Unwanted

The Unlucky Ones

By: Marley Valentine

Narrated by: Jacob Morgan, Zachary Johnson

From USA Today best-selling author Marley Valentine comes a brand-new emotional, second chance, gay romance.

Two halves of a whole, Arlo Bishop and I were both unwanted kids brought together by the foster system. Dealing with the aftermath of neglect and abandonment, we grew up side-by-side and found solace in one another.

We wanted.

We needed.

We loved.

Desperately.

But somewhere along the way, Arlo wanted and needed and loved drugs more. So I did the only thing I could and broke my own heart to save his.

Now, four years later, I’m back in L.A. and face-to-face with my past. Not only does the pain and hurt of our mistakes linger between us, but so do our feelings.

I didn’t plan on a second chance, fear of history repeating itself making it hard to forgive and even harder to forget. But with only one touch, one kiss, I was taken back to where it all started.

Two halves of a whole, Arlo Bishop and I were made for for each other. But we were no longer the unwanted foster kids.

We were grown men.

And I wanted nothing more than him.

Unwanted is book one in a brand-new, emotional LGBTQ+ series that follows a group of foster siblings who are banded together by their pasts. Each book can be listened to as a complete stand-alone.

©2022 Marley Valentine (P)2022 Marley Valentine

An emotional journey from unwanted to loved.

An emotional MM romance with characters who have had to overcome so much and are battling the new challenges thrown their way. Arlo and Frankie met in a group home when they were moving through the foster system. They, with a few others, formed a “chosen family”. Their love was strong, but Arlo’s love for drugs was stronger, so Frankie did the only thing he could and left; breaking both their hearts.

Now he’s back in L.A. and dealing with a family tragedy and seeing Arlo has turned his world upside down. Marley writes beautifully flawed characters and doesn’t sugar coat the situations they find themselves in or their reactions to them. This is an emotional voyage dealing with a recovery journey from drug addiction. I don’t have a point of reference personally for this, but it did feel authentic. There is forgiveness and redemption, peace and love. The emotions were balanced out with a camaraderie between these foster siblings you just felt with deep and unconditional love. There’s some nice heat and the narration was fantastic. Jacob never disappoints delivering a heartfelt performance. Zachary was a new narrator to me, and he fit so well with Jacob in his performance as Frankie. There was light and dark to both narrators' voices, and they gave us all the colours and emotions of Arlo and Frankie.

I enjoyed meeting the side characters and am intrigued to see if Clem gets an FF book. I really hope so. This was my first title and a great introduction to Marley’s writing. I will for sure be looking into other books featuring the side characters in this one.

Angsty goodness in a sexy timbre

Wow. This book put me through the angsty, emotional wringer. Arlo and Frankie had a tough life. They grew up in the foster system and turned to drugs for entertainment and just to be cool, then Arlo got hooked and it went downhill from there. The story starts out with Frankie forcing Arlo to rehab. Then he effa off to Seattle to try living his own life when a family crisis with his younger brother brings him back. The found family they have come together to support Lenox, and that is how Frankie and Arlo come face to face and start to rebuild. This is a great second chance, found family, hurt/comfort story. It is angsty, gritty and emotional. It doesn’t shy away from the addiction side. Marley does a fantastic job portraying the life of an addict struggling to stay clean and the family that just wants to love and support him and is terrified of losing him. Frankie and Arlo’s love is palpable and their chemistry sizzles. There’s still lots of laughs and smiles and a HEA for the couple that brings some tears to the eyes and a smile to the face.
The narration was fantastic. Jacob Morgan always does a wonderful job. His voice is so sexy and he really brings the emotion out and sends shivers down my spine and goosebumps to my arms.
Zachary Johnson was new to me and he is fantastic as well. He has a great voice and brought the characters to life.

great book

it's like a completely different author wrote unforgettable. I want going to read another after that one. but I'm glad I did. this book had all the feels and none of the meat writers garbage from the other book. characters were on point and the plot was engaging. highly recommend this one

💜

Great story. This is my first Marley Valentine book; will definitely not be my last. The narration was the tops! Jacob Morgan is one of my top 5 narrators.

