life. Definitely make me keep listening.

Enjoyable story

I really enjoyed this story. I thought it was gunna be full of drama and angst but it wasn’t. Sure Alex was a little to trusting considering he knew Liam was keeping secrets and then when they were reveled he accepted the truth fairly easy. I didn’t mind that. This was just a nice story with a little mafia thrown in. This is not a hard core mafia drama but a sweet romance.
The narration was so so. Gabriel Amari is a new narrator for me and while I didn’t find his narration to be boring he needs to work on his range of voices and accents. Some of them were not very good.

Loved it

I received an ARC of this audio for my honest review. This is a story about Alex who decided to quit school as he didn't want to be a lawyer and take over his father's law firm and Liam who is a CPD officer who is undercover to stop guns from being brought into the city. Alex goes to a bar with friends and gets drunk when a mugger tries to take his wallet Liam comes to the rescue. Liam's boss wants him to keep an eye on Alex and this is how they fall in love. Can't wait for book 2 in this series. Gabriel did a good job narrating the story.

I liked the story

I liked the story about Alex and Liam, it was entertaining and sweet. I enjoyed listening to how they first met and how their feelings for each other grew strong, and obstacles they faced with were interesting. I thought that narrator did an ok job, but his voice was too monotone throughout the story and I wanted to hear more emotion and difference between character's voices.

Great start to Fun New Series

In the opening book of the Wilde Love Series, we get a look at Alex and Liam. Alex is having a bad time, kicked out of his apartment, cut off from his family and their money, dropped out of school and about to get mugged, when he meets Liam. Liam is assigned to protect him, and ends up falling for him.
This book has absolutely everything! It has a little angst, some action, and of course some heat! I was initially concerned that there was too much going on in the story line, but I feel that the author did a good job of bringing it all together in such a way that made it easy to follow along and easy to get into. The characters are fun and you can't help but fall in love with Alex and Liam.
The narrator, Gabriel Amari is one that is new to me. I enjoyed both voices that he did for the characters, though there were a couple of times that I felt were slightly monotone. I do not feel that it would deter me from this narrator in the future.
Overall, I feel this was a good start to this series, and I look forward to see where it will go in the future.

Great start to a new series

This is a great beginning to a new series. We meet Alex on what could have been the worst day of his life. He’s been booted out of his apartment, cut off from the family wealth, and has dropped out of school. But Alex is someone with a great attitude and instead of dwelling on all he’s lost, he decides to make the most of his life decisions and to dedicate himself to the rock band he belongs to. As he’s celebrating, though, he’s almost mugged and only the quick thinking of a bystander saves him from certain disaster. And brings him into the sphere of the most attractive and sexiest man he’s ever met.

Now, Alex is twenty-three and apparently has never thought about sex before. Has never had a relationship and although he always assumed he was straight, meeting Liam flips a switch within him? Is this realistic? I know not all young men are horny, but usually by that age there’s been something. Unless they are asexual – which Alex most definitely is not. This naiveté works for the story, though, because it creates and endearing character to root for.

Liam is conflicted. He’s been assigned to watch over Alex (although I’m never quite clear why). He doesn’t mean to fall for Alex but the younger man is, well, endearing. Although he wants to fight his feelings, Liam’s protectiveness of Alex turns into something more.

There is a lot going on in this book. Mobsters, family ties, rock bands – all come together in a way that somehow works. In the end, though, it is a love story and I couldn’t help but root for Alex and Liam.

Gabriel Amari is a new narrator to me and I wouldn’t hesitate to pick up another book narrated by him. He differentiates the characters and provides a stellar performance. Well done. This is a good book that I can recommend and I can’t wait for the next book in the series.

Funny and sweet

Okay, if you are looking for a realistic crime story, with lots of suspense and tension, this is not that story.

This is a story about an undercover cop who falls for his mark in... ten minutes? And then proceeds to tell him that he's lying to him *bangs head on desk*

And yet... it's delightful *laughs* It's funny and sweet, and the writing is solid and entertaining, So, yes, an original meet-cute between two unlikely characters that, against every logic, fall in love; and made you fall in love with them in the process.

Gabriel Amari does a fantastic job with the narration.