Title: Tall, Dark and Deported
Series: Dreamspun Desires 31
Author: Bru Baker
Narrator: Dorian Bane
Genre: Contemporary
Length: 6 hrs, 30 mins
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Heat Level: Moderate
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥ 4 Hearts
Blurb: Crossing the border into love.
Snap decisions and misguided ideas bring Portuguese national Mateus Fontes and businessman Crawford Hargrave together at the Canadian border crossing.
Mateus is caught in a catch-22. With his almost-expired tourist visa, entrance to Canada is denied, but the US won’t let him back in either. Crawford thinks he’s solved things when he tells the border agent they’re engaged, and it works – except now they have to actually get married before either of them can get back into the United States. But Crawford has been burned by marriage once, and he’s determined not to make that mistake again.
Neither of them expects real feelings to bloom out of their fake marriage, but they do. And the two of them have to learn how to be honest with each other to make things work, which is especially hard when their entire marriage is based on lies.
Product Link: Audible US | Audible UK
Reviewer: Prime
Review: I’ve not read or listen to much by Bru Baker in the past, although I did actually read this book when it came out, I was more than happy to go back and listen to the audio. The title of the book, Tall, Dark and Deported, gives you most of the information that you need to know about the type of story you’re about to read or listen to.
What you see is definitely what you get with the blurb. We got one hot South American (sorry, can’t think of his country of origin from the top of my head), Mateus. He’s done something rather silly and used the internet to get answers about how to “reset” his visa. He wants to stay with his brother and sister in law longer now that they are setting up their own orchard and his sister in law is about to have a baby. He’s excited about being an uncle and wants to be there. That why, at the airport, he meets Crawfard. Crawford is a businessman and after meeting Mateus, he is willing to help the guy, which of course means marriage!
Despite being a predictable plot, this is totally enjoyable as way as to just lose yourself. As I said in the opening sentence, you will need to suspend your disbelief but that don’t let that deter you from the sweet romance (well, insta-love romance) that unfolds between the two men.
I’ve been hearing a number of audios narrated by Dorian Bane recently and I have to say that I am beginning really like his narration. He has a very warm sounding voice which makes listening to books a pleasure – in some cases enjoying the audio more than when I actually read the book. I will admit that there was probably a smidge of this happening for this book as well.
My only thing is that sometimes the accent Bane uses for Europeans characters (in this case Portugese) tends to sound more Russian sometimes (or for a few moments every so often he reminds me of the Count from Sesame Street). I don’t think it makes the narration terrible, but it just disrupts my concentration for a few moments every so often.