This book was a gift to me

Marley Valentine gave us a short novel but the length almost didn't matter because it is filled with wonderful characters in which long after you finish you still think about them. Zachary Johnson and Jacob Morgan blew me away with their amazing, tender and sexy performance; this book could not have been flushed out and enjoyed as much without them. 5 stars - I would listen again.

amazing

beautiful, emotional and steamy story of second chance and recovery. Marley always has the most gorgeous words

Heart ❤ Breaking Story

A very sad story and totally unbelievable, especially at the beginning! it was truly sad. These characters were so believable as much as well the narrators! Loved the story as much as the writer 👏 ❤

Good east book

I really enjoyed these characters. And we get to see more but I thought there could have been a little more meat in this story. I easily got through this in one day.

Another amazing story from Marley Valentine!

Marley Valentine does it again! This second chance/slow burn romance was perfect. I’m not sure how she does it, but I absolutely love the vulnerability that Marley portrays in her characters. Both Arlo & Frankie had traumatic pasts that haunted them. Together they were able to overcome the issues that tore them apart the first time around. Loved spending time with Arlo, Frankie, Clem, Lennons & Rhys! Listened to the audiobook for my 2nd experience with this book. Zachary Johnson & Jacob Morgan did an amazing job narrating!

Emotional read with two amazing narrators

I must admit that the draw for me for the audiobook of Unwanted, the first book in Marley Valentine’s The Unlucky Ones series, actually had nothing to do with the author or the book itself. In fact, I jumped into this audio without even having read the blurb. Five words on the byline sold me on this audiobook, and it should sell you on it too: Jacob Morgan and Zachary Johnson.

Both narrators are excellent in their own right, but together?!? Wowza. What’s particularly unusual about this narrator pairing – Johnson as Frankie and Morgan as Arlo – is that they are both low voices – bass and baritone voices, respectively – deep, rich, and textured. Johnson’s is more resonant than Morgan’s, but Morgan has a flatter affect with a roughness to it that has an inherent just-rolled-out-of-bed sexiness. Typically in your dual and duet narrator pairings, one narrator’s natural voice sits higher than the other’s in pitch, or is very different in timbre. The lines are blurred here, though, yet neither narrator would be mistaken for the other, and the characters they inhabit are consistently distinguishable and intuitively portrayed.

Morgan and Johnson are a good match for Valentine’s story here. It’s emotional and gritty, tackling lost opportunities, broken promises, battles with addiction, and second chances for life and love. Sitting at the story’s heart is a found family dynamic between two brothers, Frankie and Lennox, and their foster siblings, Arlo, Clem, and Remy, who form a seemingly unbreakable bond with love and promises always to stay together. That is until Frankie breaks that promise.

The characters are now coming back together after four years of hurt with a maturity gained through a not-easy-life lived in the interim. Morgan and Johnson both have vocal gravitas – a maturity and weight that commands attention. Even in moments of love and laughter, they never lose their voices’ genuine, intrinsic authenticity, which works exceptionally well with the characters here and the meaningful story Valentine tells.

While the story is emotionally complex, especially as Frankie and Arlo rediscover each other and navigate what their relationship should look like going forward, it surprisingly lacks a bit of the emotional bite that Valentine so successfully conveys in Without You. Perhaps it’s unfair to compare the two because Unwanted is a beautiful, poignant story enjoyable in its own right, and Morgan and Johnson amp that up tenfold with their vocal performances.

While Morgan and Johnson both do a fantastic job, Johnson is truly the standout. He has a preternatural ability to translate emotion through pacing, dynamics, subtle breaks in his voice, pained whispers, emphatic shouts – he’s fully inhabiting Frankie, and you cannot help but feel Frankie’s story as you listen. Very few narrators achieve this type of subsuming performance, but I’ve heard Johnson do it before, and he does it again here.

I recommend the Unwanted audiobook. It’s a wholly satisfying listening experience that fills out Valentine’s terrific writing, giving impact to an emotional story in a way that the text alone does not convey.