Author: Isobel Starling
Narrator: Gary Furlong
Length: 9 hours 43 minutes
Series: The Quiet Work, Book 1
Publisher: Decent Fellows Press
Released: Apr. 24, 2019
Genre: LGBT Fantasy Romance
A new LGBT fantasy series from award-winning author Isobel Starling
A lost lordling, a farm boy, and a tale of mystery, magic, and murder!
After a traumatic event, Winter Aeling finds himself destitute and penniless in the backwater town of Mallowick. He needs to travel to the city of Serein and impart grave news that will bring war to the Empire, but without a horse, money, and with not a soul willing to help him, he has no choice but to line up with the common folk seeking paid work on the harvest.
As wagons roll into the market square and farmers choose day laborers, Winter is singled out for abuse by a brute of a farmer. The only man who stands up for him is the farmer's beguiling son, Adam, and on locking eyes with the swarthy young man Winter feels the immediate spark of attraction.
Winter soon realizes there is a reason he has been drawn to Blackdown Farm. The farmer possesses a precious item that was stolen long ago from Winter’s family, and he determines to retrieve it. He also cannot take his eyes off Adam, and as the young man opens up Winter can’t help wondering if Adam is just kind or his kind!
Isobel Starling spent most of her twenty-year professional career making art in Ireland. She relocated to the UK and, faced with the dreaded artist’s creative block, Isobel started to write fantasy and found she loved writing more than making art. Isobel writes M/M fantasy, thrillers, and comedy, and to date, has written twenty books, 11 of which are audiobooks narrated by Gary Furlong .
In 2018 Isobel Starling and Gary Furlong won what is now called The Independent Audiobook Award - Romance Category with the audiobook “As You Wish” .
Isobel and Gary are also finalists for the 2019 Independent Audiobook Awards in the LGBTQ+ Category with the audiobook “Sweet Thing”.
Website⎮Twitter⎮Goodreads⎮Amazon⎮Instagram
Originally from Ireland, Gary Furlong worked a teacher in Niigata, Japan; a puppeteer in Prague; an improv artist in Memphis, and a festival performer in Ireland. A naturally-gifted mimic, Gary began narrating audiobooks for a living in 2015 and hasn’t looked back.
Gary specializes in accents and dialect, with fluency in Irish, British RP, and Standard American.
In four years of working full-time with audiobook production, Gary has narrated over 100 audiobooks spanning Fantasy,Thriller, Romance, YA, and non-fiction for world-class publishing houses and independent authors.
In 2018 Gary won a much coveted AudioFile Earphones Award and the Independent Audiobook Award for Romance.
He now lives in Texas with his wife and their golden retriever called "Gansey," which means "Sweater" in Irish Gaelic.
Website⎮Twitter
I’m a huge fan of Isobel Starling’s Shatterproof Bond series, so when I learned she had this fantasy romance coming out my interest was definitely piqued. While the synopsis for the story caught my eye, there’s actually a lot more to Apple Boy than it implies. The story is about the equivalent of around five hundred pages, and I’ll admit at times I was feeling the length.
Winter’s predicament is more than what it seems from the synopsis, and the full nature of what’s going on is slowly revealed over quite a long stretch of time. I saw the story as three segments—the first being Winter’s introduction and experience at Adam’s family’s farm, next their journey from there to Serein, and finally the events that occur once they arrive. Each segment had its own challenges, and in the end things are not fully resolved so yes, it’s basically a cliffhanger. Though I knew this book was part of a new series, I didn’t realized the end would be left as open as it was…so just be prepared for that when you start.
Winter and Adam’s lives are quite the opposite of each other, with Winter coming from a privileged upbringing where he is the heir to a title while Adam lives with his family on their apple orchard farm. Winter is used to living in an open, non-judgmental society; not so for Adam where same sex liaisons can result in death. Winter opens up Adam’s life to so many new possibilities, and at the same time Winter’s experience in Mallowick opens his own eyes to the plights of those whose station falls well below his own. This results in character growth for both men, spread out over the course of the entire tale.
The fantasy aspect starts to come into play towards the end of Winter and Adam’s time at the farm, and continues to build—albeit slowly—through the rest of the story. There’s a lot of explanation to be found in terms of world building as well as the setup of Winter’s own situation, and for me that contributed to the slower pace of the story overall.
As far as the story itself goes, it gets 3.5 stars from me. As for the narration though, Gary Furlong’s incredible voices with their range of accents was absolutely worth 5 stars. He gave each character—no matter how minor—their own individuality, and was consistent throughout the story. Listening to his narration made the more drawn out portions of the story easier for me to get through, and was overall a very enjoyable experience.
Apple Boy is meant for readers/listeners 18+ some adult language and sexual content.
Giveaway: Apple Boy Prize Pack
May 29th:
May 30th:
May 31st:
Jun. 1st:
Jun. 2nd:
Jun. 3rd:
Jun. 4th:
➜Sign up as a host here
I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Isobel Starling. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment